The wipers moved across swiping the heavy fall of the rain of the already blurred windshield. Ratna strained his eyes, beyond the rhythmic movement, to see the road, which was already splattered with enough potholes to test his car's suspension. The rains had further destroyed the remaining traces of the road that existed. The infernal rain.
"IT highway...crap..." Ratna shouted out to himself.
The rains had started a week back. This particular spell however has been pouring down for the past 7 hours nonstop. No signs of slowing down either.
"What the..." screamed Ratna as he was jolted out of his thoughts by an erratic bike who had appeared out of nowhere and seemed to want to swim on the right on his car's path. Ratna almost stood on the brakes to avoid hitting the bike which had come in from his blind zone. In this rain, anywhere except dead ahead was blind zone though. The bike having successfully entered the middle of the road had slowed a bit, long enough for the traffic behind him to test their brakes and then quickly sped away.
Ratna was still a bit rattled." I need a smoke and a tea " he said to himself. He realized he had been talking a lot to himself the past few days. Not that he had many to talk to before this. He started scanning the roadside for a teashop with some sort of cover from the pouring rain.
It was another km or so before he could find a suitable oasis. Oasis, he thought, what an oxymoron. He got out and hurried to the shop. It looked as though the owner was closing up. He took a glance at the time. 10:15. Not that late. The blasted rain is shutting down everything in the city. Except my office, he grinned.
He bought a pack of smokes and begged and got a lukewarm tea.There was a bus stand nearby catering to the IT company that was behind the teashop. There were a few people standing with their umbrellas open trying to protect themselves from the onslaught. Buses came and quickly the crowd dissipated and soon the place was empty.
The owner didnt even wait for him to finish off his smoke and by the time Ratna finished he was standing outside a closed shop. He ditched the bud into the water and ran to the car, hopping across the small water pools that keep forming and shifting shapes. Even before reaching his car, he got his car remote and opened the car. Just as he reached the door, a bus came, swerving in, dropped into a big puddle which happened to be in the right place and of the right depth, to ensure that Ratna gets totally drenched. In a second, Ratna went from being slightly wet on his head and shoulders to someone who took a dip in the swimming pool with their clothes on.
"Damn" , he shouted out for nobody to hear, another nameless hit and run victim. He stood there brushing off the water with his hand, as though magically all the wetness would disappear from his drenched body.
"excuse me, has 19b gone? " a voice inquired.
"yeah yeah . They just gave me a bath and just went without stopping. Bloody bas.." He stopped midway turning to see a young woman standing underneath an umbrella, just not enough for the job of keeping her dry.
"yeah the bus just went" He quickly recovered.
The woman turned and looked into the road, trying to see another pair of headlight, silently praying for a quick relief from the rain.
Ratna opened his car door and started to step in. He was not basically a very chivalrous person, but something tugged at him. Should he or shouldn't he?
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