It's pouring cats and dogs tonight, too noisy for me to enjoy a goodnight's rest so I'm awake writing a post here! Well can you think of anything else that's better? ;)
This is a story from my childhood. I hope it will remind you of your own.
My mother taught me to use public transportation in my 2nd grade summer vacations. I was 6 years old at the time. She would put me in the bus, pay the conductor, inform the driver where my stop was. All I had to do was get down at the correct stop and take a 15-20 minute walk home. It was just incredible.
Mangalore at the time was a small town. Growing up here meant that one had to learn to take care of themselves quickly. Especially if you were the only child at home and both your parents were working professionals.
Bus drivers and the conductors issuing tickets were friendly folks. Buses ran on time, and I return home alone from my skating classes in the morning in nearly the same bus, with the same staff every day of the week. I'm generally good with directions and I knew the way back home from the bus stop because we did it all the time.
The journey home cost me about INR 0.50 ($0.0073) at the time and it was just amazing! These drivers were known to drive very fast and I would sit right at the front to get the best views!
I was taught how to use money and soon I got the hang of traveling back home on my own. I'd catch the bus home in the evenings after school, as I was usually dropped off in the morning.
Back in the day, in the mid-90s we experienced torrential rains. What seems like an occasional cloudburst today was almost an every day affair throughout June-August. Sometimes my school would shut down as it wouldn't stop raining heavily for several days at a time. It was incredible and walking back home those days in the rain was quite a task.
We stayed about 4 kms from my school but that was a lot of distance for small town people. My friends and their parents felt I lived outside of my city. It's funny when I think about it because, when I worked and lived in Delhi few years ago, I had a 100km commute every day which in comparison felt like a lot.
Anyway, we carried umbrellas at the time and on most days when the rain was at it's heaviest we'd push the umbrellas against the direction of howling wind and carry on. A schoolmate lived nearby and would accompany me sometimes.
Those days, the crazy winds would break the stretchers on the inside of the umbrella as the direction changed rapidly. I've even lost my grip on a few occasions as the wind pulled it out of my hand and carried it away. But I had to chase it down the road, fearing punishment should I reach home without it.
Umbrellas weren't very expensive but we didn't have money to keep replacing them regularly. One had to travel into the city for repairs and there wasn't any time for that.
Fearing I would get scolded or worse beaten (Indian parents I tell ya) for breaking them accidentally I would always put up a fight against the wind and the rain. But on a few times it would break nonetheless...
Getting soaked in the rain was acceptable, breaking your umbrella was NOT!!
Rain coats were available, but their quality was suspect. Personally I hated wearing them.
I'd rather get sick than wear those. The stitching leaked often, requiring repairs and eventually replacement. Weirdly enough, I just found them cumbersome.
As children we'd walk through muddy puddles, soiling our clothes, getting wet and splashing water was just too much fun. Our bags were waterproof and if they weren't we'd keep all the books and important items wrapped in plastic carry-bags to prevent them from getting wet.
But there were times when the water seeped into the bag, and the little money I carried would get wet. We would find different ways to dry them, including keeping them on a covered cooking vessel, ironing them out and more often than not drying them under the fan.
The best part was eating a simple Dal-rice with pickles on a rainy night or Rasam-rice with pickles. It was just great!
When there were power cuts (we had plenty of them), I'd sit on the porch sometimes looking out for lightning. There were plenty of thunder and incredible lightning, the former keeping us awake through the night.
On the weekends, kids in my neighbourhood would come together to sail paper boats and when the rains taper off, we'd try to catch little fishes in the storm water drains. Life was very simple, uncomplicated and it took just a bit of rain after a seething hot summer to cool the weather and bring some joy into our lives.
For the most part this is how I spent most rainy days growing up in my city. If you have a similar story to share, please share them in the comments below or link me up if you make a post about it.
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