Wednesday, June 04, 2008

First brush in 2008 with favourite season ... !!

Yeah, my favorite season has kicked off ... just at the right time ... since IPL just concluded ... ;)

My first brush this year with the rains wasn't according to script though. I was in the middle of a meeting when the sound of thunder forced us to peek out of the room. At that time, it was just dark clouds and plenty of thunder and lightning. But what followed was the true essence of the Monsoons.

After completing my naashta at office, I took off for home at around 6 pm. It was going according to script till Mehendale Garage (by script,I mean enjoying driving my bike in rain). After that, it was a first for me. There was a traffic snarl close to Mehendale Garage. This is another bare essential about rainfall, especially in Pune. You cant keep traffic jams and monsoon away from each other. In fact, % increase in the number of vehicles added in a year can be thought of being directly proportional to the % increase in time you spend in traffic jams (during monsoons) between the 2 years in question.

I kept my bike running for the initial 100 meter struggle. But after that, I heard the sound of my bike at around 10 pm, when I was close to City Pride (Satara Road). It was a tough ordeal not to drive my bike for 4 hours but just push it forward as and when the traffic inched ahead. This was my first stint with the Kothrud-home stretch in the monsoon since for the last 3 years, I had been going home from Aundh and I could easily escape from Khadki station during those days. But Kothrud to home is like a nightmare since it includes negotiating Mhatre Bridge, Shastri road, Sinhagad road, Swargate/Parvati and finally the chaotic BRTS Satara road.

But thats what monsoons are all about. A little hit here, a little whimper there. I made some friends during this horror journey. Yes, I call it a journey. I was audience to some of the most hilarious conversations. There was this woman who was on her Spirit and she was constantly getting calls (presumably from her home). When she received the first of such calls, her response was ... "Mi ata traffic jam madhe adakli aahe ... maala vel laagnaar ghari pochaayla". Fair enough. Next call ... "Naahi, azun tithech aahe ... khup vel laagnaar asa distay". Encouraging. Next call ... "Naahi, tithech aahe". Sublime. And the clincher was ... "Ho baal radat asel, pan ata mi pan radnaar aahe". That was brilliant.

Two college going boys were at the extreme left of the road, almost kissing the footpath. This footpath was very narrow. Hardly one person could stand at one time without falling out. Plus, the footpath was surrounded by short trees/plants/shrub. So, if someone was to walk on the footpath, he/she needed to jerk their head outwards to avoid the tree/plant/shrub. These 2 guys were immersed in some college conversation. Just then, 2 girls came walking from the opposite side. The first girl now had to avoid the tree/plant/shrub but if she bent her head outwards, she would be touching this guy who was driving the bike. The guy obviously wouldn't have minded. And these guys were the typical taporis. Good girl or bad girl ... comments would not stop. This is what their conversation was like ...

Boy 1 - arey bagh bagh ... ithech thaambaayla paahije hi ... majaa yenaar mag ..
Boy 2 - saalya maala de naa gaadi ... ata mi thoda vel chaalavto
Boy 1 - veda beda zhaalay ki kaay ... thoda vel thaamb ... hechya pudhchi mulgi tujhi
Boy 2 - chal zaao de ...
this is when the girl came agonizingly close to the guy. I really pity her.
Boy 1 (in a slight hush)- kasla scent maarlaay re ... gaadi nasli asti naa .. tar ... (i will skip this) ..
Boy 2 - chal pudha chal pudha ... raatra bhar ithach naahi thambaycha aplyaala ..
Boy 1 - Chyaaila ... maagchya 15 mintaat ek hi gaadi pudhe naahi geli .. ataach zaaychi hoti kaa ... B*******
Boy 2 - tula aadhich saangitla hota maala gaadi de ... tuzha luck futka aahe ...
Boy 1 - gapp re ch****, tuzha luck baghu pudhchya chowkaat ... aey pan mi tila vicharu kaa kuthla scent hota?
Boy 2 - vichaarun kaay gh**** karnaar aahe ... ladies asnaar .. tu laaun kaay karnaar?
Boy 1 - arey mi maajhya baayko laa laavnaar naa ...
Boy 2 - ho ... milaali tula baayko ... chal pudhe aata ...

This is what i call ... once in a lifetime experience ... ;)

There was another chap on a bicycle just in front of me ... since everyone was moving forward inch by inch ... I too tried to occupy every inch available. On one such occasion, the front tyre of my bike brushed the bottom part of this guy's trouser. He looked back ... I wasn't apologetic ... this happened again after some time ... this time he couldn't help but respond ...

Man - arey bhau ... zara baghun ...
Me - kaay zhaala?
Man - tyre laagla tumcha maajhya pant laa ...
Me - mag?
Man - dusryaanda zhaala he ...
Me - arey paaus padtoy, traffic jam aahe ... he tar honaarach ...
Man - te barobar aahe tumcha ... pan don da naahi hoyala paahije ...
Me - kaa?
Man - kaa mhanje kaay? ek daa zhaala ki theek aahe pan tumhi don daa kela ...
Me - Ok Ok ... sorry.

It seemed he had a tolerance value of 1 ... ;)

One person was coming from the opposite side of the road (wrong side) in such a huge traffic jam ... I was so angry at him that I told him ... "arey ch****, kuthun gaadi kaadhaaycha prayatn kartoy ... (and some more ... lets leave that). I expected him to reply aggressively. Instead, he was calm as a cucumber. He didnt say anything. I told him ... "arey aiku naahi yet aahe kaa ... shivi dili tar kalat naahi kaa?". His response was so surreal ... "arey kaay karu ... shambar shivya aiklet ith paryant ... tula kaay vaat ta ... mi correct side try naahi keli kaa?".

I couldnt help but smile at this.

It was surely a first for me ... trapped in a traffic jam for more than 3 hours ... what a start to the monsoons ... I need to get down to business planning my monsoon ...

I hope such encounters visit me day and again (just the conversations and not the traffic jams)... Cheers ... !!

3 comments:

Amit said...

Hhahaha... one of the best "pahila paus" experience I've ever read!!!!

especially .." me pan radin ata" .. Simply Incredible.

Prameela said...

:) an interesting anecdote and such an everyday rainy encounter. You put it down well too

Unknown said...

hehe...tolerance value of 1...lol...nice one..:)

well written...if the conversations was wat u were tryin to describe...
else...the way ppl (specially 2 wheelers) keep trying to move frm one side to another in d hope of moving one inch ahead...irritates the bigger vehicles...the rickshaws...etc etc...cud hav also been mentioned..:)