Umbrella Fella :)

Almost Similar To Mine! 🙂

It’s been raining cats and dogs in Bangalore for the past few weeks. Every day, like clockwork, the rain starts at around 5 in the evening and goes on till almost 10 in the night. This has forced me to avoid stepping out of the house/office, wherever I am, during this time period. Yesterday was an exception. 😀

A close friend had come down from Delhi and he was staying over at my place. Around four in the evening, we decided to get out of the house (Oh, I had taken a day off from work) and go window shopping on MG Road and Brigade Road. And as soon as we got ready to leave the house, God decided to water His plants. 😀

The rain did not stop for an hour, and around 5, when it subsided a bit, we realized that it would be utter stupidity to go on my ridiculously unreliable bike and settled on an auto. I grabbed the only umbrella in the house – an ancient monstrosity that can shield an entire football team when opened – and stepped out to hail the auto. We stepped out to bright sunshine and birds chirping. We looked at each other and contemplated the bike again, but decided against it as I had the feeling that God wanted to play with His favorite yo-yo. 😀

We got the auto and managed to squeeze in along with the huge umbrella and reached MG Road at around 6 in the evening. We walked around looking at expensive things and dreaming of being able to afford them. All the while, I looked like a clown straight out of a traveling circus, carrying the umbrella around. I felt so embarrassed when a couple of young kids started walking behind me making whooping noises. 😀

Masala Dosa! 🙂

Answering the call of hunger, we both entered a small wayside restaurant for some hot masala dosa and ate to our hearts’ content. It was a standing restaurant, and a very cramped one at that, and apparently quite famous, because the crowd was suffocatingly large. The steams from the tiny kitchen and the overpowering aroma of the food played contrasting tricks on my brain.

Finally, we emerged out of the restaurant and walked the entire length of Brigade Road, admiring the sights and sounds of the city’s most happening road. We watched as cops pulled people off their bikes for not riding with a helmet and we watched a ten-year-old kid buying cigarettes on the street. We saw the colorful advert hoardings screaming out silently for attention. We saw…

Oh shit, I had forgotten my umbrella in the tiny hotel! 😀

We ran back all the way and finally reached the hotel and I pushed my way through the hungry mob and those eating food, knocking over a freshly-made plate of dosas and reached the corner where I had stood. And there it was, nestled safely in the corner, just where I had kept it, standing as if there was nothing that could affect it. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and picked it up and caressed it and apologized to the umbrella for forgetting it. It forgave me! 😀

Images Courtesy: Neatorama.com and Woodland USA