A Sunday that was…

I should have posted this last Sunday - August 10, to be precise. But I couldn’t. Anyway, I am doing it now, munching on a bar of chocolate. Actually two bars of Amul Almond Bar…

I had a lousy start to the day, as was expected by everyone at home. I had promised Mom that I will pay all the bills and buy some vegetables today. It was raining like hell outside - as if the rain Gods were punishing us for blaming them for the droughts this year. Whatever be the case, I had to go!

The Activa required some serious kicking (and some growling on my part) for it was damn cold and refused to start. Ah! the rains and the cold. I couldn’t blame it for this situation though. After some 15 minutes of kicking and cursing, it finally started. By this time, the clouds also cleared. With 3 shopping bags and a rain jacket I left for my mission…

First up, to the Vodafone store. Headed straight to the ATM like machine, punched in the phone number and pushed in some notes. The machine responded by printing the bill. Yippee, stage 1 completed. That was fast, real fast. It started to drizzle and I am almost halfway on that bar of chocolate…

Next to Airtel office, to pay our Broadband bill only to find it closed. Aahh, no! Fine, will pay sometime else. Went straight to the dairy to get some paneer. Again the dairy was closed too!

Now this is bad. It is raining now and I am over with the first bar…

Now to the most important thing - veggies. Over to the vegetable market near the first railway gate. When I reached there, I could not believe my eyes. Not a single homo-sapien in sight in the usual busy vegetable market! Could see only a few cows saving themselves from being getting wet. Hello, what’s going on? Mom will kill me if I dare go home without the veggies…

No paneer, no veggies. How am I supposed to go home now? The chocolate bar is also getting over. Then, suddenly something flashed me like a bolt of lightning. Eureka!

I started the Activa, headed straight to the chicken shop ;-). And you know what I did there? Of-course, bought chicken!!!

By then, it was raining very, very heavily. I had made my mind that I am not going to wait. I started the way back home, careful not to drive fast. I reached the kapileshwar railway gate (famous for its traffic jams immediately after a train has left!). I knew I had to be careful while driving here and I was. My rain jacket did it’s best to prevent me from getting wet but it failed miserably. I was wet - head to toe…

I was following a autorickshaw from a long time and suddenly I got a chance to overtake it. I honked. The rick driver obliged. I moved forward. I could see another rick coming from the opposite side but I had time to overtake this one. I moved ahead of the rick 1 and was about to get back to my lane on my left when suddenly out-of-the-blue a cyclist sprang out of nowhere. He overtook the rick in front of me and turned to my right to get back to his lane. I was still on the right side occupying the very place he was charging into. I thought he would stop or at the least slow down. But no! This son-of-a-buffoon came charging in and then in a flash sneaked through the gap between the rick and me! I braked hard, so did the rick driver. The lady in the rick screamed. I heard two more screams but could not identify the source. The cyclist left undeterred without even caring to look back. The rick driver who almost banged me head-on muttered his choicest of curses and then started the journey to drop the terrified lady sitting behind. I was shaken, and damn too wet.

Started driving back home even more carefully this time… Finally, I reached home (in a single piece)!

So, instead of the paneer and veggies, we have chicken for lunch but that did not spare me a few angry stares at home!

I finished both the bars of chocolate and that’s the end of the story!

Chocolate khatam, post khatam. Paisa Vasool!