Friday, November 19, 2010

It happened one night

One of them got back quite late from work. The other was waiting for the power to come back on. Both hadn't eaten. So they decided to go to one of those "late night- roadside-edible but hot food" places close to home.

So the piping hot pav bhaji came, and so did some not great but equally hot coffee. The rain had started off again meanwhile. Some pretty girls came and sat next to the table beside them. SD Burman, Manna Dey & Mohammad Rafi were putting on quite a show on the radio that night.

As the minutes passed by, the thrashing of the raindrops on the asbestos roof got stronger and sunk Rafi's voice into a minute moan. The empty tables on the roadside which were unoccupied rattled for a bit before flying away atleast a 100 metres. The raindrops were now hurtling towards us at a variety of angles.

One of them panicked a little bit, there was no power, trees were being pushed down by the strong hydraulic waves that came from the skies. The customers, the waiter and the cook were now huddled into a small room with a shutter now. The cigarette smoke & the coffee cups seemed to be the only source of warmth as the mercury dipped.

Flashes of lightning whips could be seen from the corner of one's eye. The Thunder claps were remnant of being next to the speakers in one of those rock concerts. Deafening.

The wind subsided. They ran back into the comfort of their concrete homes. It was an intense night. One that definitely deserved to be documented.

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