The recent rain in the city of Chennai brought back memories of a day in college life. It occurred during the first semester of my college life during the period of October or November 2005 when Chennai experienced massive rainfall.
It was a very rainy winter day. The clouds were so dark that it threatened to pour for two days atleast. I was there in the bus stop waiting for any sign of college bus. The street was empty except for one or two people. Even my college seniors didn’t come to the stop. I could’ve gone back to my house that instant but for some particular reason (which I don’t remember), I decided to go to college whatever may happen. So there I was, standing alone in front of the bus stop, holding an umbrella, still waiting for any sign of college bus. Rain was pouring fast and I was standing on top of a covered drainage, which was steeper enough not to sink and it felt as if I was in a 40 cm diameter island.
Finally the college bus came and I boarded to see a pretty decent amount of students turned up. I went and took a corner seat (or the senior happened to give me the seat so willingly). I took out my mobile and after enquiries, I came to know that I was the only one among my friends group to go to college. That didn’t sound bad! There were many students in the bus, so there would be some decent no of students in the class as well, or was I wrong?
On the journey, I learnt from the hostel students that rainwater began to enter the hostel and there were lot of chances of classes being cancelled. I decided the classes would be off, not just because of the news from the hostel, but also because that I couldn’t spot the Sathyabhama University in the fog and also because my uncle called me and told that there is flood in Thiruporur, a town near to my college.
I reached the college (or Antarctica at that point of time). I got down at the bus stop where I couldn’t find so many students. The weather in the college was pretty interesting. There was slightly less than a drizzle, but compensating it, there was heavy cool breeze that definitely gave Antarctica effect. The cool breeze was mainly because my college was near some river and also because it is on the east coast.
I went to the class least expecting students over there and yes to my surprise, there were six students (most of them were hostel). I immediately learnt that the classes were cancelled and was just roaming the Humanities block and to my horror, I spotted around 20 students in a section. Fortunately, Balaji, a friend of mine (who also happened to be my schoolmate too) was there. I got company.
After roaming around chit chatting with friends here and there, one of my class mate (my batchmate too) called me to collect the record, which we submitted two days earlier. Even though knowing that it takes 5 mins walk from our block to the lab, we decided that we would go and it was another mistake of the day. The cool breeze hadn’t subsided yet, but it got too strong that it overturned my umbrella. Worst, when we reached the staff room, we learnt that the staff was absent and he hadn’t corrected our records. To our disappointment, we returned in the same cool breeze.
It was declared a half day (it doesn’t make any difference though) and we were told the college buses would start at 12 noon. It was left to Balaji and me then. We went to canteen to get really hot meals. Ofcourse the rice was hot and the sambhar was also hot. I could still see the steam coming from the sambhar vessel. But my numb hands didn’t feel the heat at all. We were extremely shivering and decided to get into the bus, where there were around 6 students waiting for the driver to do the honour.
The driver, who was young as we are and who also happens to be lean, was shivering as well. On the way, the bus behaved so weird. The bus tended to turn left all the way, which was additional problem for the driver. He was desperately longing for hot tea all the way (can’t complain), and adding to that, the driver shouldn’t closes his windows (which was continuously letting in cool breeze).
After reaching the city, I learnt that there was heavy downpour of rain. If there was heavy rain, some thought crossed my mind and I knew it would happen. Yes it indeed happened. The bus stopped parallel to the street where I am living. It was because of a subway that connects these two streets. It was full of water, like a river basin, enough to sink buses and lorries.
Balaji and I got down there. We thought we could cross the bridge using the walking pavement. But alas, it was filled up to hip level water on either sides and we had no choice but to take the longest and comparatively desirable path (which had below knee level water). I finally reached the opposite end of the subway after thrice the time it usually takes to cross the subway normally. The drainage where I was standing on in the morning was two feet below water. I had to float through the water to reach my house.
It was definitely a day that I wouldn’t forget. An adventurous day it was!
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