You'd think that atleast the monsoon's in India would be on time...... Or even they are getting affected by the "IST Flu". Here they are, back again with a flourish....... going 'drizze drizzle bang bang' even when they're supposed to be technically over. But then I guess, its just an extension of 'When in India, do like the Indians do'. Nice to see that even the finicky monsoon follows the logic of that proverb. Anyway, right now..... as i'm writing this, the streets are inundated with water.........
Water Water everwhere........ I cant see the tarmac on the streets, nor I can see the shrubbery in our cricket ground. Even the upright post which we had erected to depict the boundary is partially under water. Scratching my head, I opened the newspaper today morning only to be confronted with the news of the Sardar Sarvovar dam being completely overwhelmed by the amount of water flowing in through these rains. And that they would have to release some of the water downstream (to us), which would make our situation even worse.
On that cheery note, let me tell you what happened to me last night. No, this post is not a continuation of my earlier post (Ref : I hate girls), but for all intent and purposes, it can be construed so. Yesterday around 9 pm, I was driving back home when suddenly a large pool of water appeared right in front of me. I didnt see it at first because of the heavy darkness and the lack of street lights but then when the car headlights hit them and I saw some deep ripples running towards the sides, I involuntarily tried hard to abstain from my primary instinct of slamming down hard on the brakes. My car doesnt have ABS and the roads were not only wet but slipperly too. So I pumped the brakes about 5 times in 2 seconds and then slammed down hard on them. It worked, the car stopped in a straight line with me giving miniscule steering inputs to control the constantly shifting centre of gravity (thats a problem in tall cars like the santro). I went through the pool at a speed of 30 km/hr and a couple of times felt the car aquaplaning, but still managed to come out of it unscathed. Heaving a sigh of relief, I pulled over on the side of the road to calm my thumping heart.
In the rear view mirror I saw a pair of fast-approaching headlights and I thought to myself "With the speed that car is carrying through the pool of water, I hope it doesnt turn turtle". But as it came closer, I could make out that the car was a Accent and though not as top-heavy and unstable as a Santro, it wasnt a 'mountain goat' either. It slithered into the pool at a speed of about 50-60 km/hr and started aquaplaning. Because the wheels were not touching the ground, the car didnt react to the steering inputs provided by the driver and the front right-hand-side wheel started to drag itself against the road divider. I could hear the rubber screaming in protest at this treatment and then I heard a 'bang'. That sound was oddly familiar. The wheel...... cold, hard and wet when dragged against the road divider had generated a lot of heat and caused the tube inside to burst. Whatever control the driver had, even that was gone now. The car fishtailing wildly, spun about 80 degrees to the left before the driver caught its tail and straightened it out. "Pretty impressive", I thought to myself. Catching the tail of a car which was already aquaplaning and which had just burst a tyre in less than 5 seconds on a cold slipperly wet road was no simple feat. I watched as the car came to a standstill 3 meters in front of me. But nobody came out. So, cautiously, I got out of my car and walked over to the Accent and tugged at the door handle. Fortunately, the door was unlocked. I see this 27-28 year old girl sitting inside breathing heavily, just as I was 2 minuites earlier. Following which we had this conversation
Me : Hey, you okay? That was a close-call
Her : Wha, what?
Me : Are you okkay??
Her : What the hell happened?
Me: Your right front wheel dragged on against the divider and it burst.
Her : Oh That was that huge 'Bang' sound I heard then.
Me: Yup. Lets see if your car is okkay. (So she got out of her car on her, legs shaking, hands trembling and walks around with me circling the car)
I look at the burst tyre and told her that she would have to change the tyre. She just shrugged her shoulders, not even listening..... still trembling and shuddering.
Me: Do you have a jack?
Her: Who?
Me: Not who! Jack jack, that thing for raising the car chassis so we can remove a wheel.
Her: I dont know.
So I checked her boot, turned out, she did have a jack.
