8/7/07
I got caught in the monsoon today on my way home. I have been out in the rain some, but never have I been out and about.when the rain was really raging. It was terrible today.
I was able to leave the downtown office early, because my last student was stuck somewhere due to the storm, and couldn’t get to the office to meet with me. So I started out for home at around 6:30 pm, while it was still slightly light out; not that you could tell through all the storm clouds and rain. Then I had to walk to the train station, 10 minutes with water beating down on me in all directions and wind shoving me back and forth. I huddled under my umbrella so that I stayed a little dry, but there was nothing I could do about my skirt, the wind and rain drenched my legs completely. I made sure to walk on the sidewalk because I wasn’t very steady on my feet- my shoes were completely waterlogged and my feet slipped and slid around in them, and my umbrella acted a little bit like a sail, moving me back and forth in the water. By the time I got to the train station I looked like I had been dipped repeatedly into a pool from the waist down. But at least my shirt was dry, and that made me feel a little better.
The train platform was relatively dry, as was the train itself, so by the time I squished off the train at my station I hadn’t really gotten any wetter. It was a little annoying to have my skirt dripping into my shoes, but at least I wasn’t cold. It was a balmy furious rain.
I pulled out my umbrella outside the train station and looked for a rik to take me home. Unfortunately everyone else was doing that too, so it took me a while to find one. I eventually had to hijack one as it pulled up. Before the driver had even let out the passengers he was carrying, I was shoving my head into the cab, asking if he would take me to Lilavati Hospital (near where I live.).
I got home, relieved that I hadn’t had to walk through the muddy mess of the streets (muddy with god knows what) and still somewhat dry. As usual, after I got inside the first thing I did was go into the bathroom to wash my feet off. I got into the shower and turned on the water. But I forgot to switch the water from shower to faucet, so I got a full spray of water, from the head down, and all over my shirt. Damnit.
It monsooned last Friday too. I wasn’t able to go to work, because I couldn’t get to the train station. The street in front of my house flooded up over ankle height and there was no way I was going to start wading through that junk to get to a rik to the station. I just don’t care about the SAT enough to fight against the odds to go talk about it. Besides, there are all sorts of curbs and broken grates everywhere, so I am not particularly impressed with the safety of wandering around blind in the flooded streets.
There were way more cars out that day than I am used to seeing. I think people didn’t want to be out walking.
Luckily I had gone grocery shopping the day before. It was fun, watching the impressively dense rain dump down out of the sky. Glad I didn’t have to go out in it.
8 comments:
Well, I had been wondering how you were doing during the monsoon. Now I know. We are soon leaving Boston. The weather has been nice, and for the first time in many months, we turned on the heat this a.m., as it was 49 degrees. We had been looking forward to cooler weather and were glad for it. Stay safe and dry. Jane
Sorry, Ev. I'm trying not to laugh, but your foot shower is a very good comic scene. Maybe your adventure could be turned into a movie. Oooo...in addition to writing a book, you could write a screenplay.
My last day in Bangkok last summer (you were going to the Indian cooking school that day, I think), I got caught out in three different thunderstorms. It was kind of fun huddling with strangers under whatever awning we could find for 10 minutes waiting it out.
The last one, I had to wade through 3 or 4 inches of water to get to the subway station (Birks are not so good for wading, it turns out.)
I thought at the time that that was a lot of rain. Nothing like this picture, though. That's a lot of water.
One of my sisters down in Texas got to experience 17 inches of rain in 7 hours, but it sounds like the monsoon just kinda goes on and on. Are there specific adaptations or does everyone just grin and bear it?
Good thing you're wash and wear!
p.
is monsoon a verb? transitive or intransitive? Jane? Kenneth? Cassie
I think have heard expressions like "It monsooned all day", but never anything like "It monsooned an inch of rain".
So, I would say intransitive. But, if you were to use it transitively, nobody would be in any doubt what you mean. So, both.
Unfortunately, there is a variety of coffee called "Monsooned Malabar" which is poisoning any results I can get from google to check usage patterns. (Apparently to monsoon a coffee bean is to age it.)
i say that language is a growing being and i can develop and stretch the usage and meaning of monsoon if i want to.
glad you liked the visual, melinda!
Post a Comment