Daastan-e-Ishq

Well, I couldn’t find a better title for this lil post cuz it's nothing but a love story (of a different kind, of course!).

Since the met department had forecasted that it would be a bright and sunny day, I was kinda sure that it would rain but It didn’t……I mean it didn’t rain….. it poured. In fact, it flashed to me for a while that Delhi may also suffer “flash Floods” much like Leh a few days back but then god was kind enough on Delhi Govt and Suresh Kalmadi in particular by not adding to his miseries. Ironically, the Firang inspector who came to assess the preparedness of Delhi for the common wealth games expressed ‘satisfaction’!!

Chalo, lets forget these “Common -- Games” (sorry for the blanks, someone took away the “wealth”!) for a while and lemme get back to the sexy rainy weather. But to be able to see the weather in this perspective u gotta be a Cyclist (Trekist to be precise); for a car or byke ‘wala’, this day can easily be one of the worst nightmares he could possibly have, courtesy, the pathetic drainage system of delhi roads which simply refuse to take in even a bucketful of water. In fact, it would rather return it back along with two bucketsful of mud, silt and feces which were stuck up in its ‘digestive system’. And then there are those artistically designed potholes; Delhi’s own way of rain water harvesting and just when you hope that bad news would end, the Traffic lights stop working and it’s a lost cause (just like expecting Common – Games to be a success) to expect a traffic police official when the lights take their last breath.

But, if u are a Trekist, nothing bothers u. The rain drops aren’t a source of worry; they seem like a source of perennial joy. The traffic doesn’t seem like a barrier but a maze through which you have to trace your path. The potholes become mini swimming pools in which u find inexplicable pleasure every time you splash that muddy water on a passing Honda Accord or Bajaj Pulsar! While everybody else is waiting under a tree or a flyover to get the rain gods a bit relaxed, you are pedaling your way with grandeur and élan on your TREK (well, it’s basically a cycle, but then it’s not a cycle, it’s a TREK). While everyone is looking at you perplexed, you are looking at them with Pity. Off n on, you also get a look which says that if only I wasn’t with my husband/boyfriend/bhaiya/driver, I would have loved to enjoy this amazing rain with you on your bike. These are the moments which reassure me that trek khareed kar maine koi galati nahin ki.

You reach your office, totally drenched with trail of ‘keechad’ stretching from your bums to the tip of your head, courtesy, a good-for-nothing mudguard while everyone else is jumping out of their car or rikshaw and tiptoeing till they safely get under a roof and then look at their shoes to ensure that not even a speck of mud has ruined the sanctity of their formal attire. While my Trek now needs a nap after a 23 KM roller-coaster ride, its time for me to change, get into semi formals and slog at the office for 8 long hours hoping that they pass like 8 min so that I hop on to my Trek once again for another hilarious ride on the special roads of Delhi and gurgaon in the Rain, of course!

Coming Up (in few days): the 120 KM century ride that we did on Independence day eve

(p.s. - the pic is not of this day but inserted to give a feel of how cool it is to pedal in the rains!!)