The Ride

What a hair raising ride that was. Can't imagine anything remotely like it. Not even the scariest loopiest of roller coaster rides.

We had gone to the Malls on Sunday evening. Another weekend, another trip to the multiplex to catch another crappy movie. The only break before another routine work week.

It was half past eight when the movie got over. It was drizzling half heartedly. We didn’t think much of it since it had been overcast the entire day and hadn't rained. We hopped onto the second Rickshaw, the first one was two small, A claimed, despite the Rickshaw wallah's protest that it wasn't. We had hardly managed to squeeze ourselves into it (requires some acrobatics), it started pelting. But we carried on bravely. It was coooold. I had to hold on to our shopping, my shawl which threatened to fly away or worse get entangled in the wheels and strangling me in the process, and keep from slipping off the shiny slippery seat. It was dark and the rickshaw driver couldn't see or didn’t care to avoid potholes. And worse. The lightening. Oh god. What wild flashes. There we were, a dark hazy object on a dark narrow road, streaking by in the pelting rain, occasionally lit up by wild lightening. I never noticed the crazy maze of cables criss-crossed overhead before. Death by electrification, or falling out of the rickshaw or getting run down by a passing car....would the excitement never end. I think it was the longest 15 minutes of our lives.

As if the fates, God and every body else fed up with my constant moaning about my 'stuck-in-the-rut' situation decided to give me a mighty cosmic jolt! And I guess it worked. The rains washed away not only the ever present dust, but the cloud of angst that had built up around my head.