Mumbai Monsoon Movies!

Last night I fell asleep while praying for rain. Well, I got my wish. It rained alright. Actually rain is an understatement. It freakin' POURED. I woke up to the sound of it and apparently it had been going non-stop while I was asleep... And I was in a HAPPY mood! So I even left a little early so I could walk a while in the rain before my friend Antu, picked me up in an auto and we went to the station. Things were pretty normal. Umbrellas all around. We skipped over the usual overflowing water right in front of the station and became a part of the hundreds of anonymous faces. Our train was jam-packed as usual - full of wet and some grumpy people. My back was beginning to protest due to standing in weird positions with my bag-full of books. And I couldn't really talk to Antu cause of the wall of people between us.

Then we reached Bandra. Still raining. No big deal and then I started overhearing conversations about the rain and how "Grant Rd. is totally submerged". Ah, big deal. Stupid rumours. Paranoid people. And then Antu's phone rings. One of our classmates reached Grant Rd. and was about turning back to Andheri. "Grant Rd. is totally submerged. Knee-deep water. I'm going back home!" Oh she hates the rain; gets really scared when it rains a little.Me and Gauri monsoon-posing in college last Saturday

We should've listened :P Especially when these girls who were on our train from the BMM dept. in our college got off at Dadar in response to a phone call which apparently told them "Classes Canceled!" At this point, alarms should've been going off in our head. Go back home!!

Lol. Anyway, we reached Mumbai Central, just one stop before our stop (Grant Rd.) and saw for ourselves. The tracks were indeed pretty much submerged in water and the trains from Churchgate were running wayyyy behind schedule. So we got off, went to the next platform and waited for a little while. Told the others in the gang not to bother heading to college. Stay home!! And then took a train back.

It was all very exciting for me actually. There's something very comically adventurous about living in Mumbai. Especially during the monsoons. It's comical because after sooooo many years of this manic rain and high-tide combination, after so many floods, so many people dying and buildings collapsing and trains stopping... etc, etc. Mumbai - govt. and municipality - STILL seem to be completely taken unawares when it comes. It's so... FUNNY! :D

Anyway, so that makes it two college-less days this week. (Monday was a holiday for other reasons). I came home and sat around with Antu for a while (we had to wait out the rain and traffic a little before she could catch an auto home) and then after lunch, I watched a movie! A fantastic movie that you need to watch - The Boy in Striped Pajamas. Miss Smith, my maths teacher from school, had told me about the book by the same name (by John Boyne) upon which this movie is based when I met her up in Ooty this summer. Still haven't found the book but the movie was just fantastic. Seriously, you need to watch it.

Movies I've watched recently: The Boy in Striped Pajamas, The Secret Life of Bees and New York