Oru Cup Coffee

I never thought I'd have to deal with so much rain in one vacation. The rain has been considerate so far to let me enjoy the important events like Deepavali and some outings. Otherwise, it has taken the city apart along with it my vacation. I am all geared up to go to Chepauk tomorrow. It seemed like Indians were going to be on the nets today, but I do not think they would've ventured out during the downpour. Lucky SA'ns that they practiced yesterday. I hope it does not rain tomorrow and I'd get to see a wonderful match. BTW, what's with Chennai, Cricket and Rain. I think if Chennai needs rain, they just've to have a match scheduled.

I am blogging this as I am waiting for my flight to Mumbai. I heard about the free wifi access at Chennai airport through Kiruba's blogs. So when I got a chance, I wanted to try. First, I got the bsnl connection but was not able to acquire a network address. This was absolutely disheartening as I thought this would be great. My wireless connection connected me to TataIndicomm service, but it took me to a page that showed me to enter information from a TataIndicomm card. There was no information on where I could get one. I looked around, could not find a kiosk. So, I rebooted my machine to see whether by luck I could establish connection to bsnl. And voila! it worked. I checked my mails and also wanted to immediately write about it. I am sure not getting an ip address could be a problem with my laptop too. Anyway, I was happy to check my mails and browse before I get to my destination. Isn't this wonderful?

I was travelling to Virugambakkam in a taxi and I took this picture as the rain was making the poster look more interesting.

After Deepavali, we'd few hours of sun in Chennai and rain for rest of the time. I've not seen so much rain in Seattle. It has been a continuous downpour. I hear the frogs croak in the night, with water welling up around the home. My neighbors had water in their house during the first storm and they weathered it by staying with us. Now for this storm, they just left to another part of the city. Our wells are full, garden is flooded and our homes are barely dry.

My home has a big ditch in the front that becomes the dumping ground for people around us including a nearby slum. The ditch was already filled with water when I came here before Deepavali. Now it is rising and leveling with water on the road. Couple of days ago, I felt foul taste from the well water. I stopped using it and advised my family to do the same. My dad ignored it, used it and got sick. I called the pest control board to find out what they can do. They answered my calls politely, surprisingly very responsive on the phone, spoke to me with concern and felt that they were in a hurry to leave for my home, but so far did not do anything to alleviate our problems. I am still waiting for them to show up and spray something to stop the mosquitoes. Thankfully, I suspect our well water is better now. It does not have the foul smell, but may be as bad or worse than it was. Surprisingly, through all this, we still have electricity. Though we get power cuts 30 to 60 minutes a day.

I am on a break in Chennai, arrived here right in time for Deepavali. I purchased lots of crackers for the kids at home and the rain dampened the spirit a bit. Unusually, the Deepavali was not as noisy as before. Also, there are much bigger fireworks that fill the sky with patterns this time. I am in Chennai during Deepavali after 10 years. It is very much different, but many things are still the same. When I walk around the streets, there is always someone running inside, with a long bathi, with closed ears and tries to say something to you, but bang..bang...goes those atom bombs. We both then share a smile. Sometimes, you heed to such warning and wait for ever to see nothing. The 7 in 1 crackers never bursts seven times. It is always below 7....with a maximum of 5 in the set I tried. There was a new cracker called Butterfly that has been certified kids friendly. In reality, it is anything but. Though it is supposed to be on the ground and form patterns like butterfly as it swirls around, when lit, it flies around in a random direction like a comet. Onlu half packet of oosi vedi bursts, rest just sigh heavily. All in all, it was fun. Thanks to the rain gods that it stopped right in time for the Deepavali morning.