Chennai Rains are like the Indian Cricket team finding a genuine fast bowler who can trouble and unsettle a batsman with his sheer pace breaching the 145 Kmph mark on a regular and consistent basis. Both are tough and difficult to occur! However, Mother Nature has other plans in her kitty. After what seemed like eternity, it rained cats, dogs, horses, cows and other domesticated animals in Chennai! I felt someone was lullabying me and making me to go sleep despite the alarm waking me up like a persistent sales person! Surely, it was not my mother. But, it was the nice, pleasant,soothing and cool weather that was putting me into a trance in spite of the loud beep beep from my alarm @ 730am. As they say, time and tide waits for none. My mother started to wake me up shouting that its close to 8am. I sensed that she was shouting but all I could hear was a muffled mix of words and sounds entering my ears. I couldn't just getup from my bed. It was as if a girl hugging her teddy bear tightly and sleeping! But, I knew that as I delay further I wouldn't be able to reach my work place in time. It took a gargantuan effort from my end to finally find the right motivation to brush my teeth. The water was icy cold. The moment the chilled water was splashed across my face, I felt energized and cloudless refreshing. After a quick shower and rapidly hurried up breakfast,I made my way to office not on the road but on the sides of the roads! The traffic was so heavy due to the over night rains that the roads were completely occupied with streams of slow moving vehicles. To make matters worse and intricate, most of the two wheelers were riding along the mud and slush filled sides of the roads and I thought I was the smart one! It was extremely difficult to drive on the slippery roads as one wrong accelerator or brake would mean that I encounter a mud-spattered accident. It was not just I but every other two wheeler brought all our years of experience to the fore to reach our offices in time. So, following the principles of good, cautious, safe and intelligent driving, I reached my office @ 905 am eventually and prepared for the day ahead with my team.
It was 645pm. Zaapppp!! Time flew like a Superman racing up another Superman! Wanting to have a well-deserved rest in my bed with melodious songs to sync up with the romantic weather, I reached out to my back pocket for my keys. It was then all hell started to break loose! I couldn't find my keys. My instant reaction was that I had left my keys in the vehicle itself and by that time someone had scooted off with my Angelina Jolie! I rushed frantically to the parking spot and heaved a big sigh of relief on seeing my black beauty. It was then I wondered and cursed myself as to where I had missed my keys. I traced and retraced back to every location I had been to on that full day. But, to no avail. One of my friend gave me a possibility that I might have accidentally misplaced the keys along with the helmet in the storage space. There was a small glitch to validate this possibility. I still need the key to open up the storage space! So, I had no other alternative but to travel all the way home, take my spare key and come back all the way to office to ride away to home again. I just prayed to God that my spare key also hasn't gotten lost in my home!
I stopped a speeding and crowded share auto and sat precariously at the edge of the edge of the seat! It was exactly like standing at the last known visible land mass on the top of a hill and looking down from there but in motion! Three 2 wheelers, one auto and a bus would have literally scrapped away my left leg along with them. The traffic ensured that the vehicles were moving neck and neck with no breathing space. Once again, I asked for God's timely intervention for me to reach my destination unhurt, unscathed and in one piece. 20 gruelling minutes later, I arrived safe and sound at the Kilkattalai Junction where I hired another auto and asked the auto driver to make a dash to my home as I knew precious minutes were slipping away from my hand to rejoin with my Angelina Jolie again!
It was 8pm when I rang the calling bell incessantly. As soon as the doors were wide ajar, I quickened my pace and searched frenetically for the spare key. The place became terribly upside down and at long last, I was able to find the much needed hero of the day! I resumed my journey once again in the same auto to Karapakkam. I felt strengthened then after keeping the spare key safely in the back pocket! A swift glance told me that the auto driver did not subscribe to Ola. I was so absorbed in my worry and tension whether I would find my spare key to return back that I completely failed to notice that the auto driver did not have the Ola device when I travelled from Kilkattalai to Nanganallur. But, things were different now. I am to be reunited with my darling Angelina in another 25 minutes time. So, I decided to engage in a friendly banter with the auto driver asking him how come he did not possess the Ola device when almost every auto driver had the equipment with them. The small question turned into history, geography and biology of his family life! By the time, I reached to Karapakkam, I knew about his work life as much as he knew mine. Like the climax scene in Mudhalvan where Raghuvaran tells Arjun "It was a good conversation", I felt I had another eye-opening session with financials and the art of management from him. When all was said and done, I ultimately paid him for the double ride and briskly walked up to my lovely Angelina Jolie. It was indeed a soul lifting joyful moment when I inserted the key and she was alive and kicking with full of life once again.
Epilogue:
The mystery of the missing key is as puzzling and baffling as the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370!
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