The Night time Micro Adventure

Disclaimer:

All the characters below are real. Any resemblance to living beings is not at all coincidental.

The year was 2015.  This scary and terrifying incident happened to us prior to 2 months before the dawn of 2016. In the blink of an eye, we are only 5 months away from the birth of 2017. It seems like the Earth has put in extra shifts to move things faster! As usual, overlooking and forgiving my poor joke, Jatin (J), Narasimhan(N) and Vignesh(I/me/myself) had to face the brunt of this nerve racking episode after a delightful day marked with lots of joyousness and immense satisfaction.

After waving tsunami-like Tatas to DG Sir and Shobhana Mam at the chai shop, N, J and I boarded the badly maintained and battered Number 96 bus to Coimbatore Railway Station from Ettimadai to catch the Nilgiris Express @ 9pm. All 3 of us had arrived on Saturday morning to give our helping hands, enthusiastic energy and actionable support to make the Annual Diwali Party on Sunday to be a successful affair. 

To call it merely success was really an understatement for the stupendous collective effort and vibrant positive energy that was displayed by each and every individual who made the entire event a resounding and rollicking success. It was at this juncture that we had to bid adieu to DG Sir and Shobhana Mam after sipping upon the hot tea at the nearby chai shop around 6pm. Little did we know that Gods, the Master Players, were laughing to their heart's contents from their heavenly abodes.

Since we had sufficient time at our disposal, we headed towards Brookefields Mall to have our dinner. It was like any other Sunday evening. The mall was chock-a-block full and bustling with lot of events though hosted by disappointingly unenergetic hostesses. Taking the escalator at every level, N, J and I reached our destination to satisfy our grumbling stomachs.

Munching, gulping and casually chatting over our victuals, it was then the snake began to raise its hood! It was a timely call from Ashwin who asked us to leave the mall immediately and proceed to the railway station at the earliest if we hadn't started our proceeding to catch our train. He told us that as it was raining heavily, the roads have come to a stand still because of the stagnant waters under the subway. Our combined first reaction was "Is it raining?". Listening to the steadily increasing pitter-patter of the thunderous rains in the background over the call, we quickly ended our conversations, hurriedly finished our dinners  and hastened to the exit in the many blinks of an eye.  

What we saw made our skins to crawl with chill, literally and figuratively. It was not just raining cats and dogs but also cows, buffaloes and other domesticated animals! The cool AC shelter and the massive structure had literally subdued the riotous noise of Earth's sweet sweat. To make matters worse, there was a sea of people at the entrance with umbrellas as well as without umbrellas and  waiting for the continual pouring rain to give a brief respite so that everybody can make a quick escape towards their respective homes. Unfortunately, it was otherwise. Wadding through and stamping on almost everyone, N, J and I reached the farthest outside point of the mall from where we thought we could hire an auto and make a dash to the station. 

It was a sight like I have never seen in my 2 years stay at the Pump City. The traffic was akin to the famous scene in 'Mudhalvan'. The Pump City literally needed lots of pumps to pump the water out! We muttered our sincere thanks to Ashwin - our saviour - for warning us of the impending threat. I looked at my watch to see that the time read 730pm. We had a solid an hour and half to make it to the station. Under normal situations, it was a cake walk! Unfortunately for us, even a normal walk was difficult at that moment. Needless to say, we abandoned our idea to hire the auto.

Carefully skipping, hopping, jumping and leaping to all corners of the road to avoid the dangerous electric cables, wires, pot holes and the inch by inch moving traffic, we created our own way forward amidst the still lashing down rains and the still traffic. If Prabhu Deva had seen our precisely executed and well-balanced steps then, he would have been mighty pleased and proud with our dancing efforts! It was already 8pm and we were even nowhere near the subway but only to the traffic signal nearby the Mall. 

By God's grace, realization struck me like a lightning, pardon my pun here, that it was nearly an hour ago when Ashwin informed us of the heavy traffic near the subway because of the standing waters. There was no respite of the rains since then and I was sure the volume of water would have increased drastically to severely impend the movement of normal walking also. Asking the guys to hold on for a moment, I told them about the potential danger that we were in and the only way to overcome it is to take a short cut near the bridge to the station. The sharp-eyed Mr. N was quick to spot and tell me that the subway was the sole route and no other road existed. Fortunately or unfortunately, whenever I used to come to the city from the college by train, on one fine day, I decided to walk on and along the tracks. It was then I discovered that there was a broken wall adjacent to the tracks and I used to jump it to slowly walk towards the mall. We decided to execute our choreographed steps once again to make it to the broken wall but this time with even more experience!

It was a blood-curdling sight to see the sewer-mixed waters rushing with full intensity downwards the adjacent road to the subway much like the swirling river Ganges at Haridwar and Rishikesh. The train was due to leave in less than double the ten minutes. We had to cross the fraught with danger gushing water to make across the unmended wall. It was also virtually and really impossible for us to traverse through the waters under the subway and then catch the train in time. Despite the cold surrounding us, Mr. J and Mr. N were having a heated discussion as to whether to take the subway or cut across the violently flowing waters. We were losing valuable moments that would determine the train leaving with us or not. 

With the heart in my mouth, I just took the first step towards the blinding spurting spill. I knew that even one wrong step taken would result in a very bad injury - The worst case scenario being even death. Such was the ferocity and intensity with which Adam's Ale rushed through. There was simply and absolutely no room for error. We had got to do it right and do it right in our first attempt itself. Seeing me walking towards an inevitable doom alone, Mr. N and Mr. J, reluctantly and hesitantly followed me.

My slippers were all slippery and the fresh, icy cold waters made my legs numb as if someone had cast Petrificus Totalus curse on me!  I was more than cautious when I took each step. However, if it hadn't been for Mr. J's heroics, we would have been swept away off our feet by the raging mini flood. I was walking first followed by J and then N. J caught our hands with such force and strength that it was like having 2 bricks on my wrist. The way J managed to steady himself, balance and rock to and fro to counter the effects of the intensity of flowing water was simply pure physics in motion! After what seemed like eternity, we safely crossed the Waters of Death and then stravaiged on the tracks for a moment.

The 10 minute countdown began for the carriage on wheels to depart from the station. This is where N showed his admirable bravery. With no lights around and the rains still pelting upon us, N marched his way boldly on the tracks by being aware of all the dangers like loose ground, insects, snakes and the trains themselves. Whenever we heard a loud blaring horn, N immediately reassured us saying that the trains are very far and we could reach the platform in time. It was as if N had a special power to speak with trains! J and I were treading slowly behind N who was full of energy and giving us constant updates on the landscape so that nothing awry happened to any of us en route to the nearing station.

Just like a lost traveller getting excited on seeing the first person they encounter, we were over the moon (though there was no moon on that day!) on seeing the sloping ascent of the first platform. We were exactly a minute ahead of the departure time and was right on time to see the Nilgiris Express slowly chugging into the platform. Silently thanking Lord Ayyappa for extricating us from the intricate situation,  All waz well and I was also sure that because of the sudden rains the wells in Coimbatore were also swelled! 

PS:

Hadn't the benevolent and thoughtful Ashwin called us at the right moment and asked us to leave asap, we would have been idly chatting and left the train behind. No amount of Thank You can do justice for what you did, dude.

PS 2:

If the government had repaired the wall, we wouldn't have been able to board our trains. For once, I thanked the government for not doing their duty properly.