Return of the Rain God -- anticipation vs apprehension

After a long delay and a couple of false starts, it rained early morning today, but hardly. The rains are one hesitant tot this time around -- to pee or not to pee is their dilemma -- so much so that Bombay is almost starved of drinking water.

This puddle of a piddling onset stark-contrasts the fact that we’re expecting unprecedented high tides to coincide with heavy rains around July 24. Scarcity and Plenty, the two melodramatic characters that love playing power games with Bombay, are at it again. Tango-ish as that may sound, osmosing from desiccation to drowning in a month from now is nobody’s idea of fun. Sounds too much like the return of July 26, 2005.

So, matching the fervent prayers for the Rain God’s blessings is the public indignation at the grand civic announcements that were followed, in quite a few areas, by half-hearted, half completed, not-necessarily-effective road and drainage works which only promise to make the contractors and their brothers richer every time it rains more than 3 centimeters. But somehow, this mass anger doesn’t translate into anything constructive, not substantially at least. That is, not counting the money the media makes out of seasonal changes and their upshot -- good, bad or ugly.

Accordingly, Bombayites -- who are just about coming off their summer spend on airconditioners and dehumidifiers -- are now planning to hoard food items, drinking water, batteries, torches and water pumps, among other things. Trust in civic works is low, in fate -- high.

The rich and the nervous are booking elevated parking lots in five star hotels and malls around the date while a few have made up their minds to get away from it all -- after stashing up and away prized valuables, of course. The not-so-rich are alarmed but are working out smart solutions. Many on lower floors are making arrangements with their higher floor neighbors. Some have ordered for window projections, balcony shields and makeshift floor elevations. My cook intimated us almost a month ago of a two-day off she’d take mid July to help her husband build a plank raft -- in case things come to that again! A few, like my housekeeper's son, are simply putting up a brave front. His family lives in a low lying area close to the sea and has not much recourse.

Watching this pre-monsoon circus from a not-so-safe distance, I speculate if the anticipation of divine providence will score over the apprehension of nature’s wrath.

Come July end, we’ll see which wins.