Bombay Monsoons

We're at that stage of the monsoons when the sun doesn't appear for a few days. The weather is moderate and the autos and taxis have the supply-demand ratio strictly in their favor.

After taking two flights to get to the city from Colombo, I was shocked to hear at the pre-paid taxi booth that there was a shortage of taxis. Fleet cabs were also not available. The reason: It's raining heavily!! The taxi drivers that were outside the airport were demanding exorbitant amounts of money even from those that had paid for a prepaid taxi. Of course, there were no traffic policemen(there never are unless you park your car in the wrong place).

We finally had to wait 30 minutes in a queue to get an auto. Rain makes people in this city panic. Some blame it on that disastrous July afternoon in 2005 when it rained so heavily that the city turned into one gigantic river. I remember that horrible evening when the phones went dead and the electricity was switched off for 30 hours. It was a nightmare and the worst flood the city had ever faced.

The city needs the rain. It needs a healthy monsoon to ensure that there are no water shortages in the hot summer months of April and May. But you just wonder why this so-called future superpower can't handle something as routine as the monsoons.