How the Mumbai Rains Messed with Me Driving a Car

Whenever it rains in Mumbai, the entire metropolitan becomes a massive swimming pool, at least most of the times. I have been to Delhi as well, and it is no fun to admit that our national capital also comes to halt whenever we experience heavy rains in the country. However, I have, sort of, made peace with such situations and I just tackle my car rather than lecturing around everyone. The first thing that I do is to get my car serviced and have the brakes in immaculate condition so that they do not fall flat whenever there is an emergency.

I try to drive at a modest speed rather than speeding too much because no matter how perfectly my car works, the car may skid on wet roads. It has happened with me once when I was in my early twenties. I was driving at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour, and I had to apply the brakes immediately to escape hitting a kid on the road. I did not hurt that child, but the car skidded, and I banged into an electricity tower. After that day, I made a mental note never to race with anyone when it is raining.

Since I am fond of road trips, I rarely avoid driving when it rains. However, I prefer not to drive after dark while the water is still pouring from the sky. I have driven once or twice during heavy rains during the night time, and it feels scary as hell. I have realized that it is no use driving at a speed of 20-30 kilometers per hour just to reach a place, which I might never do at all in case something worse happens. The truck drivers in India are infamous for their notorious driving skills. Even if I give my best efforts to drive carefully, I have seen these guys driving without caring for anyone else’s life. That is why; it is better to stay away from them, especially during rains and foggy winters.

I also prefer to use headlights and taillights to keep my car as visible as possible during rains. I had hired cheap car rentals once to go for a road trip to Goa. However, I ended up paying a lot of money on repairs of the car because it did not perform well on the slippery roads. It is another story that the company reimbursed my bills following their policies.

The last thing to keep in mind while bearing heavy rains is that I never park my car under a tree or near electric wires looming over. Both these things can fall over the car, and the wires may even electrocute the car in the worst circumstance. I have seen this happening with someone’s car in front of a Mumbai mall, and I took a lesson from that incident. Better be safe than sorry. I don’t want to die in a car, at least, even in my worst nightmare.

What pissed me off during a movie in Mumbai

It was a busy quarter of the year in office because of a few professional commitments, and I was desperately waiting for a small break. I don’t watch movies frequently, so I was waiting for a nice movie to release so that I could take a breather. The movie, Raazi was about to release, and when it did, I booked four tickets for my family.

We planned to go for a movie and then dinner. Since I do not feel the need to keep a car in Mumbai, I decided to look for cheap Car Rentals so that we can have a great time together with family. After searching for an hour, I booked a Swift Dzire to go for a long drive on a Saturday evening. We went to the theater, fetched burgers from McDonalds first, gulped them down, and then went ahead to reach the movie hall.

Finally, the movie started!

But no, destiny had some other plans for my weekend!

Two kids began shouting, screeching, and yelling in the movie hall. I expected, and so did other people, that one of the parents of the kids would pick up their kids and take them outside to pacify them. But no, they did not budge from their seats, and left them playing in the cinema hall. They gave them their mobile phones, and the kids knew the button to turn on the flash lights of the phones. Imagine the disturbance that the naughty kids caused for everyone else in the room with the flashlights blazing in the pitch dark movie hall.

When the other kids saw them having a good time, they also started crying their eyes out for mobile phones. Their parents also, instead of soothing them, gave them their cell phones. Now my most-awaited movie is running on the huge screen, but no one among the audience could concentrate on the it because of five flash lights were glowing in five different directions. The cherry on the top of the cake was the shrieking voices of kids arguing and playing. At least someone got up from the seat and called the assistant and asked him to let the parents know about the agony of others sitting right there. Even then the parents did not calm down their kids, they just took away the mobile phones from them.

What the parents were supposed to do

The kids went on and on with their pranks, which pissed me off. Completely. I was not frustrated because of the kids, but the parents. Kids will always make noise; they do not know the etiquettes, but their parents do. The parents are adults, of course, and they are consciously spoiling the supposed quality time of at least five hundred people who have paid a fortune to watch a good movie, which was anyhow turned into a worthless experience. Such parents should leave their kids with a guardian or watch movies at home, but please refrain from disturbing hundreds of other people just because they cannot handle their children.