Lunch in Rain!!!!

Yes…that’s what we did a few days back..In one of the most beautiful spot in Hyderabad. We were visiting a resort called Lahari Park,  like we usually do when we visit Hyderabad…and its the monsoon time. We did a very beautiful thing. We lunched in the outdoors as it rained.

The coffee shop was having some work done, so they were serving outside..

We had convinced the kids to come out of the swimming pool, since it was way past lunch time. We settled down at the table under that green top(in the picture) to order our lunch.., and it started to rain…We forgot lunch, we forgot our hungry tummy that was growling. I got my camera out and started to click away, my kids were up, with spoons trying to collect the rain in it to savor.



A group of girls who were walking past the pool jumped right into it, as soon as it started to rain. They were enjoying being in water in the rain. One could hear their screams of excitement until the restaurant.   It was such a beautiful atmosphere. Could hear the calls of Peacocks around before it had started to rain. So much like in a movie. I just missed having Pavan with us and Raag Malhar playing on the flute or Jal Tarang…Sounds too formal, maybe we could have contemplated on a replay of bollywood’s  “Aaj rapat jaye toh hamein na”   Wonder how that would look with a mom and dad of 4 kids replaying the action…The jumping bellies and greying hair and the sagging cheeks…would be the highlight of the show, right !
Contrast this with the experience we had yesterday. We were stuck in heavy rain, again…only this time we were in Traffic!  There were flash floods all along the way and I didn’t have my camera with me.  Half the time we were wondering if we will be able to get home tonight.  The roads at some points had water a little lower than knee deep, At least the wheels of the car were almost submerged.

My children were screaming half in excitement to see so much flooding and half with nervousness that they might be in real trouble.  They just kept repeating

“I want to get home, mama. How much longer? Are we close to home?”.

Its just a scary situation to be in, not knowing which turn would be the wrong turn. Maybe we were heading into a bigger flood or a bigger jam. Three times the driver, turned back the car, because the road was either flooded ahead or jammed with traffic. Luckily, for us, this driver was very knowledgeable of the lanes. The decisions to turn back, had to be taken immediately, for if we even took an extra minute, we would have been swamped with vehicles all around us, and wouldn’t have been able to turn back.

One thing I noticed is because of the narrow roads and constructions closing into the roads, there was not much the police could do to help the people even if a situation like that arose.  I had gotten so used to depending on the traffic updates on radio in the US, letting us know which way to avoid, during heavy downpours and snowfalls even if we had to be out in bad weather. I appreciate that service more now. Most of the times, meteorologist’s warning of impending bad weather keep people indoors or people leave work early to make it home before the bad weather strikes….Here, it was all left to the people’s knowledge of the by lanes and intuitions and luck and the government is doing its best to keep the city as unplanned without any drainage.

After a long time, we did get home safely but, all this really shook me, and I would think twice to get out of home in heavy rain the next time. Now, looking back, Should the title of this blog have been “Lunch in Rain and Rain in Dinner?!!”.