Saturday Rains and Wisdom Tooth

Of the seven days in a week, I await Saturdays the most. And when a Saturday goes wrong, it leaves me sulking until another arrives. This Saturday was one such Saturday.

This Saturday I had an appointment with a dentist whose chamber is located very far from where I stay. The appointment was at 6:30 in the evening and a few hours before that, he SMSed me postponing it by one hour – at 7:30. A little before I was to start for his chamber, it began to drizzle with an overcast sky promising heavy downpour later.

Undeterred, I walked out into the road and stepped into an auto. A few minutes into the auto ride, and the rain got steadier. It didn’t take very long for the roads to get wet and the potholes to be filled with water. I could also hear a storm piercing the noise of the rain.

The auto entered the neighborhood of Frazer Town, where the dental chamber was located, and found a traffic jam awaiting it. The rain eased and the storm passed after sometime leaving the air thick and humid.

The lane that connects Frazor Town with the area was blocked, and a flock of men stood around something. “What’s the matter,” I asked a person. “The storm felled a tree blocking the lane, “he replied.

I decided to leave the auto and walk to the clinic. I approached an elderly man to ask the direction. He said walking would take a long time, but it was the only option as the buses and autos going that way had got stranded in the jam.

I was in an old part of Bangalore with decrepit houses, cheap restaurants and dark narrow lanes. And the rain had made it worse. The pavements were dirty and narrow; I had to pick my way through stranded vehicles.

After around an hour, well past the scheduled time, I was at the clinic. About three years ago I had a root canal therapy done on one of my teeth – and had a porcelain crown mounted on it. The crown, being an artificial structure, had not fitted in properly with the other teeth around it forming small crevices that attracted food deposits. The tooth is located on the upper side in front of a wisdom tooth. If the wisdom tooth was extracted, it would solve the problem, Dr Donald said.

A wisdom tooth doesn't participate in any important activity like chewing, for example. And many people either don’t have them naturaly or have them plucked, he assured. I’m yet to make up my mind whether I want to part with mine.

I left the chamber at 10 PM, and by the time I reached home, it was 11, only an hour short of the end of Saturday. Many in Mumbai would say 11 in the evening is when a day starts - but Bangalore is forced to go to bed earlier by law-enforcement agencies.

Wet Luck

I like to think of myself as a rationalist and usually dismiss the beliefs and arguments that are not supported by logic. Luck is one of them. Although I feel tempted to blame my failures and disappointments on things like luck (or lack of it) and destiny, I usually find out a logical reason later and discard my earlier assumptions. But sometimes no matter how hard I try, the irrational luck prevails over hard-headed logic.

Today was one such day. We had scheduled a team lunch. We had decided to meet at office and go to the venue together.

Before getting ready, I looked at the sky and it looked like it might rain any moment. I thought I would carry my umbrella and once I would step into an auto, the challenge of rain would be reined.

By the time I finished my bathing, it was raining noisily. When I looked out the rain met my expectation. The road was deserted and the vehicles were splattering away with the logged water around them swelling up and collapsing again.

Only a few hours ago it was a bright morning, I thought.

As I stepped out of my building, I held the umbrella up and pressed the switch. As the umbrella unfurled with defiance, I stepped into the puddle gently causing ripples but no splash. I waved at an auto and shouted out my destination to the driver. The auto went and stood a little ahead.

As I got into the vehicle, I thought I had trumped over the challenge. I started craving for the lunch.

The main road was submerged in rain water. The auto waded thorough the logged water and then suddenly came to a halt. The water had sipped into the engine.

I gave my umbrella to the driver and asked him to check if he could revive the engine. The driver went out and came back again. He pulled the gear up forming a semi circle but the engine refused to rev.

We sat in the auto and the poor auto stood with its wheels sunk in the brown water. Heavy vehicles passed by sending sheets of water dashing against us.

The driver said until the rain stopped and the machine dried up, it would not start. We tried flagging down autos so that I could go, but not a single one obliged.

Finally, I waved at an auto going in the reverse direction towards my house – and it stopped. I went to the other side of the road, got into it and headed home.