Rain, Kolkata

Went to Kolkata for the weekend, feeling like a mess-inhabitant out of a Bengali novel who takes the Naihati-local on Saturday to go back to 'bari' from 'basa.' A Bay of Bengal depression was on the rampage in eastern India, so I had to sit out the worst on the tarmac at Hyderabad; when I finally got to Dum Dum the pre-paid taxi counter had a handwritten notice 'closed due to torrential rain', and no transport was in evidence. I was once stranded like this in Foz de Iguacu. As there, a hotel car eventually came to the rescue; the off-duty driver who agreed to give me a ride negotiated the fallen trees and freshly-opened potholes on the EM Bypass with a remarkable aplomb. When I finally reached home in the wee hours, a very thin pratipada moon was beginning to look out from a break in the clouds to cautiously survey the bedraggled havoc below.