Never MET Office..

I remember reading in the papers sometime in May that we will have early monsoons this year.. and coupled with lavish doses of the tide as well. I was one of the ppl stranded during the deluge and didn't want to be caught unprepared this time around. So i went out to the market straight to this shop that always is the first to come up with rain gear. As i watched ppl around me, i smirked.. "Smart chap VInod! You are sooo gonna be prepared.. and while all these guys look like bafoons when the rain catches them by surprise, you'll be nice n dry, going 'naanananaanaa' looking at them getting wet!! Haha SUCKERS!" I was armed with my list - things you need for a normal monsoon in Mumbai... Umbrella.. check... Windcheater.. check... Monsoon slippers.. check... Life Jacket.. check... Speed Boat.. check...

Well I must say, my speedboat and I have been let down by the MET department.. BADLY! Every forecast turned out wrong!These MET guys must be the most lousy with their luck. Ppl with such bad luck, that they'd fall off a plane.. bounce off a cactus, smash into a palm tree and then get run over by a camel stampede, inches away from a water reservoir! The only good thing about them is that their glorious track record notwithstanding, they are eternal optimists.. Thats one way to spot one of them on the road.. If the report says rain, and if some joker is carrying an umbrella and looking at the sky with worry writ large on his face, u can be sure, he was part of the grp that wrote it. And while no one cares for their el ninos and ninas, they work with a missionary zeal, to produce the most widely read piece of daily fiction known to man.

I think the rain-gods are having fun with these poor chaps. You know.. you travelling home from work, its really overcast.. that cool breeze blowing as well... and somewhere, the MET office fellow is scampering back to his office. Clearly, the 'bright and sunny with no cloud cover" has gone for a toss. Gets into his office, puts on his PC, types "possible light showers", posts it, begins to leave.. and then feels, look at the cloud cover, we gonna have a downpour that'll put Cherrapunji to shame.. So the guy logs on again, corrects his forecast to "heavy to very heavy showers". Smile on his face, he looks out of the window, winks to the skies, and leaves. "How smart am I!" he chuckles.. Now, by this time, the rain gods (and allied forces) are all over Indira's court, rolling in laughter.. Few of them are laffing so hard that a few drops of rain fall. (I counted 10 once, and then 4 the next day... The joke must be getting stale)

Forecast or no forecast.. I do hope it starts to rain... On the double. Hey you in the 'Rain Gods and other Celestial Beings Association', the joke on the MET guy is stale.. so can we have some rain please?