Saturday afternoon at 3:00 PM Air Sahara flight S2-307 landed at the tiny HAL Airport in Bangalore. I had finally returned to J P Nagar after a refreshing stay at home. Little then did I know of the demons that waited to greet me at my corner of this foreign field.
I reached home to find it humming with activity. Hangal was away on a team outing, so Pankaj and Manoj was joined by Sanju, Mittal and Bhalu (for reasons I deem not fit to be discussed here). The day passed by without much happening. Hangal returned from his trip and Ayan and Debajyoti came in between to get some of their stuff I had brought from Calcutta. At night we had a treat of 'macher jhol' I had got from home. Mittal had fish for the first time and was apprehensive of the bones (I don't know what else to call them). Bhalu did not join us. He as usual is going through a phase of uncertainty, turning out to be a vegetarian this time.
Next morning was not much different from any other weekend since we have had been in Bangalore. I was the first to wake up and keeping to my new found zeal in nurturing healthy habits had a filling breakfast of eight slices of bread-jam !! But I never thought that it was not going to be enough for my appetite. After all I had been warned that I might lose appetite since I was on a course of metrogyl. Ergo, I joined Hangal, Mittal and Bhalu for an additional helping of a couple of idlis. Meanwhile our Tata Indicom connection hung up on us yet again forcing us to decide to dump it once and for all.
In cue with my increased appetite I had a large helping of rice and dal with a little onion and tomato salad for lunch. The others had their lunch a little later while I watched the suddenly gutless Team India let the first test against England whine away to a pale draw, albeit there was a late surge by Pathan and Tendulkar.
After the match Mittal and co. left for Tippsandra (when they finally received permission to return !) and I went for dinner with Pankaj. We went to sleep around twelve and then the nightmare struck.
It was 3:30 AM when Hangal woke me up. I felt I was floating on a raft in the middle of a very calm sea. It had rained heavily in the night and our wash basin had overflowed submerging our apartment. To make matters worse there was no water in the toilets. Somehow we managed to sleep out the rest of the night but the water was still there in the morning, in the rooms that is but still not in the toilet. Hangal, Pankaj and myself all decided to take leave on the day and do something about the situation. As I finish this post, we are awaiting the arrival of a plumber and preparing to clean up the mess in the rooms.
But one thing is certain, we are leaving this hell. And its going to be sooner than later.
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