It was one of those days in Bengaluru when I had driven to office on my scooter. During the return back to home I was stuck in one of the many traffic jams aOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAround the Mahadevapura signal on the outer ring road. And as luck would have had it, I was in the middle of the service road flanked on all sides by vehicles and no place to go. With 90 seconds to go for the signal to turn green, the clouds opened up. Completely drenched there was no point in trying to find a shelter and I decided to drive through to home in the rain. It was an experience after a long time and I was beginning to enjoy the same until the scooter bumped through the first pot hole filled with water (which usually happens sooner than later in Bangalore). Luckily I was in control and from then on the ride became a risky adventure by itself, trying to avoid the pot holes, the water pools and all the chaos that rains can create in Bengaluru. It was an experience that was exciting and dangerous. An experience that took me back to the 90s, the days of the flying bus – the red and yellow KSRTC buses of Kerala transport corporation , flying through the winding roads of Malabar.

The monsoon was active at that time and it was raining continuously – a steady and slow rain that brings out the romantic side of your character, when anything you experience is beautiful. The monsoon has that power and it needs to be experienced to be understood. I had taken the bus from Pattambi to Palakkad in Kerala. The KSRTC (Kerala State Road Transport Corporation) buses those days had very limited stops and this usually meant very few passengers. The seats were more like a bench with a hard cushion on top that was covered with rexin material. I had an entire bench to myself. The windows were covered with a khaki coloured thick curtain and this ran through the entire length of the bus. It was one of last few buses those days as most of the buses had been upgraded to shutter windows. The KSRTC buses usually preferred the TATA engines over Leyland and these engines were churning over enormous power. The drivers enjoyed every bit of power that was being pumped out and had just one objective – to reach Palakkad in the shortest time.

With the right leg alternating between accelerator and brake it was clear that the accelerator was winning over the brake. The end result was a over speeding bus, winding across the road of Malabar on a rainy day. The passengers were literally flying and I was being thrown all over the bench. The window curtain had snapped from the hooks holding them and were vigorously beating against the side of the bus letting the rains in. As a result the entire bench was soon covered with water drops all over and in no time I found myself covered with rain all around. But as I mentioned, the monsoon has a charm and I enjoyed every bit of it – an experience that was dangerous and exciting. It was truly a roller coaster ride on the flying bus.