Monsoon meanderings

It is with glee that I observe huge fat raindrops outside my window. Rains played truant last year, but this year, they are back with a bang! In the first one and a quarter months of the rainy season (monsoon), it has already rained half of the season's annual rainfall in Mumbai. And, during the last week, the rains have continued to lash Mumbai, albeit not with the same fury as in previous years. Today, as I write this, we experienced about 15-20 minutes of really heavy rains, and they slowed down thereafter, but not before driving pedestrians off the roads and creating deep puddles at many places.


One of the main problems I face is that it always seems to rain as soon as I leave home and go on my 2-wheeler towards my clinic. It is uncanny, but the coincidence seems to occur a bit too often for my comfort. It - the rain, I mean - makes it impossible for me to remove my cell phone when it rings, and my patients are left wondering why I won't pick up the phone. How can I?  Someone suggested that I should use a bluetooth device, but even they get spoilt in the rains, and last year, I lost one such device while driving in the rains. So, no devices for me, thank you.


The way the rains fall in Mumbai, it causes a lot of sickness, and the rainy season is one of the best for medical practice. Almost all the hospitals are full, and I have had a tough time locating beds for my patients who need hospitalisation. A few days back, I called up four of the six hospitals that I visit, and got a negative answer from all of them, so I had to admit the patient in some smaller nursing homes. A heavy practice means poor sleep, mental tension, and a lot of other unrelated trouble, like not finding time to visit my parents, not remembering to get the urgent rations that the house needs, late arrival at home for the night, and so on. At the same time, it also means a lot more money flowing into the house, and saving for a non-rainy day when the practice can literally plummet (Talk about mixed metaphors, LOL :-))