Every year, the monsoon test in Delhi arrives like a surprise pop quiz in a college where nobody brought a pen. As soon as the clouds rumble, the city collectively sighs, reaches for an umbrella, and prepares for its annual ritual: swimming through potholes, arguing with auto-wallahs about surge pricing, and guessing the depth of waterlogged roads like participants in a reality show called ‘Guess That Gutter!’
This week’s downpour has once again turned the NCR into a National Canoeing Region. Commuters now calculate travel time based not on traffic jams but on aquatic migration patterns. Office-goers have started commuting by Uber-Dolphin, and those who live at ground level have started Googling “cheap houseboats on Amazon.”
And yet, in true Dilli spirit, no one really panics. We just roll up our jeans, click selfies in knee-deep water, and say things like “Yaar, yeh toh Delhi ka DNA hai.” You’d think after decades of this, the Civil Engineering Department would’ve completed their diploma. But nope—Delhi remains the only place where a 10-minute rain can reveal 70 years of drainage oversight.
Of course, the administration assures us that everything is under control, which is true only if “everything” includes floating manholes, collapsing footpaths, and confused ducks in Connaught Place. You could float a tender to fix it all—except most tenders here usually float for different reasons.
But let’s look on the bright side. The rains do offer certain perks. They help control dust pollution for a full 48 hours, raise everyone’s chai consumption by 300%, and inspire 2 million “Barish Wali Maggi” Instagram stories. Romantic possibilities also surge, given the shared umbrellas and mutual Achilles tendon injuries.
So, what’s the real takeaway here? It’s clearly not the water, which refuses to be taken away by any visible drainage system. It’s this: despite soggy socks, soggier roads, and a cityscape temporarily rebranded as Venice-on-the-Yamuna, Delhiites simply don’t give up. We wade through it all with a laugh, a chai, and occasionally a pair of floaters.
So here’s a suggestion—next year, let’s just cancel umbrellas and invest citywide in inflatable unicorn tubes. It’ll be safer. And Instagrammable.
#DelhiRains #PotholeRegatta #MonsoonMeltdown #UrbanSwimming #ChaiAndSurvival
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