The day started of with a mild drizzle and twitter of birds in d background...People hurrying to office clutching their umbrellas and young kids proudly showing off their new raincoats on their way to school ... For a day in the month of June...nothing seemed unusual and nothing appeared out of place.... “Apparently, the weather gods  are taking some rest after the 26^th July deluge last year”, my cousin told me....With a cup of steaming hot tea in our hands and occasional bites of the new orange flavored Marie...standing in the balcony ,we contemplated whether to go all the way from Bandra to Lower Parel..(Phoenix Mills) for her birthday shopping...Confused souls that both of us were...we FINALLY decided in the affirmative...(And perhaps....somebody up there was smiling at us...!!)

After nearly 90 minutes of our never-ending rituals both of us were all set to venture out in the rains and find our way to our most coveted destination at that point of time....the bus stop...We climbed down the stairs of the building with a lot of excitement in our hearts...( Pssst...It was 1 of those rare occasions when our parents had allowed us to shop alone...)..only to witness a flooded compound waiting to welcome us...We exchanged irritated looks...Wading through the accumulated water which was a haven for all the creepy underwater creatures...was a strict no-no. Nevertheless, within a minute we found both of us  amidst the ‘pond’ with our jeans folded up...trying to carefully dodge our way through the water...Perhaps, we were dominated by the ‘nothing-can-stop-me’ attitude at that moment....

Once we were done with our ‘dodging’ lessons...we walked outside the gate with a sense of triumph! We were next headed to ‘destination: bus-stop’...After the walk for nearly 15 minutes which was equally tricky...more because we had to cautiously avoid the auto-rickshaws from giving us a second ‘bath’....

we arrived at the right bus-stop....And the scene we saw there was the most satisfying one...especially after the trial we had gone through so far...The bus-stop was not at all crowded....which was absolutely a delight to our eyes...We waited patiently for our bus no.80 which was supposed to be our transporter for the journey...Time flew by and as our legs started screaming we realized that we had waited for nearly 45 minutes for the bus...As we were about to change our mind and hail a cab...we saw our ‘heaven’......

Bus no.80 was desperately struggling to make its way through the traffic ahead...Within a matter of few minutes it halted at our bus-stop...Both of us rushed to finally get inside the bus....We did manage to acquire an empty seat only to realize that it had  drenched our jeans....(at all the odd places...   )....However, we endured the long journey and at last reached Phoenix Mills...

“Guess, our suffering has come to an end”, I told my cousin....We walked into the enormous compound of the mall...about to release a sigh of relief.... only to find a huge board hanging on the gate... “WILL OPEN AFTER 2 P.M.....SORRY FOR YOUR INCONVENIENCE”....We immediately peered into our watches...it was just about to strike 1.

Instantaneously, our ‘sigh of relief’ was replaced with a ‘sigh of frustration’....One hour is not too long a time span when your board exam is just about to begin but at this moment it seemed as an eternity outstretched...Anyways, we somehow even managed to cross that barrier....And now finally it struck 2....we waited with bated breath for the guards to open the gates....

As we hurried towards the gate...

I unmistakably heard somebody call my name....

p.s: We somehow managed to demonstrate a brilliant show of ‘patience unlimited’ that day...... When we returned home....jostling our way through every second obstacle... we never even took a second look at what we had bought..... what stole the limelight was the ‘unforgettable’ experience we had...Honestly, we shopped till we DROPPED...