Rainy days (contd.)

A couple of words to the wise… it’s best to understand some of the following things about the rains in Manipal –

1. No umbrella is effective enough, unless it comes equipped with a force field.
2. Wearing heels in the rain is a surefire way to lose both the shoes and an ankle.
3. Raincoats in Manipal have mutated over the years to resemble buffalo hide. If you’re into that sort of thing, get it from back home.
4. Never wear white clothes while going out in the evening. The fact that the transparent, bedraggled look worked wonders on Sri Devi is no guarantee that it’ll work on you. There’s a reason she’s the actress.
5. Even if you’re ten minutes late for class DO NOT run out the door in foam slippers.

The reason for suggestion number 5 is simple. I did.
One morning, as I left Interact on my way to a Physio practical, it began to pour. As expected, the umbrella did little to help. I figured my best bet was to run as fast as possible to the Physio building to avoid getting any wetter, although I was already saturated from head to toe. I suddenly found it difficult to lift my feet off the ground. Looking down, I realised I was wearing foam slippers that were by now completely filled with water and weighed about 20 times the original amount.
Alright, my brilliant and intuitive mind decided. If you can’t lift, slide. I then attempted to slide each foot forward one at a time, and ended up looking like one of those maimed penguins on the Discovery Channel.
After five minutes I was still pretty much where I’d started. Giving way to desperation, I shut off my ‘brilliant and intuitive mind’, took off my foam slippers and ran barefoot the rest of the way to practicals. Crude and effective. I’m told that was the way the West was won.
Of course, once I entered the lab, I expended the last of my energy coming up with an extremely elaborate and highly unlikely reason for not wearing any shoes. Even if I didn’t convince them, I’m sure I managed to confuse them, and no more was said.
For the time being, anyway.