A Day on the Pale Blue Dot - 22

Sunday, 21st May 2023

Ice from the Sky!

Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, we had a family friend stay with us for a night. Today we had to drop her back to her cousin's place, and we were invited for lunch there too. We planned to start at 11:30 am. And, obviously, we left after noon! The Sun was shining bright, and the temperature pretty hot for Bangalore.

We reached the cousin's place just after 1:30 pm, right in time for lunch! We had our lunch, the weather outside still bright and sunny. After we finished our lunch, the ambience outside turns dark and winds pick up speed. We could hear the loud wind! From here we had to go to another relative's house, some 11 km away. We started at around 3:30 pm, the wind gaining strength and blowing dust up into the air. Soon after it started raining - very heavily! The visibility reduced to a point that it was impossible to determine that we were in Bangalore city! We could not see any more tall buildings. The roads barely visible, we navigated using Google Maps - like playing a game! Then we heard an unusual sound as though our car was hit.

Wife: "What was that?"

Me: I was thinking if some other car hit us. That couldn't be it - we did not feel any jerk of something hitting us.

Again, we heard the sound - the frequency increasing.

Wife: "What is that?"

Me: I think it is ice!

And so it was! Ice from the sky! A hailstorm!

As fascinating it may sound, it was scary - the ice pounding on the car - we were worried if our windshield or any other glass would shatter. We kept driving until we reached our relative's house. And finally, luckily, we made it to the house. One hell of an experience it was.

We realized how bad it was when my mother called me later in the evening. It was then that I came to know a lady passed away drowning in the flash floods ensued by the rain. And later while scrolling through Instagram, I came across a picture of a person filling his glass of whiskey with ice from the sky!

One event - some people relaxed and chilled with a glass of whiskey, while for some others tragedy struck.

Life!