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Slippery when wet!

A mere 48 hours before jumping on to my Swiss International Airlines A330-200 to Zurich, I was in Bangalore for an event, on the way to which I got soaked. The rain didn't let up for seven hours. There was just time to get back to stormy Delhi to pack for my Swiss adventure. Luckily the windows at home were firmly bolted so that the howling winds didn't usher in driving rain.

I took off the next afternoon from a drizzle-drenched Delhi airport and landed in Mumbai. Overcast. And raining. Hard. Somehow we took off on time from a saturated runway and landed 8 hours and 52 minutes later at Zurich international airport. I could hardly see the terminal, it was raining so hard. I then managed to make it to the train station and got my 8:04 service to Basel's Hauptbahnhoff Station. 

The policeman at the station advised against taking the tram to my hotel as it was still coming down steadily. So taxi it was. I got in to a black Mercedes Benz driven by a voluminous Germanic lady called Enga.

She tossed my oversized bright orange suitcase into the boot as if she was dealing a deck of cards and barked "Vare too?" I showed her the name of our hotel in the Birsfelden suburb, she nodded curtly and sped off.

As she recklessly careened through the winding tram lined streets of Basel, I felt like a character in a John Le Carre spy novel set behind the erstwhile iron curtain. Even more so when she handed me the receipt for the cab ride with her other hand - a metal hand!!!! 

Back to the rain (trust me its not going anywhere mate). The gloom and the drizzle persisted throughout the day. And the next day, as EURO 2008 kicked off at St Jakob's Park, the gloom was even more apparent after the home side went down 0-1 to the Czechs. That night, in the rain, we drove down the motorway to Zurich. No change in the morning. 

Finally, 78 hours and 15 minutes after touching down in Switzerland, the sun peeped through the clouds for the first time, more out of boredom than anything else. How long it will last is anybody's guess, but by the time I get to put finger to keyboard next time hopefully I can be the bearer of happier weather tidings!

Who says global warming exists (certainly not within Swiss borders!). Global wetting? Yup. For sure.

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