The Unexpected Outing

It was a rainy day. The weather seemed to worsen further as the day would progress. But still, the streets were full of people going in search of work, the office goers speeding up their bikes to reach their offices in time, the school & college students heading for their institutions and the business people moving fast to start their daily business. It was a regular business for most people except the weather God who wanted to go in the reverse direction as his demand for leave was summarily rejected by the people, always striving to earn an extra slice of bread for them or for their family.

It was the middle of the autumn season after the end of a strong rainy season. Normally the weather remains clear and the sun shines brightly throughout the day. But that day it was an aberration as the sky remained shrouded with dark clouds since the dawn. Intermittent light showers also made the conditions more unfavourable for everyone.
Mr Rakesh, his wife Ranjeeta and daughter Rakhi had planned to go on a picnic to the nearby botanical garden. As per their plans, they started at 9 o'clock in the morning in their car. They had to negotiate the heavy traffic until they went past the city area. After crossing this hurdle when they came to a vacant road the rain started pouring making their progress slower. Rakesh drove with the utmost caution on that slippery road and despite all his attentiveness & careful manoeuvring, the vehicle went off the road once or twice. He was surprised in the manner the car skidded since he had never experienced such even in heavier rains. But they moved on.

He loved his daughter more than his life. And he had promised his daughter for an outing on that day. Hence despite the inclement weather and this unusual skidding of the vehicle he kept on moving.

As the day progressed and they moved closer to their destination it started pouring. It was early afternoon when the rainwater started flowing on the road making the road ahead obscured. Rakesh slowed his speed in order to have a clear vision and control the car better. But it was becoming increasingly difficult to navigate.

Then the unexpected happened. While they were going down the hill from a high rising reef their vehicle lost its balance and grip on the road and slid across to the right to fall into a deep groove almost 15 metres down. The car took several turns in the air before landing in a big rock which was protruding like a big oval-shaped shield. Luckily the car landed on its wheels and then slowly dashed on the loose soil holding on the rock. All the glasses and windshield of the car broke into pieces and rocks and mud came with great force and covered the inside of the car. There was a constant scream of the little girl coming from the ill-fated car. There was no other noise coming from the car or outside except the clattering sound of the rain on the roof of the car. After a few minutes, everything became quiet except the sound coming from the water rushing in from all sides and falling into the groove.

One hour later a fully damaged car was seen floating in the rainwater and being pushed towards the low lying areas slowly but gradually.