A city enveloped

The sky was overcast and a gentle wind greeted us as we stepped out to buy a mango shake.

‘It won’t rain, ma’am. These clouds do not bear water,’ the office boy said.

We were going to return within 10 minutes. But I took my umbrella, to be safe.

As we soon found out, it wasn’t the umbrella we needed, but goggles.

On our way back, the wind grew stronger, kicking up dust all around us. I covered my glass of mango shake with a lid the juice vendor gave.

We couldn’t see much around us. Partly because the air was saturated, but mostly because we could barely keep our own eyes open.

With the dust coming straight at us, we tried to shield ourselves with our palms and narrowed our eyes as much as we could.

Only a short distance to go, we walked as fast as we could with our eyes closed and turned into the street in front of the office building. The dust storm ended a little while later, with a light drizzle cleaning the air.

That evening, we headed home covered by a fine layer of dust from head to toe. The evening sky though, was a treat for our dust-laden sore eyes.

We later found out that the wind speed was around 80 kmph. Tree branches had fallen all over the city. A streetlight had fallen on a metro power line, crippling the public transport system.

More fascinating images here: Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge: Enveloped