To be stuck without an exit is scary. Especially for those of us who are so committed to controlling our lives, the loss of control of what lies ahead adds to the feeling of being helpless. That’s what happened in the face of nature’s relentless outpouring of water from the skies in end-November. I was stuck in Puducherry, which was relatively less affected than Chennai but was cut off for a while with some key roads and bridges washed away. As I managed to get a taxi to reach Bengaluru, I tried booking a flight out of the city to New Delhi. I must have left it a little late, for by mid-day there were no tickets left for the next day, or those that were available, cost 10 times the normal fare between the two cities. News reports said the same thing—some airlines were price gouging in the face of huge demand on connecting flights out of cities that could be reached by road from Chennai.