India, Aug. 17 -- The tricity's monsoon season has once again turned the morning commute into an obstacle course - but this year, it's not just potholes slowing things down. Stretches that were smooth in May now resemble a patchwork quilt stitched by someone with a grudge-sudden craters, rain-slick panels , and knee-deep puddles blurring the line between road and drain. Scooters weave, buses brake, pedestrians dodge - a morning ballet choreographed not by traffic lights but by whatever shape the monsoon decided the road should take today. While potholes remain the most visible villain, the real story is a combination of poor drainage, uneven resurfacing and water logging that lingers for days. The rains expose every weakness in our urban design, from shallow curbs to mismatched repair work, turning small maintenance gaps into full-blown hazards. Potholes form when rainwater seeps into cracks, weakening the base layers. The constant weight of traffic does the rest, loosening the material until a shallow dip becomes a deep cavity. Monsoon accelerates this decay-blocked drains and clogged inlets keep water standing over weak spots, giving every passing wheel more power to tear the road apart. Sector-specific complaints follow a pattern: arterial roads like Madhya Marg and Himalaya Marg take the brunt of heavy traffic and slow drainage, while inner-sector streets flood quickly and are left to wait for repairs until complaints pile up. Water logging at roundabouts forces vehicles into awkward detours, creating new stress points where the surface eventually gives way. These aren't random mishaps - they're the predictable results of treating drainage and road maintenance as separate conversations. Bad monsoon roads don't just slow down traffic; they slow down the rhythm of the city. A 15-minute commute turns into 40 when buses crawl around puddles, delivery trucks reroute to avoid submerged lanes, and two-wheelers stall mid-crossing, riders watching the water as if it might make the first move. The costs are tangible-reduced vehicle life, higher fuel consumption, increased accident risks - and intangible: the steady erosion of trust in civic systems. When the same junction floods every July or the same pothole is patched multiple times in a season, it signals that a city is reacting rather than preparing. Civic management begins to feel less like a guardian of public space and more like a firefighter who shows up with a bucket after the house has burned down. Elsewhere, the difference is clear. Bengaluru's pre-monsoon pump deployment in flood-prone zones and Nashik's clearing of 200+ waterlogging hotspots before the rains meant mobility largely continued uninterrupted. The success lay in treating road health as a year-round responsibility, not a seasonal scramble. Monsoon road health is a test of coordination between engineering, governance, and citizen engagement. A more systematic approach could turn annual disruptions into opportunities for lasting upswing: Pre-monsoon road & drainage audits: Repair vulnerable stretches and clear drains before the first downpour. Integrated works: Treat resurfacing and drainage upgrades as one project. Smart reporting tools: Grievance apps with geo-tagging, photos, and repair timelines for both roads and drains. Accountability contracts: Link contractor payments to durability across at least two monsoon cycles. Community oversight: Resident groups tracking repairs and keeping the process transparent. Such measures require planning, political will, steady budgets-and a shift from seeing maintenance as someone else's problem to a shared duty. The geometry of delay in the monsoon is rarely about the depth of a pothole or the size of a puddle. It's about the widening gap between planning and execution, between patchwork fixes and durable solutions. Closing that gap is how we replace sudden swerves with steady motion-a geometry that keeps the city moving, even under heaviest rains....