Mumbai Under Water...

One more black day that I experienced in Mumbai after riots and bomb blast series.

Tuesday[26th July 05] I had my lunch and laid down lazily enjoying rain outside. I had to go out for the preparation of for my sister’s birthday celebration on next day. Her birthday was on Monday but we all had arranged a get-together on Wednesday.

It was raining heavily, I was wet and was enjoying. I got into an auto, was observing people outside. The auto had a good music system and the driver had good taste for music. There was a traffic jam on road but I was not much bothered about it as I was enjoying my travel, music and rain outside.

I was a bit surprised to see the water logging on the roads in no time and abusing the municipal corporation for not cleaning the drainage system. I entered the area called Vile Parle in Mumbai where water logs every now n then in rainy season. After certain distance the driver was scared to take his auto further and I got down. The water lever was knee level and all the people were walking slowly through the middle of the road. Mainly the public was school children and their moms who were taking them home. This is not a new scene to this area. Heavy rain fall of just an hour had caused such a problem was the only surprise to me. The water had a force, it was too much windy and the sky was pouring water on the earth. It took me almost 1.5 hour or so to reach to my area through this water thinking of manholes and gutters(;). Thank god these were the roads where I used to do tp during my college days. So, knew each n every spot, danger zone very well. I chose long route to avoid water. And I was shocked to see knee level water on the main road near to my home where I had not ever seen water raising higher than my ankle. I crossed that but I didn’t know then it was a just beginning. Way to my society had turned in a pond and I dared to enter into it. The water level was increasing by 4 inches at my every step. By the time I reached the gate of the building it was shoulder level water and I was almost floating in it. It was absolutely dirty gutter water. This water had entered into our building even on the staircase and I was stunned to see that. The bonnets of the cars were inside the water and we were inhaling petrol.

There was no power, mobile telephone network was down except Reliance. Most of the landline phones were down. Everyone was trying to contact other to confirm safety of each other and the news started flowing from one end to other. We tried to All India Radio for news since no TV. Felt so cut off from the rest of the world. It was raining heavily with lightning and thunder. There was high tide in sea, the waves were of 3 to 4 meters in height. The sea water had entered into the system through drainage system and thus Mumbai was under water.

Guys take a break… real story is ahead

Around 3:30pm we ask my sister to leave from her office. Her office is on the central line (Mumbai has 3 railway lines(routes) western, central and harbor) where the railway stops working even for not so heavy rain fall. She starts at 4:00pm from her office to Ghatkopar station. Around 6:00 – 6:30pm she calls up and says the scene out there is very bad, water is being poured like a waterfall on this side from the hill neighboring Powai lake. She has sat in a bus to Santacruz and there are no signs that when can bus move ahead. She says she will call when the bus starts. We get a call at 7:00pm – 7:30pm we get a call she has walked down till Kurla Kamani through around waste level water and got into some bus because they don’t have way to go ahead. This bus goes in the opposite direction of our place. Poor girl, not much familiar to this area gets to know from us. She says I got into this just because there is water everywhere and no way to go ahead, there is some place in this bus to seat n others are overflowing. She says traffic is not moving because the water level 15 meters ahead from the bus is more than 8 feet. She says she will call up when bus starts. Thus we get aware of how the serious the situation is outside. We decide to call her up after an hour or so. We also have to think about the battery charge in her mobile. Thank god our landline was not down.
Now we don’t know what to pray whether bus should move ahead so that she can reach early or bus should not move till morning so that she does not have to get down and travel through water to change the bus at night. Water at my place has almost raised to first floor. I talk to her around 12am, she says the bus hasn’t yet moved. We warn her not to get down till morning. I decide to sleep for 2 hours and mom is awake. I get up at 2:00am and mom says she is unreachable since 1:30am. There is a charge in my cell but can figure out Reliance network going down with the message ‘Entering Area Leaving Area’. That is the end of our communication. Rain is still pouring outside. Don’t know when do I sleep.
I wake up in the morning and happy to see no water in my society campus. I sleep again in a relaxed mood thinking rain has almost stopped, water has been drained away, it’s a day time n my young little sister should be back home max by noon.
We all are waiting for her. At every house people are reaching home at odd times, 11pm, 4am. Everyone has a story to tell, experiences to share. Its 11am and by this time all the people are either returned home or have stayed back to their offices. This is the only lady about whom we have no clue where is she, has her bus moved, whether she has changed the bus, whether she has got down and walking on the road, is there water in that area. And now I lose my patience and ask mom to go to the area where she has stuck last night. We decide to go to police station hoping we will get some information. Police write down our complaint and I find it mere waste of time.
My cousin comes from Goregaon, I jump with joy to see him, I ask him shall we go and he replies lets go.

And here starts third and final episode of the story…

Myself and my brother start, we have no clue whether she is still at Kurla Kamani or she has left the place. The only information we have she was there in the bus at 12 last night. We decide to go to the same place and then think further. We reach on the western express high way and see many people are still walking on the road to return home, very few vehicles on the road. We see buses stopped in the middle of the road, not in working condition. One can see cars, buses, bikes anywhere on the road, they are not parked, their owners have left them there because they are out of order. We see one bus in which seats are upside down, one on other and we cant even imagine what might have happened. At last we get into one auto to go to the place Kurla Kamani. Both of us looking out for our sister in a crowd walking on the road. The scene was tragic everywhere, people are trying to remove water from their houses, someone is busy in repairing his bike, most of the buses and autos were standing because engine is not working. We reach near to the destination and auto driver is not ready to come further. We thank him and walk further and our guess work starts here onwards.
We see many empty busses are standing one behind the other (I thought this is bus depot). This is the spot where her bus might have stuck. We try to look for bus number 10 just to be sure we are on right track but the numbers on the plate are wiped off. We decide to move in Kurla direction where most of the crowd is moving thinking she might have followed the crowd. We see many people coming back saying water level is more than chest level and we can not walk through. That’s a confusion for us now, same number of people going to and fro on this road, whether we should go ahead or come back. We are already in almost waste level water.
We see the recovery van carrying casualties. Volunteers (these are common people like you and me) standing on the divider of the road and guiding people to walk through the water. They are allowing people to walk only at a distance of 3-4 feet on both the side of the divider. On one side of the road people are walking towards Kurla and on other side of the divider people are coming from Kurla. People from neighboring buildings are distributing biscuits, tea, khichdi to these people who are without water and food since last noon.
We decide to come back thinking she might not have gone by this way since water level at 2pm was about chest level so it has to be more in morning. We return back to where all the buses were standing. We go to one police chowki in a hope of some information but we find our self at better situation than them. We get to know they have got some casualties and my brother enquires more about them.
We decide to come back home and wait for her.
At 4:00pm she knocks the door and we all scream with joy.

Mumbai has lost a lot and almost everyone has a story like this to share. We are among few lucky ones and I thank God for it.
May God bless all.