It's been two years to 26th July 2005. The dreaded day Mumbaikar's will never
forget. Everyone of us who's faced the nature's fury on that day will always
have a story to tell. Here's my story, written on 27th July, 2005. Please note
the mail was sent to my friends across the country, so it gets a little more
descriptive about Bombay's geography.
Here it goes -
Hi
It was a normal monsoon day. Left home in a hurry as usual at 8:30am. Got the
bus. Reached Office at the usual time. Everything was just usual. Got to know
that the rains were heavy outside around 12:30pm. And it was very much usual
for a monsoon day until the time, when my colleagues started calling me
outside. "Look, there's waterfall outside the office. And I quickly went out to
see the so called waterfall. The water from the terrace was flowing with full
force from wherever it found an outlet. All the four staircases were like
waterfalls. And then we realized something was wrong.
I had a look outside. The street in front of my office was flooded in no time.
And water was literally flowing like it does through a water-tap. Non-stop. At
around 2:30 3pm, Reliance Energy switched off the power supply, and our MD
told us to leave. We were thinking how to go
take a rick, a cab, a sumo or to
take the very good BEST bus back home. Went out. And the water was everywhere.
We could see all the BPO guys, the call centre employees wading their way
through knee deep and at places through waist deep water. Most of the offices
in Malad, a western suburb of Mumbai where my office is located emptied by
3-4pm.
Everyone was on the streets enjoying the occasional heavy rainfall. We started
walking towards the main road hoping to find our mode of transport. And when we
reached there we realized that this is not the occasional heavy rainfall. Half
of the rickshaws were stranded. None of them was working. The whole world was
on the streets. Trying to find a way to get back home. Buses were packed. The
rickshaws that were plying were full. No cabs around. We started walking. Saw a
bus but that was just too packed. Waited for almost 20 minutes at the junction
in vain. We were 8 of us. Decided to walk down to the western express highway
(WEH). Kept on walking. The phone lines were jammed. Hutch should change its
punch line to 'wherever you go our network jams'. Forget cell phones, even
landlines were not getting connected.
As we walked for 15 more minutes, we found the bus that we could not catch,
stuck in a traffic jam. The water was knee deep and forceful. We decided not to
get in the bus and kept on walking. The whole of SV road was flooded. One side
was jammed and on the other side of the divider one could see the whole junta
walking. We understood that walking was the fastest way to reach home.
Meanwhile 5 of us went through other way and the rest three of us took on
another way. After walking for almost 5 km and taking around 1 ½ hrs we found a
bus where we got a place to sit! And that was really something amusing. A bus
going to central suburbs, in the middle of a traffic jam, empty! Now that was
something called pure luck. After almost half an hour the bus came out of the
traffic jam, onto the WEH. Surprisingly it was free and we never expected that.
And then the bus got packed at Dindoshi depot. Just before the Aarey Milk
Colony (AMC), the traffic jam started. And then it took us
almost half an hour to reach the gates. The roads inside AMC were empty (now
for those who
don't know the geography of Mumbai, AMC is a green belt full of grasslands and
one can call it semiforest with a two lane road cutting through the hilly
(rather 'hillocky') terrain. ) and soon after we realized the forces of nature.
Two cars and two rickshaws washed away in the grasslands with the water flow.
The bus moved on. And then it stopped. Hundreds of people were coming from the
other side walking.
People were saying there's waist deep water, and the bus wouldn't go. But the
driver had the guts to get it ahead. And then we saw scraping its way through
tarred road. And then came the real horror. I remembered rapids in the Ganges
at Rishikesh. One could have rafted his way through Mumbai! Wish I had a raft.
He he. The water had swallowed four bikes already, and the only vehicles that
could cross the mighty flow were trucks and buses.
With all the courage, the driver took the bus to the other side of the 60m
terror. Went down the Aarey Road ahead again to get jammed. And this time, the
water was real deep ahead. And no one was allowed to go. Now we couldn't get
ahead, neither could we go back. Stranded at such a location, where one
couldn't do anything but wait. Grabbed some dhoklas and chocolates and waited
for the rains to ease. We talked to a few people around, some security guards
and heard more stories of devastation. One guy had seen 2 people drown. After a
while, the rains had eased. The water receded quickly. Still it was more than
knee deep. Went to the other side of the subway, and saw a new river flowing
through Powai garden taking the excess water of Powai Lake.
There was no way one could cross the waters. But the bigger vehicles decided to
take a shot at it, and we climbed another bus. The driver started the bus with
full power and the bus plunged into the trough.
The water was so high that it made it to the bus floor. And then came a thud!
One of the front tyres had crossed the divider and the bus came to an immediate
halt. The tyres were completely submerged in water, but we guys were almost out
of the deep waters. We could walk up to L&T junction and look for another
vehicle. It was 10:30pm. And we got down from the bus, and started walking. And
then
We did not take into account the force of the water. Waist deep water running
at high speed
The three of us held each other and waded our way through the
strong current. Legs paining like anything. To make the matters worse, the two
colleagues were shorties, and did not know how to swim. I was the only one who
could swim just enough to save my life. But in this water!!! But we had to
reach the other side. And we did. Then we waited for a vehicle, but there were
hardly any on the roads. Most of the vehicles were stuck in traffic jams
elsewhere. Everyone was walking down. And we also started walking from L&T to
Gandhi Nagar almost a 5-6 km walk. Luckily we got a bus, and got down at
Mulund. The whole stretch between Gandhi Nagar (approx 9 km) and still further
ahead except a few hundred metres was flooded with gusty water from the hills.
And then walked down to home through speedy water.
I reached home at 12:45 am. It took me 9hrs and 15 minutes to reach home for
the distance which takes 1hr 30mins!!!
At least I reached home on the same day (night). I traveled through the least
affected areas of suburban Bombay. There were many stranded at various places.
Some stranded midway. My mama, got stuck in a traffic jam at Jogeshwari at
3:30pm yesterday and reached home barely 8 km away in Malad at 4:30am today!
That too he had to park his car 1km away from his home as the whole area was
under water.
A friend of my sister got stuck in a double decker bus on the upper floor when
the water rushed inside the lower floor at Kurla. Imagine, yourself islanded
with 70 others in a double decker where no one can reach you or help you except
if one comes by a boat. She got back home today at 4pm. A friend of mine used
ropes to float and cross the same waters in Kurla. He's a 6 footer. He saw a
few bodies floating around. Several hundred people had lost their lives.
Several thousads of crores were lost in the deluge. Mumbai took almost a week
to get back on its feet.
But in spite of all these one finds humanity. There were people easing out the
traffic jams. They were lifting the stranded abandoned vehicles and putting
them to the sides so that the bigger vehicles can move. A family friend's
daughter was helping people at Kurla. She was one of the people who tied the
ropes at Kurla so that the people could cross the water. One could find people
giving anything they could to the pedestrians, the passengers in the bus.
Water, khichdi, tea, and any damn thing they could.
It rained almost a meter here. A record that just has been set. It was a day,
full of fun, excitement, and horror. And yes, it wasn't a normal day. One may
not think that it was a great deal to cross those waters. Even I didn't think
when I did. But when I reached home, I thought, that was crazy.
Lucky to be alive.
Sushil
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