94.1

Can you imagine that there could be such rainfall in one day that would leave trains, buses, people stranded and life in disarray. But it happened. A few days ago I was speaking to my dad and he was of the opinion that there havent been rains in 15 days and the weather was getting really hot for comfort. 15 days later on 26th July 2005, the city of Bombay experiences not rainfall but huge flood causing non-stop rain filling all the low lying areas.
My parents were stranded in their offices. While my dad was enjoying his stay in office ( at Vasai), my mom fought the incessant rains and reached home ( Goregaon- Borivli) in 5 1/2 hours. Her journey included an adventurous walk (read swim) in waist high water and then taking a tonga( horse-ride) from Borivli station to my house. My dad wasnt that lucky though, he kept visiting Vasai station hour after hour but there was no scope of any trains. People from his office started the unavoidable "padyatra" and few of them even travelled the lengths of Vasai Road - Andheri in 10 hours( have to give it to them). My dad was in his office for two days and finally reached home at 5 am this morning.
Was speaking to him on the fone and the popular sentiment was that this is a natural calamity and no drainage system can be good enough to counter 40 inches of rainfall in a day. No planning committee can make arrangements to fight the loss of comunication and paralysis to the backbone of the city's transportation. I think sometime the decision of my parents to buy a house on 3rd floor paid off, otherwise we would be ruing our decisions like one of my friends ( Venkat from office ), whose ground floor flat in Chembur was totally washed out. He told me that it was not the loss of furniture, or his TV set that is disturbing, but all his family albums kept safely in the "divan" (sofa cum bed) and also all small things which mean a lot and money cannot buy them. It is amazing how it is more disappointing to lose something you treasure that is not that expensive, while you bear monetary losses worth 2 lacs.
But the indomitable fighting spirit of Bombay stays on and thats what I love about it.People swimming through 10 feet of water to feed the people who were stuck in trains and buses. Rescue operations totally led by localites in the absence of the fire brigade guys or the police. And the total business mindedness ( read opportunistic mentality) even in the times of disaster ( I say this because the day it rained, a cup of tea cost 15 Rs on VT station. Finally they were out of milk, so tea was made with Energee and that cost 22 bucks .. Wada pav cost anywhere between 15-20 bucks..funny but true).But it is Bombay and it will rise back soon, the ever rising death toll from this incident and the shock it has endured, notwithstanding.