Rain, rain go away

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A few years ago, I remember being stranded in office during the height of the Mumbai monsoons.

Reading this account, I was transported to that day. There were about 12 of us. We had a small office at Fort. This was before we shifted to our larger office in Mahim.

We started playing dumb charades at about 7 in the evening to keep ourselves entertained. When we heard that the trains had stopped, most of us gave up any attempt to try and get out of office. Some braved the odds and took taxis from Fort to their far off homes. Though it turned out to be a really expensive proposition, since most of them had to shell out heaps of money. In fact, finding cabs under the circumstances were also next to impossible. The best thing, as we discovered, is to stay put wherever you are. And that’s exactly what we did.

It turned out to be a memorable night. Ordered fish curry rice from a restaurant nearby. All of us sat around the food and finished it in no time. Resumed playing DC and this went on till the wee hours of the morning. One by one, folks went off to find comfortable places : on top of the desks, joining chairs : doing the best they could. Unfortunately, the place was cramped and not suitable for overnight stay, so some of decided not to go to sleep at all. Playing DC till early morning can be a tiring experience. One also runs out of movie names. I think, by morning, we were even beginning to make up several of the names.

I remember this being a fun experience, because the next day we were back in the relative comfort of our homes. The rains subsided and things were back to normal. Not so this time around. It’s much more serious. People spending more than 2 days in the office. Stranded for hours on end in stations, bus stops, roads. Not being able to get through to their loved ones. Carcasses of animals. Debris everywhere. Cars abandoned. Phones not working. Offices shut.

Talking to friends in the city and reading some accounts, I can only imagine how bad things are. The other day, dad said over the phone that he is glad that I am now in Bangalore because they would have been so worried. They have already had their share of worries about sis when the UK bomb blasts happened.

I do hope that the battering stops soon. I think the city can only take so much. I know everyone is talking about all the brave stories that have emerged out of the disaster, but I think this is one more disaster that Mumbai can do without. Personally, I am glad I left when I did but I have to admire the resilience of the city.

On the other hand, Bangalore has hardly received any rains. While it threatens to rain all the time : overcast skies and heavy winds. There’s a small shower and that’s all. Possibly, this is all we’ll get this time around.

In a way, it’s probably for the better since we all know what happens to Bangalore when it rains! In fact, if Bangalore was battered the Mumbai has been, this city would probably not survive at all! I shudder to think what would happen. Someone commented that these kind of rains would never happen in Bangalore. But then was anyone in Mumbai expecting the kind of rains it received? Not even the Met department apparently…

India & Around Living

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Comments (15)

  1. Hi!

    Hats off to the ‘Mumbai Spirit’. its still struggling bravely against all odds on its own… the administration/govt is missing from the scene as usual.

    Reply

  2. I even remembered the rain when I was in Mumbai, trains were not running and I had to walk all the way from Andheri to Mahim. But this time the rain seems to have no mercy.

    Reply

  3. Does our MET Dept function actually?
    I wonder what these guys do under the name of research. First they were not able to predict Tsunami. Then now the monsoon.
    Grrrrr….
    Its fooolishness to depend on MET.

    And yes, it was adventure for most of my friends too. Monsoon in mumbai is getting worse everyday.

    Anyway…greeetz!!
    Came via Orkut.

    Reply

  4. Same here, something like this disrupted our office work at Delhi (blogged abt it then too)..but then of course, we all just enjoyed, matters werent serious..

    Ever tried playing DumbC with various variations..for eg. words, sentences, phrases, idioms.. its a whole new crazy experience :). For some reason, whenever friends get together and they have to pass time, things always come down to Truth or dare (or kiss – another version :p )

    Reply

  5. Met dept sucks. so does disaster management is mumbai. Its pathetic, believe me experienced it during the last week. The city’s attitude and spirit rules.

    Reply

  6. It really was pretty sad though that a rumor could kill people in hundreds (talking abt the rumor that someone thought it was a tsunami!). Every year some kind of calamity seems to be striking…is it the changing global weather pattern?

    Reply

  9. We are glad that you are in Bangalore too… Called Miku and Prabal.. you must know that Prabal had to swim back home… poor guys..

    And take care..

    We are going home honey.. if you need anything from there call us ..

    Reply

  10. well my office is just off cunnigham road , 10 days back there was an hour of rain and it was a royal mess and it took me 3hrs to get to indranagar a 20 min drive at best .. shudder to think wat wud happen if it pours here like it did in mumbai

    Nice pics by the way …

    cheers
    karthik

    Came thru amits page if u wondering

    Reply

  11. I have heard that Bangalore had many other issues as well of the infra … did you not?

    did you read the Ind Exp interview of Dharam Singh? He was adamant that there are no infra issues at all. What is your take?

    BTW -Do you care to follow the Rabbit Hole ?

    Reply

  13. hello!
    wanna hear my story….my institute being in dadar,i had to walk down for over 9 hours to my accomodation in malad…wading through chest level water!
    and to make matters worst i saw a submerger audi roadster abandoned on the roadside!
    repent sinners…..armageddon is coming!

    Reply

  14. Heh, rains were not really that bad compared to what i’ve seen in my hometown, what was awful was the drianage. Coming from Orissa, I’ve always known this was something that was supposed to happen – and happen it did. Atleast, things are limping back to normal – and no, they are not normal yet in Mumbai and suburbs, as the local adminstration would have you believe.

    MET department and predictons – heh. Well, the DoE has always tried to drum up the fact that they built a huge PARAM computer that rivalled the best in the world. We dont really need a “best in the world” for weather simulations, but crunching data on a grid that is somewhat like PARAM would be great.

    And nice to see your blog powered by WordPress 🙂

    Reply

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