When it rained in "Amchee Mumbai"

The landline connection to my home in Kalyan, 25 miles away from Mumbai, was finally restored on Sunday evening, and I could speak to my parents. Ever since torrential rainfalls and floods crippled Mumbai, I have been following it very keenly over the web. But today was the first time I could get a first hand account of the devastation caused by the downpour.

Though most part of our neighbourhood was safe, some of the tales from neighbouring regions were very depressing. In a particular low lying area, 2 stories of buildings were flooded. There was a whole section of railway line near Kalyan washed away and the guard cabin collapsed unto the rail tracks. I heard accouts of lot of our family friends who were displaced from their houses and seeking shelter in the nearest dry home. In the wake of numerous trees being uprooted, power lines have been disrupted and a lot of people are spending their nights in a moist, candle-lit environment. The school I studied till my high school, has been closed for 2 weeks, and is serving as a temporary asylum for the displaced families. I heard my dad narrate tales of people being rescued on boats and helicopters dropping food packets. There was no respite for people even after the waters receded, as they left huge amounts of mud and garbage in all the previously inundated places. I spent the past few days browsing the heartrending images on the web, but the picture that I got today after calling up home is something which I will take to my bed as I retire in a few minutes time.

In other places in Mumbai, one of my relative had to walk 15 miles from Juhu to Chembur, wading throug waist deep water at a lot of places. Another distant relative of mine walked close to 20 miles to get home. I shudder to think about the plight of all the people who had to walk back hours to get back to their families. I heard tales of people spending a night in the bus, cause the bus was submerged in amost 5 foot of water. There were lot of people who spent almost 2 days inside local trains, cause they had nowhere to go.

When the Tsunami struck the south it was tragic. But since I had never been to most of the places which were largely affected, and I didn't know of a single relative or friend who was harmed by it, my estimation of the tragedy was merely through the numbers run on different news channels....but this time around it surely has been different. But I have faith in the courage of Mumbaikars, and I am sure that with time things will move back to normalcy. Though it might take some time to recover from the destruction left in the aftermath of the deluge, I am sure Mumbai will be bustling sooner than people expect it to.

As I post this blog, it has been raining continuously for past 6 hours in Mumbai and I pray to the rain gods to relent and stop playing with his helpless peace loving creations.

ps: If you happen to read this blog, I would like to make a very passionate appeal to you to donate to this cause in whichever way its possible. One charity organisation that I have closely been involved with in the past and who are already in the process of the flood rehabilitation process is Association for India's Development.