When the Going Gets Tough...

Gosh! When I was cursing my luck at being surrounded by knee high water on 26th July, little did I know that this was no ordinary Bombay shower and also how lucky I really was! I felt the full impact the next day when Grans was sick with worry because she couldn’t reach my brother. All the cellular networks were down.
When I switched on the radio (which I do as soon as I wake up) the RJs were relaying messages from mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, uncles, nephews, friends, colleagues, all desperately searching for their near and dear ones. Most of the messages had the same timbre, “Where are you? Please call as soon as possible.”
When I switched on the TV to watch the news, the same messages were running on the ticker tapes.
All these messages sent a chill down my spine.
My mother also called from Hyderabad, asking if my brother, D, had got in touch.
At last he did call at about 4:30-5:00, and all of us heaved a sigh of relief.
But I was still worried about a friend of mine, N, who is also from Hyderabad. She had to go to Andheri that day for her internship, and the news that the Andheri-Bandra areas were flooded kept on being repeated on the radio. I couldn’t even get through to her because of the cellular networks being down.
Today she called me and told me that she had almost drowned, as the water where she was had come up to her neck! Some good Samaritans had fished her out and even escorted her all the way to her local guardians’ place in Juhu.
The ground floor of another friend’s bungalow was covered in shoulder high water. She sounded sad, but at the same time optimistic that they would try and salvage whatever they could.
D came back home in the evening today. He works in Malad, another area that was completely flooded. He and some friends of his half-waded half-swam to his friend’s place in Malad, itself. It usually takes them about 20 minutes to get there, but this time it took them nearly 2 hours because the water was chest high. He had some horrendous experiences too. He saw buffaloes helplessly being carried away by the strong currents.
He narrated another story in which, he and another friend had gone to drop a third friend to his house, and had asked the fourth friend, C, to stay below his building. On their way back they got a bit disoriented and entered the wrong building compound, and began shouting for C. In reply someone kept on yelling, “Yes!” They were like, “C, is that you?” And the voice just kept on yelling back, “Yes!” They figured that it was some prankster, and realizing that they were in the wrong compound, set out for the right one, where they found C standing where they had left him. Later they found out that the voice yelling out “Yes” was a genuine call for help. It belonged to an elderly man who was trapped in the rushing water. D was quite upset that the voice was so nearby and they could have helped the man. But he and his friend were disoriented as it is; it was a terrible tragedy, but they cannot blame themselves.
A cousin of mine, N, walked for almost 18 hours all the way home. He started out at 6:00 pm in the evening on 26th July, and reached home at 12:00 noon on 27th.
An aunt of mine got stranded in her car on a flyover close to her house for 2-3 hours. In the end she was forced to abandon her car and walk the rest of the way home.
I also heard on the radio that civil volunteers were trying to help those stranded on the roads by offering them biscuits, water, and tea. This disaster sure did bring out the helping side of all Bombayites.
Even till today quite a lot of people have not reached home. So many out of towners are also stranded, with no trains or airplanes being able to take off. The domestic airport at Santa Cruz apparently resembled a lake!
Even the movie stars weren’t spared, as was reported in the newspaper today. Bipasha Basu has no idea where John Abraham is, and Amrita Arora has no idea where her sister, Malaika Arora is. Both are worried sick. A news channel also caught Aamir Khan stuck in traffic.
Most of the schools and colleges have handled the situation marvelously. Don Bosco, a school close to my home, offered not only the students but also their parents shelter and hot food too. St. Xaviers also extended their help to students and parents alike.
On the radio people called in with stories of their experiences on 26th and 27th July. Some had gone through great ordeals, while others had had not such a bad time, a little fun even!
One caller said that this ordeal has shown what Bombayites are made of: We will never give up in the face of adversity. And that is the gist of what this post is all about.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/photos/msid-1184566.cms