Rain Drops Fallinn' on my Head .......
111
This is a story of the black day that this city of Mumbai recently witnessed. This is a small fragment of the entire story as so many pages of it were drowned by the floods and many more left drenched through tears for ever after. This is a story of my little adventure to walk from Dadar to Thane in 6 hours while battleling through monstorous rains, deadly water-logging and pitch dark roads. I do not intend to boast of a bravory here, in fact it was a completely selfish act to get myself home safely. I just want to be a storyteller that's all ......
The morning of 26/7/05 was a premonitory in itslef in that it gave me enough indications for not leaving home ... but I was equally fool enough to overlook them and leave for college just like everyday ... for that I even overcame the feeling of .. "ohh ... let me not go to college today !" .. a kind of morning sickness that prevails almost every morning ! :)
So, I reached college and started with my work as usual. At that time there was hardly any rain at the town side (where my college is i.e. Peddar Road - Mahalaxmi Area), so no one could really fortell of such heavy precipitation afterwards. Heavy rains started at around lunch time (approx 1.00 pm) at the town side and then it never seemed to be ceasing. Just after I finished my lunch, I got a call from my Dad (who was at home, thankfully !) and he told me to leave college pronto! Because, in the suburban area (outskirts of Mumbai town i.e. Thane, Borivli, Kalyan, Ambarnath, Vasai, Virar etc.) it was raining since morning 9.00 am - 9.30 am cats & dogs and looked like it'll get even worst ! Finally, after winding up everything at college, me alongwith my friends, we left at around 3.30 pm. & as always I was the only one from there going all the way upto Thane ! I ran after the bus near the bus stop at Peddar Road (that's my normal way of catching the bus !) and came to Grant Road station .... even then things appeared quite normal ... there was no unusual numbers of crowd at the station too.
At around 4.00 pm I came to Dadar by train from Grant Road and till then Western Railways was working quite fine (atleast till Dadar that is ..)! But as soon as I came to the bridge, towards the Central Railways side, all I saw was a mad rush everywhere ... all the indicators were showing 00.00 and there was no way that any human form could've reached the actual platform from there .. it was all jam-packed !
So, then I decided to go to Ruia college-naka at Matunga (which is the next station after Dadar towards Thane) via Swami Narayan Temple lane and catch a bus to Mulund (a station before Thane) from the highway there .. which at that time looked quite possible. As I started walking towards Ruia, I immediately gauged the situation .. coz, I was walking through waist-high water already ! It was a real bad situation for all those small, school going kids of Raja Shivaji School for they were wading through almost chest-high water ... many of them were waiting near the school fence holding onto each other for their parents to come and take them home safely ... while others were in some different world completely ... they were splashing water on each other & the public and were enjoying the scene as if it was just another rainy day ! some of the kids were literally crying & howling by the fear of ever rishing water level .. it was a terrible situation for them.
Finally, I reached the bus-stop on the highway and waited there for about an hour, but not a single bus stopped (as it was already full) and taxi-wallas were telling a sky-high 750/- for a ride to Thane which was ridiculus !!! (That day maximum I could give was 300 bucks, coz that was all I had with me !) That patch of road was full with collegeans and office goers who were waiting for some or the other bus. Frequency of the buses was so bad that many of them started losing it and started to ask for lift to any moving vehicle .. many of them were standing in the middle of the road to stop the cars and some of them even tried sitting down on the road to get a lift ! But, all in vain, except for an occasional truck driver no one was ready to stop.
After watching all that highway-drama, I decided to walk a little further till Maheshwari Udyan (about 20 mins distance) and then look for some vehicle. There, luckily I got a bus to Vihar Lake (Powai) that would've taken me much closer to home compared to Dadar, but unfortunately it didn't move for good 45 mins .. so, I got off from the bus and again started walking. There was a huge traffic all the way from Maheshwari Udyan till Sion (Next station after Matunga) that didn't move even an inch for as long as I remember ! And the reason for all that traffic was very obvious - famous water-logging crisis at Sion ! I reached that water-logged patch at Sion via a fly-over and as I started to walk down the declivity, all I could see was a sea of dirty water ! .. and believe you me .. there was no end to it !! I was disgusted by even the sight of it, let alone passing through ! But, by that time I was left with the only option of walking straight ahead till I get some ride to home .. so, it soon came to me that I had to pass through all that water.
As I bagan wading through the water, the knee-high water level began rising gradually and in a blink of an eye it was more than chest-high !!! The water had lot of pull and I could feel the drag while passing through it. 10 minutes passed and still i found myself searching for its end .. but, I couldn't see one ! It was dreadfull .. I didn't know from where I was walking .... footpath, road, divider ... even man-holes ... everything was identical - water-drowned !! .. There was no way you could make out a danger plotted ahaed .. so, one had to hope that laws of probability are in favor ! There were many women, both young & old, extremely frightened and crying - wading through the water-logged patch. Many young blokes and middle aged men were carrying small school kids from a nearby school on their shoulders to get them to the other end. The kids were horryfied by the scene ... many crying and many totally shocked. Soon, all the people wading through the water (including me) made a human chain and started walking from middle of the road; which ensured a little more safty to our souls. After walking through the water for about 20 minutes finally I saw the other end of that stupifying scene ... just ahead there was another flyover - aahh ! what a relief !!
With all my pleasure I was now climbing up a flyover that to nobody's surprise was as empty as a F1 race track ! Not a single vehicle dared to pass through that patch at Sion except for one bus that too took its last breath on the flyover. That day flyovers were made for pedestrians; who were walking .. walking relentlessly ... be it rain .. be it water-logging .. be it traffic jam ... or even pitch dark flowing roads ! .. and I was one of them .. atleast good 200 of them at that time. It was pouring down as if there was no tommorow. I guess, the Rain gods took all that criticism little too seriously that day ! ... which wiped off the smiles of thousands and more.
Now I reached Chunabhatti - Govandi area, closing in on Ghatkopar which was my first milestone. The scene was almost similar here too ... except for few 'minor' additions ... there were small tides in the water becuase of the large, open marshy area to both sides of the road ! .. and if that was not enough there was a thick layer of mud on the road ... welcome to Chunabhatti ! Here, I saw a white Mahindra Voyager sinking !! ... a car as large as Mahindra Voyager literally sinking .. it was gone by the next moment ! Bewildering scene ... I can never forget it ! So, after Chunabhatti-Govandi comes Chembur which was quite bareable as one had to take the flyover there for most span. Here I decided to look for some ride coz I was exausted a bit. I tried a truck, a tempo, a trailor .. basically any vehicle that even momentorily appeared to be moving ... but all in vain ! The traffic jamming was so bad that one could see long lines of vehicles all the way till the end of the flyover and beyond. So, the journey goes on feet again. And after a while I saw a pleasant site .. moving traffic at Priyadarshni ! But, my joy soon vanished as hardly anyone was ready to stop. Darn !
Reaching Priyadarshni meant that I was fairly close to Ghatkopar R.T.O. and that was enough to push me ahaed. After covering a long distance I reached Ghatkopar R.T.O. .. a milestone ! There I met an old friend who had come from V.J.T.I. ... later I learnt from him that he had gone there to secure his M.Tech. admissions and was now struggling save his whole life's achievements - his certificates, from the gruelling rain ! Even he was going to Thane, so we decided to stick to each other till the end. I finally got a company at the end of about 2.5 hours of walking till Ghatkopar. We moved on ... soon it became quite dark ... and the first thing that struck our brains was the absence of assuring street lights ! So, our task had become even more difficult now .. walking through heavy rains, knee-high water and pitch dark roads .. it wasn't going to be easy - we both agreed.
To our surprise, as we reached Godrej compounds, the complete left side of the Eastern Express Highway was shut down ... well for traffic actually ... as it had become a freely flowing river of chocolate coloured mucky water. So, as it turned out to be that traffic moving to both the directions was diverted on the right half of the road which is at the higher elevation than the left one due to it's recent redoing, to add to our worries. Now, we literally had to walk sticking to the divider in the middle of the road. Little misjudgement would have ended in both of us being at some hospital. The headlights of the approaching vehicles really irritated our eys. But, we moved on. Due to the darkness, we had no clue as to where we were. I only knew that after Vikroli there is a left turn that goes to Powai .... So, I was eagerly waiting for a left turn to come which will tell us that we've crossed Vikroli (A station next to Ghatkopar - 4 stations away from Thane). But, to mess my plans 3 left turns came and passed by putting my knowledge in question. In between I got a call from home on my cell, luckily I could take the call (it was behaving weirdly as it had got drenched), I told my sister that I'm at Kanjurmarg and will reach home in about 2 hours from now. Later it occured to us that we were still somewhere between Ghatkopar & Vikroli and Kanjurmarg was still a long distance away. (So getting home within 2 hours was totally ruled out. turned out that I had made fool outta myself!) We had had enough of this, so we sat down under a flyover and started calculating the time it would take us to reach Thane. The chances of getting home before 11.30 pm looked thin, but it was too late to give up and we had to push ourselves and so we did.
We started walking ahaed. Now we were setting small targets in front of us. We used to decide that we have to overtake that perticular group walking ahead of us; and that actually got us going. It gave us some aim to our walking, momentorily. Surpassing these small targets soon we reached Kanjurmarg and now my home sweet home was just two stations away. I wasn't so much worried about reaching Bhandup from Kanjurmarg as the distance was much less. But, it was going to take one hell of a walk to reach Mulund from Bhandup. That distance is huge. That was the real hurdle to pass. As it was pitch dark and raining heavily none of the vehicle drivers were ready to stop as they feared of getting mugged. So, it was the same story ... walk till you drop (dead !). Stopping inbetween soon we crossed Bhandup and started walking straight towards Mulund, our penultimate destination. Very soon, to our delight,on the right side, brilliantly sparkling Airoli Bridge came into our sight. That assured us that we were zeroing onto our target. But, it was a kind of illusion. The bridge never went out of sight, but never appeared coming closer as well, it was getting a little frustrating. At this point of time we decided to have our last ever stop to catch our breaths and gather our thoughts. After we assuerd each other that we can do this, we took off again. And this time we did not stop till we saw the lights of Mulund Check Naka ! As we came closer and closer we started shouting and yelling .... it was a maddeningsight to see Mulund Check Naka in front of us. Till now it was like a mysterious thing that never existed and then suddenly there we were ... ever so close to our homes.
My friend too my leave as he decided to go to his uncle's place at Mulund. He was really worried about his documents and rightly so. I started walking towards Thane as I took his leave and all the joy of reaching Mulund, all the happyness just boosted my walking speed. My feet got as nimble as never before as they started sensing my doorsteps, eventhough I had just crossed the Mulund Check Naka. Just there I met a friend of mine from school and then we walked along till the Thane border (Anand Nagar Check Naka) came into our sight. This was the most quick walk .. maximum of 10 minutes. Again here we deaprted as he waited for a rickshaw to go to Balkum. I had to walk still little ahead from there to get a rick. But, on that that particular day I was unfortunate enough not to get a single rick as all of them wanted to go to a far off destination (good income). So, my journey came to a halt not before I climed the staires of my building and arrived at my doorstep.
So, finally after 5.5 to 6 hours of relentless walking through whatever shit nature threw at me had paid off, I was banging on my door - all drentched from top to bottom. My sack, stuff inside it, cell phone, wallet everything was ruined by the rain. I was so drenched that I was feeling twice as heavy. My sister opened the door and I let out a loud cry of " Yeah, I did it ... yesssssss .... !!!" to announce my arrival in the bulding in quite an emphatic fashion. I clenched my fists with joy and threw them in the air. That day I realised what a four letter word "HOME" means to us. It means a hell lot, and I just proved that you'll do anything possible in thing world to get there. I was completely burned out .. the fuel was over and out. I took a quick shower (as if it was needed , huhhh !) and started hogging whatever my sweet sister gave me. It didn't matter what it was ... I would've eaten even a newspaper that day ! But, no she had fixed quite a delicious meal that day .. it was pleasing ! After that I straightaway hit the bed at around 12.30 am and before my dad could say good night I was fast asleep. I slept for 13 hours that day .. woke up straight at 1.30 pm the other day. My feet felt O.K. , didn't heart much .. but were extremely bruised by the sandles brushing away constantly. I had to apply a total of 12 band-aids at a time .. 6 on each foot ! Even the shop keeper of that medicine shop started looking at me with a weird look in his eyes when I asked him for 20 band-aids ... as if I was gonna eat them up or something.
I did this coz I thought and believed I could, but there were many still stuck at several places across Mumbai and suburbs and one of them was my mother. We didn't know as to where she is even when it was 2.30 p.m. in the clock on 27/7/05. So another waiting episode began at 32, Madudeep Soc., Thane. soon after my arrival home.
@mar.
The morning of 26/7/05 was a premonitory in itslef in that it gave me enough indications for not leaving home ... but I was equally fool enough to overlook them and leave for college just like everyday ... for that I even overcame the feeling of .. "ohh ... let me not go to college today !" .. a kind of morning sickness that prevails almost every morning ! :)
So, I reached college and started with my work as usual. At that time there was hardly any rain at the town side (where my college is i.e. Peddar Road - Mahalaxmi Area), so no one could really fortell of such heavy precipitation afterwards. Heavy rains started at around lunch time (approx 1.00 pm) at the town side and then it never seemed to be ceasing. Just after I finished my lunch, I got a call from my Dad (who was at home, thankfully !) and he told me to leave college pronto! Because, in the suburban area (outskirts of Mumbai town i.e. Thane, Borivli, Kalyan, Ambarnath, Vasai, Virar etc.) it was raining since morning 9.00 am - 9.30 am cats & dogs and looked like it'll get even worst ! Finally, after winding up everything at college, me alongwith my friends, we left at around 3.30 pm. & as always I was the only one from there going all the way upto Thane ! I ran after the bus near the bus stop at Peddar Road (that's my normal way of catching the bus !) and came to Grant Road station .... even then things appeared quite normal ... there was no unusual numbers of crowd at the station too.
At around 4.00 pm I came to Dadar by train from Grant Road and till then Western Railways was working quite fine (atleast till Dadar that is ..)! But as soon as I came to the bridge, towards the Central Railways side, all I saw was a mad rush everywhere ... all the indicators were showing 00.00 and there was no way that any human form could've reached the actual platform from there .. it was all jam-packed !
So, then I decided to go to Ruia college-naka at Matunga (which is the next station after Dadar towards Thane) via Swami Narayan Temple lane and catch a bus to Mulund (a station before Thane) from the highway there .. which at that time looked quite possible. As I started walking towards Ruia, I immediately gauged the situation .. coz, I was walking through waist-high water already ! It was a real bad situation for all those small, school going kids of Raja Shivaji School for they were wading through almost chest-high water ... many of them were waiting near the school fence holding onto each other for their parents to come and take them home safely ... while others were in some different world completely ... they were splashing water on each other & the public and were enjoying the scene as if it was just another rainy day ! some of the kids were literally crying & howling by the fear of ever rishing water level .. it was a terrible situation for them.
Finally, I reached the bus-stop on the highway and waited there for about an hour, but not a single bus stopped (as it was already full) and taxi-wallas were telling a sky-high 750/- for a ride to Thane which was ridiculus !!! (That day maximum I could give was 300 bucks, coz that was all I had with me !) That patch of road was full with collegeans and office goers who were waiting for some or the other bus. Frequency of the buses was so bad that many of them started losing it and started to ask for lift to any moving vehicle .. many of them were standing in the middle of the road to stop the cars and some of them even tried sitting down on the road to get a lift ! But, all in vain, except for an occasional truck driver no one was ready to stop.
After watching all that highway-drama, I decided to walk a little further till Maheshwari Udyan (about 20 mins distance) and then look for some vehicle. There, luckily I got a bus to Vihar Lake (Powai) that would've taken me much closer to home compared to Dadar, but unfortunately it didn't move for good 45 mins .. so, I got off from the bus and again started walking. There was a huge traffic all the way from Maheshwari Udyan till Sion (Next station after Matunga) that didn't move even an inch for as long as I remember ! And the reason for all that traffic was very obvious - famous water-logging crisis at Sion ! I reached that water-logged patch at Sion via a fly-over and as I started to walk down the declivity, all I could see was a sea of dirty water ! .. and believe you me .. there was no end to it !! I was disgusted by even the sight of it, let alone passing through ! But, by that time I was left with the only option of walking straight ahead till I get some ride to home .. so, it soon came to me that I had to pass through all that water.
As I bagan wading through the water, the knee-high water level began rising gradually and in a blink of an eye it was more than chest-high !!! The water had lot of pull and I could feel the drag while passing through it. 10 minutes passed and still i found myself searching for its end .. but, I couldn't see one ! It was dreadfull .. I didn't know from where I was walking .... footpath, road, divider ... even man-holes ... everything was identical - water-drowned !! .. There was no way you could make out a danger plotted ahaed .. so, one had to hope that laws of probability are in favor ! There were many women, both young & old, extremely frightened and crying - wading through the water-logged patch. Many young blokes and middle aged men were carrying small school kids from a nearby school on their shoulders to get them to the other end. The kids were horryfied by the scene ... many crying and many totally shocked. Soon, all the people wading through the water (including me) made a human chain and started walking from middle of the road; which ensured a little more safty to our souls. After walking through the water for about 20 minutes finally I saw the other end of that stupifying scene ... just ahead there was another flyover - aahh ! what a relief !!
With all my pleasure I was now climbing up a flyover that to nobody's surprise was as empty as a F1 race track ! Not a single vehicle dared to pass through that patch at Sion except for one bus that too took its last breath on the flyover. That day flyovers were made for pedestrians; who were walking .. walking relentlessly ... be it rain .. be it water-logging .. be it traffic jam ... or even pitch dark flowing roads ! .. and I was one of them .. atleast good 200 of them at that time. It was pouring down as if there was no tommorow. I guess, the Rain gods took all that criticism little too seriously that day ! ... which wiped off the smiles of thousands and more.
Now I reached Chunabhatti - Govandi area, closing in on Ghatkopar which was my first milestone. The scene was almost similar here too ... except for few 'minor' additions ... there were small tides in the water becuase of the large, open marshy area to both sides of the road ! .. and if that was not enough there was a thick layer of mud on the road ... welcome to Chunabhatti ! Here, I saw a white Mahindra Voyager sinking !! ... a car as large as Mahindra Voyager literally sinking .. it was gone by the next moment ! Bewildering scene ... I can never forget it ! So, after Chunabhatti-Govandi comes Chembur which was quite bareable as one had to take the flyover there for most span. Here I decided to look for some ride coz I was exausted a bit. I tried a truck, a tempo, a trailor .. basically any vehicle that even momentorily appeared to be moving ... but all in vain ! The traffic jamming was so bad that one could see long lines of vehicles all the way till the end of the flyover and beyond. So, the journey goes on feet again. And after a while I saw a pleasant site .. moving traffic at Priyadarshni ! But, my joy soon vanished as hardly anyone was ready to stop. Darn !
Reaching Priyadarshni meant that I was fairly close to Ghatkopar R.T.O. and that was enough to push me ahaed. After covering a long distance I reached Ghatkopar R.T.O. .. a milestone ! There I met an old friend who had come from V.J.T.I. ... later I learnt from him that he had gone there to secure his M.Tech. admissions and was now struggling save his whole life's achievements - his certificates, from the gruelling rain ! Even he was going to Thane, so we decided to stick to each other till the end. I finally got a company at the end of about 2.5 hours of walking till Ghatkopar. We moved on ... soon it became quite dark ... and the first thing that struck our brains was the absence of assuring street lights ! So, our task had become even more difficult now .. walking through heavy rains, knee-high water and pitch dark roads .. it wasn't going to be easy - we both agreed.
To our surprise, as we reached Godrej compounds, the complete left side of the Eastern Express Highway was shut down ... well for traffic actually ... as it had become a freely flowing river of chocolate coloured mucky water. So, as it turned out to be that traffic moving to both the directions was diverted on the right half of the road which is at the higher elevation than the left one due to it's recent redoing, to add to our worries. Now, we literally had to walk sticking to the divider in the middle of the road. Little misjudgement would have ended in both of us being at some hospital. The headlights of the approaching vehicles really irritated our eys. But, we moved on. Due to the darkness, we had no clue as to where we were. I only knew that after Vikroli there is a left turn that goes to Powai .... So, I was eagerly waiting for a left turn to come which will tell us that we've crossed Vikroli (A station next to Ghatkopar - 4 stations away from Thane). But, to mess my plans 3 left turns came and passed by putting my knowledge in question. In between I got a call from home on my cell, luckily I could take the call (it was behaving weirdly as it had got drenched), I told my sister that I'm at Kanjurmarg and will reach home in about 2 hours from now. Later it occured to us that we were still somewhere between Ghatkopar & Vikroli and Kanjurmarg was still a long distance away. (So getting home within 2 hours was totally ruled out. turned out that I had made fool outta myself!) We had had enough of this, so we sat down under a flyover and started calculating the time it would take us to reach Thane. The chances of getting home before 11.30 pm looked thin, but it was too late to give up and we had to push ourselves and so we did.
We started walking ahaed. Now we were setting small targets in front of us. We used to decide that we have to overtake that perticular group walking ahead of us; and that actually got us going. It gave us some aim to our walking, momentorily. Surpassing these small targets soon we reached Kanjurmarg and now my home sweet home was just two stations away. I wasn't so much worried about reaching Bhandup from Kanjurmarg as the distance was much less. But, it was going to take one hell of a walk to reach Mulund from Bhandup. That distance is huge. That was the real hurdle to pass. As it was pitch dark and raining heavily none of the vehicle drivers were ready to stop as they feared of getting mugged. So, it was the same story ... walk till you drop (dead !). Stopping inbetween soon we crossed Bhandup and started walking straight towards Mulund, our penultimate destination. Very soon, to our delight,on the right side, brilliantly sparkling Airoli Bridge came into our sight. That assured us that we were zeroing onto our target. But, it was a kind of illusion. The bridge never went out of sight, but never appeared coming closer as well, it was getting a little frustrating. At this point of time we decided to have our last ever stop to catch our breaths and gather our thoughts. After we assuerd each other that we can do this, we took off again. And this time we did not stop till we saw the lights of Mulund Check Naka ! As we came closer and closer we started shouting and yelling .... it was a maddeningsight to see Mulund Check Naka in front of us. Till now it was like a mysterious thing that never existed and then suddenly there we were ... ever so close to our homes.
My friend too my leave as he decided to go to his uncle's place at Mulund. He was really worried about his documents and rightly so. I started walking towards Thane as I took his leave and all the joy of reaching Mulund, all the happyness just boosted my walking speed. My feet got as nimble as never before as they started sensing my doorsteps, eventhough I had just crossed the Mulund Check Naka. Just there I met a friend of mine from school and then we walked along till the Thane border (Anand Nagar Check Naka) came into our sight. This was the most quick walk .. maximum of 10 minutes. Again here we deaprted as he waited for a rickshaw to go to Balkum. I had to walk still little ahead from there to get a rick. But, on that that particular day I was unfortunate enough not to get a single rick as all of them wanted to go to a far off destination (good income). So, my journey came to a halt not before I climed the staires of my building and arrived at my doorstep.
So, finally after 5.5 to 6 hours of relentless walking through whatever shit nature threw at me had paid off, I was banging on my door - all drentched from top to bottom. My sack, stuff inside it, cell phone, wallet everything was ruined by the rain. I was so drenched that I was feeling twice as heavy. My sister opened the door and I let out a loud cry of " Yeah, I did it ... yesssssss .... !!!" to announce my arrival in the bulding in quite an emphatic fashion. I clenched my fists with joy and threw them in the air. That day I realised what a four letter word "HOME" means to us. It means a hell lot, and I just proved that you'll do anything possible in thing world to get there. I was completely burned out .. the fuel was over and out. I took a quick shower (as if it was needed , huhhh !) and started hogging whatever my sweet sister gave me. It didn't matter what it was ... I would've eaten even a newspaper that day ! But, no she had fixed quite a delicious meal that day .. it was pleasing ! After that I straightaway hit the bed at around 12.30 am and before my dad could say good night I was fast asleep. I slept for 13 hours that day .. woke up straight at 1.30 pm the other day. My feet felt O.K. , didn't heart much .. but were extremely bruised by the sandles brushing away constantly. I had to apply a total of 12 band-aids at a time .. 6 on each foot ! Even the shop keeper of that medicine shop started looking at me with a weird look in his eyes when I asked him for 20 band-aids ... as if I was gonna eat them up or something.
I did this coz I thought and believed I could, but there were many still stuck at several places across Mumbai and suburbs and one of them was my mother. We didn't know as to where she is even when it was 2.30 p.m. in the clock on 27/7/05. So another waiting episode began at 32, Madudeep Soc., Thane. soon after my arrival home.
@mar.
posted by Amar Ghaisas at
6:50 am
