The Black Anniversary of 26/7 Mumbai floods.

26/7

Here I am writing this post about 26/7, the worst floods Mumbai ever encountered.

Same time last year I was sitting on a truck surrounded with water, nowhere to go, and I was not alone.

I was certainly not afraid of death, but was concerned about my parents.

Flashback:
25/7 (2005) – Got new Job. Entirely new field – Search Engine Marketing. I am a Mechanical Engineer and had a work experience of three and half years as a production engineer in Navi Mumbai. Working in front of a computer on internet the whole day was a new experience, but I was always interested in IT.

26/7 –
8.00 am – Took my quarterly railway pass from Thane to Bandra.

1.00 pm – Lunch time.

2.45 pm – The Call. My mother called me and informed me about the floods and the current situation then (My mother is like my personal news network, whatever happens in Mumbai or nearby areas such as floods, riots, blasts – I get it at the earliest.). I informed my senior colleague about this problem and with his kind permission…..

3.00pm - Me and my friend Jayesh left office. I live in Kalwa (Thane), some 22 km’s away, but Jayesh lives in Dombivily which is some 18-19 km from my house.

3.15pm – We arrived at Bandra station. While coming, we saw water logged everywhere. Anyhow we got a train to Dadar.

3.25pm – Dadar station was full of water; the rail-tracks were drowned under the flood water. Platform no.-1 was packed with people; even the overhead bridge was packed. We somehow managed our way to the boarding area on that platform.

3.30pm – Luckily a Kurla-destined train arrived. The whole human-mass was trying to board that train. This is a common problem in Mumbai, but that time it was 10x times more. I have a good experience of boarding crowded trains, as I completed my engineering at Dadar, so I was standing at the right place. While boarding the train I was pushed inside automatically but Jayesh was thrown outwards. And we were separated. I was alone in the train, and was thinking about Jayesh.

3.50pm – Arrived at Kurla station, and the trains paused. The water was logged heavily, and the trains just can’t move further. Now my always thinking brain started thinking more more and more. I decided to take the roadway.

4.05pm – left Kurla station and started walking towards the main road. Water level approximately ½ feet. There were lots of peoples, walking in a row, which is important in such situations, as there might be pot-holes and open drains, enough to take lives.

4.25pm - The water level was above 4 feet’s. I crossed an area with strong water current, all of us made a train-like formation holding each other by shoulders. At the starting some people were taking it as fun. By now there was “that look” on everyone’s face, that expressionless cold look.

4.45pm – Final Stop. my height – 6 feet, Water level approximately 4½ feet, it was too much for others, No one can go any further. I can't swim. I with two other peoples sat on a Maruti Omini Van. The top came down by 4”. I sat there for 10min.

4.55pm – The water was up to my waist in sitting position over the van. I decided to get over a truck with a hard top standing some 10 feet’s away from me. There was a rikshaw in between. I jumped on the rik, over the front rod. All riks were sunk up to the top; with there leather top bulged like balloons. Then I made my move and climbed at the top and sat there with others. The view was like; water everywhere, as if I was at the center of a huge long lake.

5.15pm – Now uptill 7.00pm I saw water rising to almost top of big trucks, BEST buses. Before that the people in those buses were rescued by the locals and moved to nearby buildings. I forgot to mention that it was raining heavily, all the time with winds.

7.00pm – I knew I was not going to die, but I was concerned about my parents. I knew that my parents might be in worst situation, mentally. My area never suffers from floods. This was the second day of my new job, and the most stupid thing I did was – I had my file with all the certificates which I should have kept at home. I was wet, trying to cover my bag. My leather shoes were soaked in water. There was a group of 12-15 peoples standing on a small truck. With water raised up to limits, those peoples were standing with water up to there knees(they were standing all night long in the same position, just imagine how hard that could be.).

27/7
9.00am – Last night was the worst night in my life. Water level started decreasing. I started my journey again. This time the water had dead corpses floating everywhere. I passed by many dead bodies, some 7-8. The view was horrifying……….. A man was searching his son……… An old woman was crying, sitting near her son’s body.

10.00am – Ghatkopar, after a long time, a public telephone booth was visible, but there was a long line of some 20 peoples. I stood in the bin the hope that I could call my parents. There were problem in phone lines. No one was able to call. Luckily it worked for me; my father was on the line. When he heard my voice, he called my mother loudly towards the phone. There was a mixture of feelings in his voice. My mother started crying; I told here, that I survived and am coming home. Suddenly people started shouting at me. One of them told me that “tell your parents that your are alive, other are waiting.”

2.00pm – Finally home sweet home, and this time it was much sweeter than ever. But there was still the shadow of sorrow visible when I entered the building. Each and every door was open with a person standing at the door, many of them waiting for there family members or asking the wellbeing of there neighbors.

Jayesh went to his aunt’s house in Dadar (E), many of my office colleagues stayed in the office itself, some 6-8 suffered like I did.

I had similar experience in 1997-98, when Mumbai flooded and I have to walk all the way from Dadar to my home through knee deep water. Those were my collage days. But this situation was nothing compared to 26/7, it was 4x.drastic.

700 Dead, 54 still missing, Is this nature or human trying to be god!

This is too much……..

This is the longest post I have ever written on my blog. I hate long posts.

The Black Anniversary of 26/7 Mumbai floods.


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