Strange things happen. Many times. All around the world.
This was my first.
Mumbai received close to 96 cm of rain in 24 hours, displacing Cherrapunji as the wetest place in India (and prolly in the world) in this record breaking feat.
And it was some rain.
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Well, I had been to college on Tuesday, the 26th of July, 2005. I had bunked the morning lecture, since was too bored, and landed in college at 11 AM. The next lecture was cancelled, and only one lecture actually took place, with my elective and the subsequent practical cancelled. I was very frustrated at me going to college. Moreover, there was this TopCoder SRM that day at 1630 hours, which I really wanted to attend., so the frustration was an interesting development in reality.
Left college at around 1400 hours, took a bus to the Andheri station. It was merely drizzling. Pleasant atmosphere even.
Andheri station was the same as it usually is in the day. People crowding in the shed to watch the TV display, trains coming and going. The indicator indicated (haha!) that the trains were pretty much on time! What a surprise! Anyway, so I got the next slow towards Borivli.
Was engrossed in Prince of Persia on the cell, and the rain really started pouring when I looked outside. It was Kandivili. And the Orange network did it’s thing then. Since the other networks were up and running, this was extrememly fishy.
The train reached Borivli as usual, minimal delays and all. Got out, and was quite amused to see the entire western end of Borivli flooded. Crossed to east over the foot bridge, and then it hit me… The east side road was completely submerged, angle height water in the “driest” places. People were crowding towards the bottom of the bridges, as if some thing was going to come and magically carry them across the flood!
I decided it was futile to wait, since it was pouring, and the situation would get only worse… So, with an umbrella on top, I waded through knee-deep water at some places to my house. Reached home at 1500 hours, wet, but otherwise completely secure.
Switched on the monitor, to see who was online. There was almost nobody. Strange.
Then news started pouring in. There was no power in most areas, I was pretty lucky to have both the power and the net working! Flooding in quite some places. Hmmm… So what’s new? I decided to not make much of it. But still, messaged friends in college to go home early, since trains could gridlock any moment now.
Then a friend, Chintan, called from Khar, telling me that he got a message telling him that his house had been completely washed away. I wondered if it was possible. He wanted to know if it was true, and if he should come to Borivli. I said try coming, trains were working still, or so I thought. And then the lines went dead. He was not reachable, his home was not reachable either. I wondered, but then felt it was too weird, since the problem did not seem that big, given I was able to come home with not many problems.
My TopCoder match was starting, so I decided to register, and myself and Nadeem were the only two people from MU that day. The match itself was pretty easy, and except for a misunderstanding in my 1000 pointer, scored me good points. I was done with 22 minutes to spare. Decided to hunt for Nadeem, but realized he wasn’t logged in. Oh oh! Called him up to find out that his net had gone kaput, and his dialup wasn’t working either, MTNL had done it’s thing too… Poor chap, he would definitely topped. Unlucky things.
Looked out of the window, it was still pouring. And BEST buses were going over the flyover, instead of their normal under the flyover route. Interesting! Then I heard, water had crossed the bridge. (An explanation due here: The highway was built over the Mithi river from the national park, and a flyover was built over these both.)
After some time, around 1800 hours, my neighbor wanted me to accompany her to get her children from the school. Reluctantly, I decided to go. Armed with an umbrella, my now almost completely non-working cellphone, and myself, I proceed to the school. The view was fantastic (in the incredible sense!)
Water had reached heights I had never imagined it could. Now it had subsided, but the marks of mud and floatsam was quite evident. Now I was really concerned about my friend’s place, especially since his mother was alone at home. I dropped my auntie (the neighbor) near the school and rushed to the friend’s place.
The road was very interesting. A truck, apparently pushed by the pillaging waters had landed over a tanker, whose horn had struck. The compound walls had fallen, bricks, mud and slick everywhere. People were wondering what had happened. The fire bridgade was here. Cars were scattered, as if there were toys….
Apparently the national park dam had opened it’s sluice gates, without warning, leading to flash floods. The water height was so much that the entire ground floor of the bunglows and buildings had submerged.
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Will continue in part 2! Bye for now!