Sunday, December 18, 2005
Mumbai marooned
Yes, the floods were bad. But perhaps not equally bad for everybody.
Last Tesday, when it had rained spectacularly for nearly 3 hours already, and the Central Railway line had already shut down (phone lines were also down and we had no way of knowing the severity of the situation); I indulged myself in an adventure. While people decided to stay back in the security of the college, I decided to cycle back to the flat where I stay at around 5pm, when there was still light.
Its a 5minute ride normally, but I found myself battling against the current through about 3feet of water (It turned out that the college was the lowest point in the locality, and the water was coming right in.) Anyway, I was submerged upto my knees, but the bike has 21 gears, and it was a great deal beter than walking). I did the distance in about 15 minutes in the heaviest rains I have ever experienced in my life (90cm in about 3hours!). It was kind of fun. And have me an awful pain in my legs afterwards...Anyway, got home, showered and the electricity went kaput. And after that Mumbai was every-man-to-himself for the next 20hours.
I was among the few people really prepared for this kind of a situation: from candles, to a flashlight, to extra supplies of water and food; I had them all. It was my small town upbringing that was at play here, I did not grow up with the security of assured power, water and civic facilities. The cell phone worked till 10 at night and I had informed everyone that I was safe, but would probably be out of touch for a few days (in Mumbai the electricity is so reliable that they do not invest in back-up generators: perhaps the only city in the country that works this way.)
It was darkness all around. Slightly boring, but I had enough supplies...and a battery operated radio to reassure me that I was much better off than most people. Power supplies resumed 2days later, as did the water supply, and the local market functioned from the very next day; as soon as the rains stopped.
So I wasn't really badly off, considering the second spell of rain over the weekend, that flooded the low lying areas again. In fact without college, we spent a lot of time over last week socialising, watching movies etc. (The college doesn't have a hostel, we share flats outside in nearby area, so we would hop about from one friend's flat to the next.) The net connection started working today. This area was probably like an island amid the sea, in the whole episode.
The thing that I appreciate the most is that there was a reasonably quick response (by Indian standards) in restoring facilities. Any other city would have taken double the time, not to talk of the small towns that I have lived in; in Bihar, Punjab and Haryana. But overall Mumbaikars are accustomed to a better performance standard, and so are complaining. Also exposed during this episode was the poor infrastructure of the city; and a non-existent disaster warning and management system.
An experience to remember.
posted by Shubham at 9:40 PM | 0 comments
