[Reader-list] Bombay floods, Prashant Pandey

Tue Aug 2 22:27:47 IST 2005

It starts with a simple miscalculation.
Its 2.30 pm. 25 th july. I have a research 
appointment at Bandra. Outside my flat 
in Ghatkopar,  its raining. I "think" 
its just like any other routine rain. 

So I come out with my umbrella and a small
polythene bag containing a  notebook and 
other stuff. Its raining very hard. There 
is a mountain just behind our society and
muddy water is flowing high and  wild. 
I think that the rain will subside so I
take a short cut to the main Road i.e L.B.S
marg ( lal bahadur shashtri road), a very
prominent road which runs parallel to the 
central line in Bombay. 

2.45 pm Shreyas cinema Ghatkopar west

I manage to get an auto for Bandra
the auto
wallah ignores the commuters who are trying
to hitch a ride. We have come to the Thane-VT 
highway. Now I see rains all over. I am inside
the auto and I am all wet. Near VidyaVihar
flyover the auto comes to a standstill. I
complain  I should have taken the  train.
Auto-driver replies, Trains are not running 
since morning For the first time realize what 
mess I have gotten into. I lose patience
pay up
whatever fare and stand on the flyover looking 
at speeding cars and trucks. 

3.30 pm VidyaVihar Flyover 

I triple on a bike with two funny guys who are 
going to Dharavi. They tell me that Bandra is 5
minutes walk from Dharavi. I still think that 
the rains will stop in some time. I get down at 
Dharavi after having witnessed some great biking 
( avoiding skidding and traffic policemen). 

5.30 pm Dharavi 

There is traffic jam that slowly unravels.
Its huge and extends all over. 
Road to dadar
full. Road to sion
full
.road 
to bandra
full. 
I leave my second auto. Now I am walking with
thousands of women, men, girls and boys. I am 
stuck and there is no going back. I decide to 
go for my appointment at Carter Road. So from
Dharavi I walk to Carter Road. Trees have 
fallen down. I see cars going down. There is
lot of sound that I hear.  Shouts
cat calls
hooting. 

7.30 pm Carter Road

I am three hours late
but this looks like a
calamity. Isnt it? I take out my phone to
call up the person who I went to see. Guess

my phone looks like a water game (the kinds 
that they sell in trains). So I cancel my plans

9 pm
Bandra Station  (West )

I decide to stay at Bandra Station like 
everybody. But once I see it. I cant.  
Bandra station is badly flooded and is 
swelling with people. I meet a lady and a 
young man. All of us want to go to areas 
that are on the central line- Sion( lady),
Ghatkopar(myself) and  Thane(young man). 
We persuade an auto driver who chooses to 
listen to us only amidst 20 other commuters 
yelling at him the places they want to go. 
Barely 10 meters has the auto moved towards 
Bandra east flyover, we find ourselves in 
the most bizarre traffic jam in the universe.
Its amorphous, purposeless, dark and unending.
part of this jam is constituted by people
who are watching theirs cars and motorcycles
go down in water some 15 meters way. 
Its like star gazing when they tell
each other thats my car  

11 pm Between Bandra West & East 

Back in auto
the lady who is a school teacher
has lost it. She is breathing heavily. I get
a man to call her relatives who stay nearby.
( everybody shared drinking water and smiles 
but no mobile phones so this was a great
gesture on that mans part)  A miracle happens-
the call consummates with out any pee-pee or
getting cut. However the lady is troubled 
because she hasnt met these relatives for
8-9 years. She tells me,  kabhi jaroorat 
nahi padi . her husband had called up her 
school and  left this phone  number.  

I propose a grand plan of walking to Sion.
She rejects it while the young man is 
thinking about it. I come up with another
plan, We will walk to Bandra Kurla Complex
( home for state-of-the art but now flooded
offices)  and stay in ICICI like others.
We cannot, later I learn, as there is almost
5 ft of water to be crossed.  I believe it
this piece of information.  Before anything
happens the lady is out of the auto and has 
left without paying(?) the autowalla. 

This auto-walla  has the most quixotic plan.
He wants to take an unimaginable U-turn and 
come back to Bandra Station and take S.V road
( Swami Vivekanand Road). He would take us to
Andheri (east) and then to Ghatkopar through 
Marol Naka. This auto wallah is a sadist. (I 
had heard two hours back that 12 kids died in 
Marol and Andheri was hell with its gutters.)
Though he plays us some remixes blaring with 
a ghoom ghoom sound from the damp speakers 
and I give him my cellphone to warm it in 
some heated quarter of his auto. He opens a
box and keeps it there. 

Now this young man and I
both are trying out 
life in this wet auto. We try to sleep (a fake
put-on form of sleep), discuss cricket and two
hours later come to a conclusion that  this auto 
wallah is cheating us. Ye Behen**** humko shendi
laga raha hai The auto wallah is merrymaking 
with other taxi drivers. So we decide to leave
the auto and find way on our own. We pay up
after the customary mutual allegations. We 
tell him that we cannot pay 100 rupees for 
nothing. He is a marathi yet to defeat him I 
ask him, are you from Delhi The auto driver 
is wondering at our unity. I give him 70 rupees
for taking us 10 meters away from the point 
where we actually boarded the auto. 

2 am Bandra east 

We have decided we will walk to Sion. There 
are lots of people who strongly dissuade us. 
There are jokes, discussions and kissagoi
(storytelling)  in 3 feet water climbing upto
our thighs. I want to get out of this gorgonic
jam. I tell him all these are middle class 
losers who are stuck with their cars with their
fat wives and we dont have any (cars and wives)

 so lets move on
 we wont die 
I tell him about my adventures with a hippie 
in Rishikesh where he tried teaching me swimming
in Ganges. Now this young mans battery is on full
charge. And we embark on this uncertain journey.
The basic rule, we have identified is to think 
that once we reach such and such area there wont 
be a jam
there wont be water

After an unsuccessful attempt we manage to come 
on the road that leads to Sion. There we meet a
mad group going to Dharavi. A lot of swanky cars 
and their owners (now in baniyan) are greeted with
hoots. Meanwhile I pursaude a Tata Safari owner
not to venture ahead( in good faith and judgment).
He believes me, turns back the beast and gives us 
a ride till Sion. All this while, I try to conceal
my smile. 

2.40 am Sion

We get down at Sion flyover. The first thing that
the young man says is  yaar tum bade kaam ke 
aadmi hoo Actual introductions happen now. His 
name is Vivek Hasija. He is working in sales 
in Esselworld. I am Prashant Pandey and I am
a researcher. Office nahi jana hota parr
kaam kafi ho jata hai kabhi-kabhi, I tell
him. He wonders that we were so busy trying 
to stand straight in shit water that even forgot
to ask each others name. Now we have to walk 
straight to reach Ghatkopar or Thane. There we 
join thousands of people walking straight from
Mantralaya (the secretariat near VT). Everybody 
by now has developed a mutual respect for humanity. 

The way is dark, silent and the people are
different too. Unlike Bandra here they are 
walking in a single line holding each others
hands making a never ending human chain, 
from VT to Thane. At Kurla we see household 
items from the slums floating in the water. 
There is a fridge and umpteen plastic pots
dancing in water. 

Then somebody tells me about a school kid and 
a driver floating
dead in a car in Andheri.
I see for the first time dead bikes. Taxis 
that are about to die their lights blinking 
titanically.

Everybody is trying to balance in these 
thigh-high waters yet manages to say ch ch ch,
an apt ex-pression for the loss of life and 
livelihood and an unidentified guilt.  

Some funny middle-aged man starts shouting-
saap saap  (snakes snakes) to  which a lady 
replies,aree itne gandle paani me to saap 
kya aap bhi marr jainga(In this dirty water
both you and snake will perish) 

Then there are these young executives who 
are trying to capture
whatever you call it 

the moment
. by their camera phones. They 
as soon as they click they wrap their phones 
in a three layered polythene self made packs
a 
feat that I could not achieve therefore my RIM 
( Reliance India Mobile), the dream of Dhirubhai,
died in a watery grave. 

And here I imagine the whole setting as a 
science fiction set. - Thousands of people 
walking in 3 ft of water a heavy rain in full
moon. People in Bombay are obsessed with two
things. Reaching office and reaching home. 

Vivek Hasija is a very good travel partner. If 
I lose him he calls my name. His bag is heavy
and now he has kept my stuff in it. I too take
has bag for a long stretch. He hasnt eaten 
except a breakfast and he is wearing leather shoes. 

5 am Ghatkopar-Andheri Turn  

We have continuously walked for almost 3 hours.
Its time to say bye as we have hit the Ghatkopar 
turn. I am very sorry as I made him walk too much.
He looks haggard and terribly home-sick. He 
wants to sleep on the flyover like these women
but I remind him about his mom who kept calling
him every hour. I am sure he wont rest there
and would move on.  We had great time on this
journey and we shout to each other our mail
ids as it is raining so hard that we cant
write anything on anything. 

I take a left turn and join the gujju crowd
of Ghatkopar and Godrej employees.
Now I am feeling like a Zombie. My feet, 
thighs are sore. I swear I will never wear 
any cloth any jeans any underwear. My black 
wrangler weighs tonnes now. Its dragging my 
legs down. Only saving grace is my Ram Chappals
single-Rubber frame
no religious connotation)
bought after I saw Kaiwan Mehta wearing it in 
yogic  comfort. 

6.30 am Damodar Park. My Society. 

I am back after almost 16 hours of aimless,
just fun (?) walking. There is no electricity 
and I have to take stairs for 12 floors that 
are there in the building.

6.45 am 12 floor my flat

All the windows are shut yet there is 
water
. On the ceilings
 on the walls on
the floor
. I throw my clothes and smell 
them for the first time.  I wash

There is a Maggi noodles packet (my principal
fantasy during the journey). I have my tea and 
noodles and settle down on a clean, not- wet bed. 

Folks after that I have lead a very routine life. 

Regards 
Prashant 

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