Mumbai Floods

This was one of those days, even if you want to erase it from your memory, the images will never fade. Above you can see in the photo in the middle over 100 people wading through water. Each one of them has a story. This one is mine...

It was July 26, 2005, My husband and I had just got back from Lower Parel, a suburb in Mumbai. I had made the decision to put my education in French to good use and tutor those interested to learn the language.

It had been drizzling the whole trip, and although I wasn't soaked, I was a bit frustrated with the never-ending monsoon of Mumbai. However, when I saw it begin to pour minutes after reaching home, I praised God that we didn't have to face the lashes… or so I thought.

I cooked quickly and we had our lunch and settled in to watch a movie while it poured outside. I actually liked the idea of snuggling next to my husband and watching a movie. However that too came to an end as our cable connection suddenly went off. We started talking about the rain and how it didn't seem to let up. As we were talking, I saw a puddle in my kitchen. Our home was on the ground floor and somehow water was seeping in between the tiles. To my horror, the puddle grew.

We began taking turns to mop the kitchen thinking the water would soon recede and all would be well again. Snoopy our dog meanwhile was taking his afternoon nap on our sofa. He was only 4 months old and had been housebroken.

The mopping continued, but there seemed no end to the flood in our kitchen. As Ranjit mopped for the umpteenth time, I saw what seemed to be a puddle in our living room! Initially we thought maybe Snoopy had an accident, but the puddle seemed to grow in front of our very eyes.

I decided to call my parents to see how the situation was at their end, about a 30-minute drive from our home. I was soon informed that they had lost electricity in Chembur and had opened up their home to us when they found out that our home was flooding.

We were a bit reluctant initially to move to Chembur. We wanted to be brave and handle the situation by ourselves and not run to my parents. By this time, we realized that the mopping wasn't helping. We decided to wait for the rains to subside and then begin mopping, but that wasn't happening either.

Finally, around 6pm, Ranjit went out to buy some vegetables for dinner. I started to panic. I wasn't feeling too confident about staying here for the night. The vegetable market is only 5 minutes away, but Ranjit took more than 30 minutes to bring some vegetables home. He told me that it was completely flooded outside. There was already 3 feet of water.

We realized we had to leave soon. There was no way Snoopy would allow us to spend the night. There was water on the floor, and Snoopy refused to get down from the sofa. He was petrified to say the least.

We got some of our belongings together. By this time, our bathroom had flooded. Water was pouring in from all directions. The empty gas cylinder toppled in the weight of the water. We put some of our things on higher ground and opened the front door to see a gush of water come into our home. When we left, our sofa-cum-bed was floating. Ranjit had to literally use all his force to close the front door. It was 7pm and there was already 1 feet of water in our home.

There was no way we could take our bike, so we abandoned our bike and our home and set off to my parents' home carrying Snoopy. We got out to the highway to find hundreds of people going in both directions, uptown and downtown. Our 30-minute trip took us 3 hours on foot. We didn't rest for a minute, just prayed and walked and carried Snoopy the whole time. I must give my husband the credit as most of the time it was he who carried our dog.

Most of the people on the highway were returning from work. Some were young, some old; men, women and children; rich and poor, all walking home. There were times when the water rose to 4 feet and places where there was no water at all (higher altitude). There were times where there was a force of current in the water pulling people away. Fortunately, we didn’t see anyone drift off in the flood in front of our eyes; although, we did see a train half-submerged; many cars full-submerged and abandoned.

What I do cherish about that day was seeing the spirit of the Mumbaikars. No-one grumbled, no-one complained. Everyone was determined and united. We were waling as a human chain as shown in the picture above. There were people who came out of their homes just to help others cross a drain that couldn't be seen; others who were serving snacks and food the next day when people still hadn't returned home.

Eventually, exhausted beyond means, we reached my parents home at 10pm. The lane to their home itself was flooded at over 4 feet. We hadn't called them prior to coming, for the very reason that we had no idea how long it would take us and we didn't want to add to their worries.

My parents were relieved and happy to see all three of us. Snoopy by this time was shivering uncontrollably, but he never made a sound the whole trip. We heard passerby's comment on how cute our dog was; others were surprised to see us carrying our puppy. Snoopy ran to one bathroom to relieve himself, while my husband and I worked to clean off all the grime and dirt and I don't know what else that touched our skin that night.

My mum made some hot soup for us and some milk-and-bread for our puppy. Lying in bed that night, I knew there were so many people walking home. There were people stranded in trains and buses. There were people stranded at their offices away from their loved ones. I praised God for bringing us home safely and soundly.

We didn't have electricity nor water the next day. It was another 3 days before we went home to find our TV and fridge had upturned. Some of our friends who had a spare key were darling enough to clean out our home or at least the remaining water. Our neighbors and a distinct water-line told us that our home eventually had flooded 4 feet. We lost a lot of our possessions: clothes, food, books, and photographs.

Looking back today, I'm still emotional about that fateful day. There were many lives that were lost. Many homes destroyed; many sicknesses that rose from the water. But, I am ever grateful to God for giving us the wisdom, the strength and the comfort of having a home to go to, a place where I was safe and sound.