Mumbai matters

Last Tuesday to this Monday, Bombay was like a river which has gone wild and is no where near normal. 400 people died in the city - a city which is one of the developed cities of the country. That day I was about to leave at 3 from the office which is in Mahim, then my sister who was near Marine Drive, called up and said she is coming to my office by cab as the trains have stopped. So I waited for her. She could not reach here by 7pm(which is 40min away) and in between I have been getting calls from my husband to leave and friends calling up that leave office immediately. At 7 the situation was worse, my husband( who works in Santa Cruz) called up and told me “ Don’t leave, stay back where ever you are”. I messaged my sis and immediately after, the phone lines went off, landline or mobile, nothing was working. My husband who works for Reliance energy (dont kill me he is in the corporate office) could see the main road(western express highway) he says the cars which were there from 5 were there only there till the next day. My only worry was my sister- has she got the message? Is she on the way or reached somewhere? At 8 30 mobiles started working, but there was too much traffic so just got a message that my sis is at her friend’s aunt’s place with few friends. So at 10 my husband called up said he is staying in office. I couldn’t stay in my office because there was no other woman around and no light. There was no light on the streets it was a total black out. Oh God! it is bad to remember also but I was thinking if I would not have waited for my sis I would have increased the number of people who died by one. Then at 11 I went to my sis friends place who stays near my office it was such a relief reaching her place though it was my first visit to her place even there, her daughter could not get back home, and she stayed over at some one else’s home. Her mom was so nice to me- she got a extra pair of clothes for me, gave me tea and a bed at her place....I slept as I have never slept before. Then the next day by 10 30 roads towards town got cleared so my sis could manage to come where I was. We waited for some news about roads getting cleared towards our place, but there was no news. Then at 2 we decided to walk till the traffic jams and then take a cab. We walked and walked and walked it was all jammed! Actually when the water started rising on the roads people left their cars on the road and left. Some climbed a few floors in the building, the water was flowing as high as 5 to 6 feet, it was flowing above the top of the cars. Next when we were walking we realized how big the issue was . I could see chappals floating around, then also there was 6 to 10 inches of water. We walked for 18 kms. 2 of us were there so it was not so difficult. But when I reached home I realized God saved all of us. People saw dead bodies floating around in the water- of animals and human beings too. Even we passed one dead buffalo- her head was high she must have tried to breathe till the last but her selfish master didn’t open her latch, so she couldn’t float- or who knows, maybe her master died first, and one boy which I didn’t see but all were talking about it. Oh god the worst is over now. The main road of Bombay was looking like a huge parking space. with the rush of water the cars slipped and slid banging on the side of the walls or on to the dividers. Some cars were open - looked like they didn’t have time to close the door or they couldn’t close due to the rush of water. But there were local people who were distributing water biscuits and vada pavs to the people because there were people who had been hungry since last night, and had been walking. An old aunty asked me if I wanted one, I knew there were people who were more hungry then I was, so I said "no thank you" she looked at me and said" beta lee loo abhi to bahut duur jana hai" its was the spirit of the people which keeps the city going other wise the government system would have killed all! I would like to bring to notice, that when we walked ahead there were loads and loads of banana skins all around. First of all water on the road and then banana skins....we realized it must be because some one must have distributed bananas and people would have thrown the peels on the roads without thinking! We also contribute to what all happened that day. Throwing the wrappers of wafers, plastic cups on roads, opening our window and just throwing away everything left, so that your car remains clean. Those cars were parked there on the roads with all gutter water inside them. NDTV advertised "koshish to karo badlega India" koshish to karo dont throw “kachra” on the road and try stopping other people. Make it a habit, use the dustbins of the pan wala on the road side, because government will never place empty dustbins on the road side. koshish to karo jaroor badleega India! Koshish mein… Sonal

Name :sonal

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