You all might have read/heard about the recent calamity that happened in Mumbai. Well, let me provide a first hand description of whatever happened on the black day, 26th July, when rain lashed out on Mumbai. Those who know I am in Mumbai right now, may guess that I am writing this mail from my own experience.

This fateful day, was the day when I reached Mumbai. I reported to my office, in an hour, I was pursued to the customer location. Myself and two others, who does not belong to Mumbai as well (neither to Kolkata) had lunch there; thats when the rain started. This was very normal here, was happening for the last 5 days.....

At around 5pm, our PM asked us to leave as the roads were getting fast filled up with water. At around 5:30, 2 of us left for the same destination, Bandra from Mahalaxmi.

The first shock was when we found the trains unoperational, which means the lifeline of Mumbai is not working. I saw a few buses plying, none of which would go directly to the place wher we would put up. Nevertheless, we tried getting into any of them which would take us nearby, there were none. The buses that were gong were full upto the last staircase.
By that time, the taxis started refusing. Already about 30% taxis parked there were out of service. The rest were going packed with more than 6 people in a taxi. The rains were incessant and we were absolutely drenched. Things were looking pretty ominous right then.

Then we decided, since it was our first day in Mumbai & we were not too sure of the places, we better get back to office and ask sombody else going in the same direction to give us a lift. It was 7:30 by that time. There as none & the rest were ready to stay back in office. However, we were not........
We got back to road in the hope to get back to guest house. At around 9:00, we got a shared taxi after a lot of chaos, which after breaking down twice reached a place still 2 kms away from our destination, at around 12:30am.!!! In the meantime, we did not have our dinner either...

When we got down there (for reference, the place I reached is Dadar & my guest house is at Bandra-Kurla), we found something very amazing....... hundreds of cars, buses, taxis, autos lined up guard-to-guard still packed up around 1am, & people walking at top pace, with or without umbrellas in the heavy rain. The situation was so amusing & hopeless at the same time......... We only hoped we will reach our guest house by the end of the night.
A few shops were also empty, trying to cash on in the number of ppl rushing in for tea. We enquired for food, none was available. Nevertheless, we had a glass of hot tea, prepared to walk once again in the rain.

After walking for more that an hr, we reached near the bandra railway station. Our destination was still an hr walk and the rain has never stopped. After going another few minutes, we enquired the traffic policeman (imagine.. police at 2am) whether we can reach our destination safely, to which he replied.... no we cant coz the roads to Bandra-Kurla is absolutely flooded & neck deep in water. This took away from us the last ray of hope that we had; frankly I dont remember having felt so hopeless in my life... standing in the middle of the road, dripping.

Then I concentrated on the others plight... ppl in cars left their 4-wheelers to look out for dry places where they can spend their night; hundreds of ppl prepared to spend their night inside the buses & whatever they were travelling in... things were really unbelievable. We started searching for a place where we do not have to soak for the next few hours. We found a hotel nearby where ppl were already sitting at the lobby with consent from the owner. The rooms were already occuppied. We also sat in the chairs provided by them & waited for the morning.

At around 6am, all of us were asked to leave, as cleaning was likely to start. Our dresses has barely dried up, & we were shocked to see the rains continuing in the same fashion.......... The thought of getting wet once more brought us more pain. We moved out, assured that water has not receded on our way to destination. We were roaming aimlessly unable to think of anything we should be doing....... at around 8am, we thought of returning to our Mahalaxmi (client) office, be there for the time being....... little did we know that the offices were given holidays for the next 2 days. Mahalaxmi was again more than 3 kms walk; most of the taxis were dead & those running refuse to take anybody. The only thing we saw was ppl walking. After walking for almost an hour, we reached a place where we found something to eat........ we gorged on the sandwiches & the samosas they were offering. Then it was again time for a long walk.

After some time, we found a taxi, interested in going in the same direction, asking for exorbitantly high rates, but we were so sick of walking, we were happy getting our hands on whatever was offered. We reached office, shocked to find nobody there, only those ppl who stayed overnight were there. We tried to make ourselves comfortable, but the rain soaked dresses wont let us feel free. Anyway, we had our lunch there.

At around afternoon 5, the rains had stopped others were raring to go, we thought we should also leave, but where!! Water was still filled in those stretches. Then we got an idea.. thought of called our office Admin on her cell & ask for some other arrangement; and u know what... there was one more guest house nearby the first, but out of the hands of water. We reached there at around 8pm, I did some shopping so that I could wear dry clothes for the night. Then after a nice dinner at a veggie restaurant outside, we had a deep sleep, leaving behind the memories of the past 2 days.....

The rest is all history..... all of u should have read, heard lots about the floods in Mumbai & its nearby districts. Ppl are still trying to cope with the crisis of water, compounded with lack of electricity, death of ppl & animals.

Now that Mumbai has more or less come to normal, we are doing offices normally, I wont be able to forget that night, MY FIRST NIGHT IN MUMBAI.