Unbelievable

I believe the 26th July 2005 will go down in history as being one of Mumbai’s city’s worst days – it was definitely up there with the riots and the bomb blast of Dec 92/Mar 93. The unprecedented rains (& subsequent floods) saw people losing their homes, their livelihoods (15000 + sheep alone have died) and many many unfortunate souls - their lives. A week later as I type this out (today’s Tues 2nd August), the death toll due to the floods is 1000 and rising.

The day started out as any other. Had an afternoon meeting in the Grand Hyatt so did not venture into the city (praise God). Had lots of odds and ends of work to do, which we finished in the morning. Mum even managed to go visit her sister in the clinic (mum was debating at the time whether to go before or after the meeting as there was lots of bank work before as well).

By the time afternoon came, we decided to call and postpone the meeting to the next day due to the heavy rains. Even at that time, we did not realize the magnitude of the problem nor the immense blessing that we received by not going into the Kalina – Vakola area where the Grand Hyatt is situated.
By 4.30pm we had lost all electricity - this was subsequently restored to us the following morning by 8am – though many, including my aunt at the clinic, lost power for over 48 hours.

A few hours after losing power, we lost all cell phone networks. Praise God our land line was working though (a lot lost these as well and a week later, many have still not got these restored).

The hours that followed were pure mayhem in Mumbai city. We were mercifully spared the wrath of the floods – the horror stories were revealed to us the next day when we got power and switched on our TVs.

In the meanwhile, we sat at home, candle light & I made mum give me the English – Hindi names for a whole lot of ingredients used in daily Indian cooking.

Our company had a function running at a restaurant nearby. The three boys there walked to the station. There were no trains running. One of them decided to go ahead to Colaba anyway (we found out the next day he walked the whole way – and reached a little after midnight). The other two went to one of our offices where security would not allow them in due to their total drenched state. They then walked to our house. Gave them clean and dry clothes, tea (& then later dinner) before sorting out beddings for them to sleep.

Before we slept, mum, dad & I said a rosary for all the people stuck on the roads (as I said, we still had no clue about the magnitude of the problem) and all the people living in hutments etc.