hard rain

last 48 hours has been a wierd,wonderful,scary and a real crazy time. hopes...simple wishes...a wish to be with your family, a wish to be with you child, a wish that your loved ones are safe whereever they are.

i guess i know what noah went through with his ark'ction, man..966 mm (96.6 cms or about 38 inches) of rain in a 24 hour period.

Naina was to pickup our daughter tania from the school, she was caught up in unmovable(sic) traffic about a km from the house. then i ventured out, with about 5 other friends, managed about 4-5 km in a small car, in about 12-16 inches of water, and then we came across a road which had turned into a river.

we could not drive the car here. we got out and tried walking across the river/road and that was one scary experience. the currents were so strong, but the friendly helpful people of mumbai were using ropes to help people get across to the other side.

one scary visual here. a road normally packed with cars,autos, buses, lorries and what nots, was deserted towards one side,(and on the other side cars and other automobiles floating in water), nothing was visible except water for a distance of about 2 km. and on this waterway i seen a solitary man dressed up in rainwear, walking on the edge of the road. knowing the condition of the road's in mumbai(dug up roads and uncovered drains)about 40 people raised their voice as one, warning this man about the perils of walking on the edge of his life?

then we make it back to the office as there was no other option. and this was a difficult journey, water levels had risen further. driving was tougher the earlier venture. a canal ment to carry the excess rain water started overflowing and caused hard flowing water.

we met our daughter after 48 hours today. we dropped about 5 of her class mates back to their houses. one of the area was still slighly flooded out. the people are trying to get their houses in order.

the roads were clear of water and traffic in the morning...0700 hrs.

in a 2 km stretch of road i must have come across about 3000-4000 abandoned vehicles along the sides of the road, some in the middle of the road.

i have noticed the civic infrastructure teams starting to work at a few places, moving cars from the middle of the road, getting it towed out of the way. clearing up bodies of dead animals.

last two days people of mumbai were so helpful to each other. supporting strangers and helping, and i belive at a few places people were singing song to pep up the people trying to walk home.

today the people of mumbai are slowly limping back to normalcy.

infrastructure is still scratchy, medical shops are opening up at a few places, bread and milk does not seem to be available.

i saw the sun come out a few times in the last hour or so. with a few patches of rain.

p.s : i have been trying to upload this for the last 3-4 days..no luck. whats up blogger.com??