Thursday, August 04, 2005
Just a little Waterlogged
The day started out normally, I got up, went for my walk on the treadmill, got ready for work and started to make my way in to the office. I didn't really notice too much out of the ordinary on my way in to the office, it was sprinkling as is to be expected this time of year. But, there were an extraordinary number of Autorickshaws out on the road. Man were they taking up all of the space for the good drivers!!! From the usual 25 minutes it takes me to get to work, I reached after nearly an hour on the roads! But, heck, even that isn't abnormal in Bombay!
The work day was progressing as normal until around 3:30pm when someone from the office started yelling that our cafeteria (which is located on the roof of the building) had turned into a swimming pool. Of course all of us rushed upstairs like madmen to see what they meant. Not only was the swimming pool, oops I mean cafeteria, flooded but the stair passage to get there was also dripping!
When we made it upstairs there was quite a sight to see, it was raining so hard that we could barely see the neighboring building and there was nearly a half of foot of water between us and the lunch time food (particularly important to me...and not only because I'm pregnant!)...the office assistants were scurrying about trying to dump the water over the side of the building and to unclog the gutters so the water could drain properly. We all thought to ourselves, that was some good excitement in our dull afternoons at work and headed back downstairs talking about how this kind of weather makes us nostalgic wishing we were at home sitting near a window reading a good book and drinking coffee or tea...
When we headed back down I saw Anupam online and we started chatting in between doing our work and pretending that we don't really chat with people outside the office during working hours, when Anupam told me that I should think about heading home because he heard there were flood warning running through Bombay. At this point in time, maybe I should not say 'running through Bombay' because I don't think that most Bombayites had even the slightest of clue that maybe we should have stayed home today until it was already too late. Well, that the Indian emergency system for you. Ok, so we all start thinking that maybe we should be heading out the door so we can make it safely home to our coffee and tea with the book by the window, but everyone was looking around curious if they should even ask of the permission to leave early. Most of the bosses just shrugged it off as another monsoon rain, which of course we can work right through! Well, that is the Indian work-ethic for you...work 'em till they die or leave you.
Just before we heard that the Bombay trains had shut down, we lost electricity to the building and by then it was too late. The rain just kept on pouring down like no other rain that I have ever seen. We still had power to our computers and the phone connection due to a backup power supply. Unfortunately the power supply only lasts for a certain amount of time so we had to shut down our computers...that was like cutting ourselves off from being able to find out what was going on in the outside world.
I managed to call Anupam, who tried to arrange for his father to come and get me before it got too late, but he wasn't even sure if his car would make it all the way to me, because he had heard that all connections between the East and the West of the city were already flooded. So there was nothing to do but sit and wait.
All in all around 25 of us were stuck in the office, in the dark cut off from the rest of the world except for the land lines. We were very lucky that we managed to get a bunch of eggs and had some left over rotis from lunch to tied us through the night. I called and told Anupam that's I'd ride the night out in the office rather than worry about trying to make it home. What a birthday gift to give your husband when he's out of town! "Hi baby, everything in Bombay is flooding over and I'm stuck in the office all night! Oh and by the way, happy birthday. I hope you are having fun"...yeah right!
By about 8pm the backup power supply also went and we lost even the phone lines that connected us with the outside world. Cell phones had long gone out. As it started to get dark outside and the floors became wet with condensation because of the AC being switched off, courtesy of the power failure, people decided not to move around too much and were looking especially closely after me, so that I wouldn't fall on the slippery floors. We all gathered in the foyer of the office and sang songs, taking turns using the one phone that was still functional. Eventually we went up to eat, and then people started thinking about how and where to sleep. Let me say now that being pregnant really had it's advantages...everyone l0oked after me and made sure that I was comfortable and had a proper place to sleep and enough to eat. I was really thankful for that. I guess no one really wants to be around a hungry pregnant lady, after all.
All this time, from around 1pm till somewhere in the night the rain didn't let up even a little bit. As we looked out the window to the neighboring compound we could see that the water level outside had risen to the tops of motorcycle tanks. Thank goodness the wall held all the water in that compound, actually like a swimming pool because the drains where we park our cars were working and had relatively little flooding!
I slept on a two person couch in one of the director's cabins, while most of the rest of the people chatted through the night. At about 4 in the morning some crazy people decided they wanted to go outside and have a look to see if they'd be able to make it home. One guy left on foot, but eventually came back. Others took a car out, they too came back. We could see the highway from the director's offices and the traffic had started to move again by around 6am. About 6 people left for home on foot. They didn't come back and we didn't hear from them so we assumed they eventually made it home safely (and they had).
In the morning around 10am we got the electricity back and more people decided to try and make it home. We still didn't have much contact with the outside world to understand really how bad it was, so the rest of us, and I on the advise of Anupam and my father-in-law, decided to stay in the office. We even tried to get some work done...but by 2pm a few of us headed off to my boss's place for some food and some sleep.
On the way to Jaya's place we got our first glimpse at the kind of damage that was done. Entire walls had been torn down by water. BEST buses were stranded on the roads with debris caught under their tires. Food, garbage, plastic bags were strewn about. Hundreds of people were on foot waking to some destination, having left they cars stranded on the roads. Rickshaw drivers were either trying to start, or simply pushing their vehicles along, as were some private car owners. It was becoming clear just how much damage had been done.
Jaya's place still didn't have any electricity, but that was okay because she had food and beds. We ate a hearty meal and then we went off to sleep while Jaya and Ingatius escorted Preeti home. I finally left Jaya's place by 6pm, went back to the office, picked up my car and left for home. Still not really sure where the water level was at.
Some of the mess from earlier in the afternoon was cleared up, or else the West side wasn't hit as badly. I made it home uneventfully, passing through one water logged area near Juhu Circle and around one tree that had fallen between Lokhandwala and Four Bungalows. I reached home in just 45 minutes. Needless to say I was exhausted, but happy to see that the electricity was on and hadn't been off long enough to melt my ice...that means I still had food at home to eat!
Thursday was granted a holiday for us, and I just stayed home without venturing out. I was exhausted. But I watched the news continuously. Some people were stranded in theirs after trying to leave the office in the afternoons on Tuesday for 18 plus hours. Most of them without any food or water. Many people had abandoned their cars after they stalled in the high water levels and that was blocking the traffic behind them. Even others got tired of waiting in the jam so left their cars to walk home in the still falling, though much abated, rain. It was the longest, and biggest traffic jam that Bombay had ever seen. People were angry that warnings weren't send out early enough, or efficiently enough for people to get home safely. They were outraged by Bombay's relief attempts, or rather the lack there of. Only after much pressure from the press did the officials start dropping off food packets for those who were stranded.
Through everything, there were also many shining lights. Neighboring homes prepared tea and sandwiches for those people they could see whom were stuck in the traffic, even through the incessant rains. Others helped to ferry people across water logged streets. Others still managed to make it into office the following day...One lady gave birth in her home to a baby girl, whom she named Bishti, Bengali for rains.
Even though I was safe and dry, this will be an event that I will remember for the rest of my life.
The work day was progressing as normal until around 3:30pm when someone from the office started yelling that our cafeteria (which is located on the roof of the building) had turned into a swimming pool. Of course all of us rushed upstairs like madmen to see what they meant. Not only was the swimming pool, oops I mean cafeteria, flooded but the stair passage to get there was also dripping!
When we made it upstairs there was quite a sight to see, it was raining so hard that we could barely see the neighboring building and there was nearly a half of foot of water between us and the lunch time food (particularly important to me...and not only because I'm pregnant!)...the office assistants were scurrying about trying to dump the water over the side of the building and to unclog the gutters so the water could drain properly. We all thought to ourselves, that was some good excitement in our dull afternoons at work and headed back downstairs talking about how this kind of weather makes us nostalgic wishing we were at home sitting near a window reading a good book and drinking coffee or tea...
When we headed back down I saw Anupam online and we started chatting in between doing our work and pretending that we don't really chat with people outside the office during working hours, when Anupam told me that I should think about heading home because he heard there were flood warning running through Bombay. At this point in time, maybe I should not say 'running through Bombay' because I don't think that most Bombayites had even the slightest of clue that maybe we should have stayed home today until it was already too late. Well, that the Indian emergency system for you. Ok, so we all start thinking that maybe we should be heading out the door so we can make it safely home to our coffee and tea with the book by the window, but everyone was looking around curious if they should even ask of the permission to leave early. Most of the bosses just shrugged it off as another monsoon rain, which of course we can work right through! Well, that is the Indian work-ethic for you...work 'em till they die or leave you.
Just before we heard that the Bombay trains had shut down, we lost electricity to the building and by then it was too late. The rain just kept on pouring down like no other rain that I have ever seen. We still had power to our computers and the phone connection due to a backup power supply. Unfortunately the power supply only lasts for a certain amount of time so we had to shut down our computers...that was like cutting ourselves off from being able to find out what was going on in the outside world.
I managed to call Anupam, who tried to arrange for his father to come and get me before it got too late, but he wasn't even sure if his car would make it all the way to me, because he had heard that all connections between the East and the West of the city were already flooded. So there was nothing to do but sit and wait.
All in all around 25 of us were stuck in the office, in the dark cut off from the rest of the world except for the land lines. We were very lucky that we managed to get a bunch of eggs and had some left over rotis from lunch to tied us through the night. I called and told Anupam that's I'd ride the night out in the office rather than worry about trying to make it home. What a birthday gift to give your husband when he's out of town! "Hi baby, everything in Bombay is flooding over and I'm stuck in the office all night! Oh and by the way, happy birthday. I hope you are having fun"...yeah right!
By about 8pm the backup power supply also went and we lost even the phone lines that connected us with the outside world. Cell phones had long gone out. As it started to get dark outside and the floors became wet with condensation because of the AC being switched off, courtesy of the power failure, people decided not to move around too much and were looking especially closely after me, so that I wouldn't fall on the slippery floors. We all gathered in the foyer of the office and sang songs, taking turns using the one phone that was still functional. Eventually we went up to eat, and then people started thinking about how and where to sleep. Let me say now that being pregnant really had it's advantages...everyone l0oked after me and made sure that I was comfortable and had a proper place to sleep and enough to eat. I was really thankful for that. I guess no one really wants to be around a hungry pregnant lady, after all.
All this time, from around 1pm till somewhere in the night the rain didn't let up even a little bit. As we looked out the window to the neighboring compound we could see that the water level outside had risen to the tops of motorcycle tanks. Thank goodness the wall held all the water in that compound, actually like a swimming pool because the drains where we park our cars were working and had relatively little flooding!
I slept on a two person couch in one of the director's cabins, while most of the rest of the people chatted through the night. At about 4 in the morning some crazy people decided they wanted to go outside and have a look to see if they'd be able to make it home. One guy left on foot, but eventually came back. Others took a car out, they too came back. We could see the highway from the director's offices and the traffic had started to move again by around 6am. About 6 people left for home on foot. They didn't come back and we didn't hear from them so we assumed they eventually made it home safely (and they had).
In the morning around 10am we got the electricity back and more people decided to try and make it home. We still didn't have much contact with the outside world to understand really how bad it was, so the rest of us, and I on the advise of Anupam and my father-in-law, decided to stay in the office. We even tried to get some work done...but by 2pm a few of us headed off to my boss's place for some food and some sleep.
On the way to Jaya's place we got our first glimpse at the kind of damage that was done. Entire walls had been torn down by water. BEST buses were stranded on the roads with debris caught under their tires. Food, garbage, plastic bags were strewn about. Hundreds of people were on foot waking to some destination, having left they cars stranded on the roads. Rickshaw drivers were either trying to start, or simply pushing their vehicles along, as were some private car owners. It was becoming clear just how much damage had been done.
Jaya's place still didn't have any electricity, but that was okay because she had food and beds. We ate a hearty meal and then we went off to sleep while Jaya and Ingatius escorted Preeti home. I finally left Jaya's place by 6pm, went back to the office, picked up my car and left for home. Still not really sure where the water level was at.
Some of the mess from earlier in the afternoon was cleared up, or else the West side wasn't hit as badly. I made it home uneventfully, passing through one water logged area near Juhu Circle and around one tree that had fallen between Lokhandwala and Four Bungalows. I reached home in just 45 minutes. Needless to say I was exhausted, but happy to see that the electricity was on and hadn't been off long enough to melt my ice...that means I still had food at home to eat!
Thursday was granted a holiday for us, and I just stayed home without venturing out. I was exhausted. But I watched the news continuously. Some people were stranded in theirs after trying to leave the office in the afternoons on Tuesday for 18 plus hours. Most of them without any food or water. Many people had abandoned their cars after they stalled in the high water levels and that was blocking the traffic behind them. Even others got tired of waiting in the jam so left their cars to walk home in the still falling, though much abated, rain. It was the longest, and biggest traffic jam that Bombay had ever seen. People were angry that warnings weren't send out early enough, or efficiently enough for people to get home safely. They were outraged by Bombay's relief attempts, or rather the lack there of. Only after much pressure from the press did the officials start dropping off food packets for those who were stranded.
Through everything, there were also many shining lights. Neighboring homes prepared tea and sandwiches for those people they could see whom were stuck in the traffic, even through the incessant rains. Others helped to ferry people across water logged streets. Others still managed to make it into office the following day...One lady gave birth in her home to a baby girl, whom she named Bishti, Bengali for rains.
Even though I was safe and dry, this will be an event that I will remember for the rest of my life.
