A night to remember ! 26.07.05
Let me start by saying ‘OH MY GOD !!!!!!’….what happened on 26th July…its still a nightmare for many of us Mumbai people. Such incidents/events i had only seen on Television. Dont know where to begin…everything seems still so untrue.
On 26th July, around 3.30 Pm…the electricity went off at my factory. So me along with some of my staff went out to take air…and what we saw was UNBELIEVEABLE. The water had come in thru our office gate and had reached the 3rd step of our office main entrance. And all the workers were running around to save the stock that was kept in our godown and move to our first floor empty room.
Around 4.00 pm..things just seemed to be gettin worse, so my brother/boss asked the office staff and workers to leave. Some of them left straight away and some stayed back thinking that they would leave later when the rains slowed down. I tried calling my friends…home…but the mobile phones were down too. Then i decided to leave for home…BUT when i started my car…because of the force of the water the steering wheel wouldnt move. Plus people walking on the roads advised me to back in cause there was way to much traffic on the main road. So i left my car at the front gate and came back in.
Then me, my brother along with our remaining office staff stayed in the factory till 7.00 PM. But the RAINS just went on and on…..
Finally at 7.00 Pm me, my brother and another friend decided to go home walking. Now we are talking of walking from Andheri East to Juhu about 7 kms. But little did we know what was instore for us. It took us 3 hours to reach home…we walked thru above waist high water…in pitch darkness.
Cars, trucks, buses were nearly drowned….bulidings had lost their ground floors. Only thing that was moving where the people of MUMBAI CITY. It seemed as if the whole city was on the roads. At times the flow of the water was so fast that we had to hold on to eachother for support.
Some good people (God bless them)…where out of their houses with torches guiding people and warning them of the nearby potholes/ditches/open gutters. Some people where seen handing out food..drinks to the old people and young kids. Many people had simply lost their way in the darkness and the dirty gutter water.
The scenes reminded of those si-fi movies…where they show that the world is coming to an END. We saw people sittin in the buses that were half drowned. Many people were sittin on top of their cars..cause they could not take the risk of taking their kids home walking…or more like swimming home in the flooded waters. It was just so DARK..that we had no clue what was in front of us…there was light at times…from the LIGHTING IN THE SKY and the cars that had drowned in the water…but had their head light turned on.
Reaching home was such a sigh of relief….believe me i have never been this happy being at home. We had no LIGHTs at home too…but thankfully there was no flood situation here. My Locality is slightly on a higher side thats why it was saved. But then i think of those thousands of people who were still stranded outside in the heavy rains and flooded water.
We had no electricity till 27th July 6.00 pm. Some of the suburbs still dont have LIGHT, WATER, PHONE.
Finally today, we came to the factory…luckly there are no heavy damages. Got thru to most of my friends…thankfully they and their families have reached home safely. Heard many stories…encounters from people..and our journey seemes nothing compared to theirs.
Words cannot describe what we saw…went thru..and felt on the night of 2th July. All i can say that it was an EXPERIENCE of a LIFETIME…and i pray that it remains just once a lifetime experience.
We did manage to take a few snaps from our cell phones…
On 26th July, around 3.30 Pm…the electricity went off at my factory. So me along with some of my staff went out to take air…and what we saw was UNBELIEVEABLE. The water had come in thru our office gate and had reached the 3rd step of our office main entrance. And all the workers were running around to save the stock that was kept in our godown and move to our first floor empty room.
Around 4.00 pm..things just seemed to be gettin worse, so my brother/boss asked the office staff and workers to leave. Some of them left straight away and some stayed back thinking that they would leave later when the rains slowed down. I tried calling my friends…home…but the mobile phones were down too. Then i decided to leave for home…BUT when i started my car…because of the force of the water the steering wheel wouldnt move. Plus people walking on the roads advised me to back in cause there was way to much traffic on the main road. So i left my car at the front gate and came back in.
Then me, my brother along with our remaining office staff stayed in the factory till 7.00 PM. But the RAINS just went on and on…..
Finally at 7.00 Pm me, my brother and another friend decided to go home walking. Now we are talking of walking from Andheri East to Juhu about 7 kms. But little did we know what was instore for us. It took us 3 hours to reach home…we walked thru above waist high water…in pitch darkness.
Cars, trucks, buses were nearly drowned….bulidings had lost their ground floors. Only thing that was moving where the people of MUMBAI CITY. It seemed as if the whole city was on the roads. At times the flow of the water was so fast that we had to hold on to eachother for support.
Some good people (God bless them)…where out of their houses with torches guiding people and warning them of the nearby potholes/ditches/open gutters. Some people where seen handing out food..drinks to the old people and young kids. Many people had simply lost their way in the darkness and the dirty gutter water.
The scenes reminded of those si-fi movies…where they show that the world is coming to an END. We saw people sittin in the buses that were half drowned. Many people were sittin on top of their cars..cause they could not take the risk of taking their kids home walking…or more like swimming home in the flooded waters. It was just so DARK..that we had no clue what was in front of us…there was light at times…from the LIGHTING IN THE SKY and the cars that had drowned in the water…but had their head light turned on.
Reaching home was such a sigh of relief….believe me i have never been this happy being at home. We had no LIGHTs at home too…but thankfully there was no flood situation here. My Locality is slightly on a higher side thats why it was saved. But then i think of those thousands of people who were still stranded outside in the heavy rains and flooded water.
We had no electricity till 27th July 6.00 pm. Some of the suburbs still dont have LIGHT, WATER, PHONE.
Finally today, we came to the factory…luckly there are no heavy damages. Got thru to most of my friends…thankfully they and their families have reached home safely. Heard many stories…encounters from people..and our journey seemes nothing compared to theirs.
Words cannot describe what we saw…went thru..and felt on the night of 2th July. All i can say that it was an EXPERIENCE of a LIFETIME…and i pray that it remains just once a lifetime experience.
We did manage to take a few snaps from our cell phones…
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wanting to scream out loud, hoping that so-called “TV gurus†would hear our plead one day. This entry was posted on Friday, October 28th, 2005 at 9:02 am and is filed under Lists, Humor, India. You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 46 Responses to “The old “idiot†box…†sowmya Says: October 28th, 2005 at 12:08 pm First time here. Your post took me through a nostalgic journey down DD lane. Indeed the
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[…] Like many others stranded on 26th July, here is my story of that un-forgetful night. Let me start by saying OH MY GOD what happened on 26th July?its still a nightmare for many of us Mumbai people. Such incidents/events I had only seen on Television. Don’t know where to begin, everything seems still so untrue. […]
Pingback by To Each Its Own » Archives » Remembering 26th July 2005 — July 26, 2006 @ 12:47 pm
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3 comments | Leave your comment
Jul 29th, 2005 at 1:30 am | #
Seems like you had a rough time as did most of the people stranded.
Nice post. Interesting pics.
The events of the past two days in Bombay have been nerve wracking.
What is very different about Bombay, from other cities, is the tenacity and resilience of the city. Very few cities have it.
92% of Bombay had reported to work on March 13, 1993, a day after the bomb blasts.
Subways started running 12 hours after the 9/11 blasts in NYC.
That’s the “fighting spirit” of the people who live in these cities, which makes them different.
London was closed the day after 7/7. I am not discounting the fact that the bomb blasts there were not as tragic, or scary; but having been in both bombay in 1993 and NYC in 2001, i think i speak with some perspective on the topic.
Thats what really is impressive about Bombay.
arZan
check out some of my thoughts on this topic on my blog.
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