Walking through water

 29.08.2017

The morning itself was rainy. Walking through the ankle length water in the subway, I took my Ladies Special at 07:35am. During rains, it is preferred to wear trousers and tops compared to salwar suits since you can fold the trouser to make a capri. The train was less crowded than usual due to Ganesh festival holidays. I reached office and started work. Outside it started raining cats and dogs. By noon, everyone started checking news, WhatsApping, etc. Trains were slow and delayed by 15 minutes to 30 minutes. This was an usual thing for a Mumbaiker. We received an official mail to leave for home by 2pm. Many booked cabs. The Virar-Vasai public had no option than train. We started from office at 02:15 pm; the group consisted of Sanket Dias, Abhishek Nagrale, Abhishek Pillai, Rajan Mishra, Madhura Chodankar, Vidhit Shah, Lozika Shah and me. We went walking towards the Santacruz Station in hope of getting some train. We got down the sloping lane opposite to the Grand Hyatt gate; then took a right turn. The complete area till the main road had knee-length  water. We walked through the center of the road with the white road mark to guide us through. In between there were vehicles moving to and fro; almost creating sea waves which dashed forcefully on the walking public making the feet tremble. Hopefully no one fell down. The main road was good till the signal. Then we took the skywalk till station. On the way, Gayatri Patil, Santosh Malavade and Sanket Chavda joined us.  Again at the public bridge, we had to almost fight with the blowing air making our umbrella as a shield. After waiting for half an hour at the platform we realized that the trains aren't moving from Churchgate till Andheri. The OLA and UBER bookings were tried but all in vain. Then we had a lunch party at Gopalkrishna Hotel. The question was now what to do next. I was of the opinion that better go back to office and stay safe. We got an update that trains are moving from Andheri to Virar. So there was hope that if we somehow reach Andheri then we can go home today. The decision was made. We were going to trek over the Western Express Highway till we reach Andheri station. Abhishek Nagrale bought a new umbrella. We started off at 4pm taking the road to the highway. Again we had to walk through knee length water till the main signal. We took a right turn. The left side of the road was submerged in water. Whatever part of the road was clear; was filled with vehicles and people walking with their umbrellas. We had to walk taking the extreme right; bearing with the water from the highway falling on the umbrella with an intensity that I thought at some point now the umbrella will tear off. I wore rainy sandals so it gave chance to every pebble to make way in my feet and thus make me slow. And in severe condition while walking through the knee length water, you cannot halt and clear your sandals. You will definitely lose your group, you cannot effort to do that! We walked and walked climbing up and down all the highways, watching the low lying areas almost under water force, buses and cars completely drowned, a sewage water fountain, etc etc. We heaved a sigh of relief on reaching Andheri station finally at 6pm. There were two Virar trains at platform no 5 and no 9. Both were packed with people. After staying for half and hour at the bridge and thinking of what to do next, we just got into the train at no. 9; lucky it started at 6.50pm and I reached Virar station at 8pm. Then again walking through knee length water, I reached home at 08:30pm; there was no electricity and it was still pouring. We three (myself, mom, sister) had dinner in candle light. Papa and brother were in their offices. I was at home but there many stranded out there in the rain in the water logged areas. There were many helping hands reaching out as far as they could; in person and online. I didn't experience even a bit of the deluge on 26.07.2005 but today I got to experience a little bit of all the feeling what a stranded person goes through and the struggle to reach home.