memories83’s blog

PART X - THE NEW MORNING …

All of us brushed our teeths & got ready by 10 in the morning. We all went out. The boys were out to get food & we all went into the kitchen were aunty was busy. For the first time we clearly saw what she looked like. A pleasant face & assuring eyes, she had a typical Motherly face which was ready to scold in the first instance of mistake. We all spoke to her for sometime, offering her whatever help we could at the preparation of a wonderful breakfast she had planned for us. I am not very good at cooking & I didnot show any of my skills around, but she just said it was ok & would take care as most of the cooking was done. The girl who was gonna get married amongst us, helped her cook a Gujarati dish and Aunty welcomed her help.

Uncle came out praying in his towel , and it was the first time in 8 hours we got to know the owner of the house. He was a tall man, all looks of a Southie & very religious as most south Indians are. He spoke to us for a while, mostly asking if we had a good sleep and went back to praying. The house smelt sweet with the fragrance of the morning prayers as tough it were a temple.

And then the door bell rang. Shantu, Ganesh & Ranjit walked in with bags of chips , chocolates & cold-drinks. And at times like these you gotto store your house with whatever you can before the prices hike up. Ranjit was damn cute & was a kiddo at school , a plump little guy, but pretty tall for his age. His smile was extremely catchy & we all smiled at him.He felt so shy, he ran to his room.
And finally in 2 minutes a tall 6-feet guy walked in through the door, wearing the familiar white jacket which had come to pick us up the nite before. He closed the door & looked at us & said, “Girls, had a good sleep?” Wow!!, he was a handsome guy. We just smiled & said, “One of the best in 21 years”. And he sure had one of the best smiles I had seen, a very close resemblence to R. Madhavan of the South.

We had a hearty brunch at 11:00. It was an absolutely, fulfilling meal.
The conditions outside were still the same. Water logging was everywhere. So we decided to leave for our homes after 2:00. Till then we watched TV, played cards, spoke about politics, situations outside,career plans & lot of the things under the sun.

At 3:00 in the afternoon the boys went out to check the conditions & finally at four we did all the thanks giving, goodbyes & all the stuff required to convince them they had been GODS for us.
Ganesh dropped the two girls home & Sujeet & Shantu took me & Pavan to my place.
Pavan stayed at my place for the 2nd nite, and things were back to normal by 28th july. Mumbai was up & running after the inummerable devastations & losses.

Anyways…..I had one of my most memorable experiences in just 24 hours & I am thankful to GOD for letting me go through this.
And finally when Pavan left my home on 28th Morning…All she said was “MANA , U have been GOD for me”….And I just smiled back, coz she had just said my words. I am also thankful to her for sticking by me.

******** END************

PART IX - The Mystery of the CALL…

The Morning came fast.But the sleep was one of the best. I never knew that 4 hours of sleep can be so satisfying. I looked out of the window. It was still drizzling. The rain was not as forceful as the other night and it looked like a complete new era. Or you could say, the morning was too beautiful to devour after the darkness.

While staring out of the window trying to gulp the beauty outside as BARC has a lottaf mountains & trees surrounding it & everything outside was wet & beautiful, the trees dripped dropplets of water and there were gulmohar trees all red & blossoming, when my eyes fell on the mobile. And I recollected the call I had received 4 hours ago.
I picked up my cell & went through the number. The number was nowhere to the memory of numbers i could recollect. All these girls were up by then. I asked all the 3 girls if it were one of their numbers & i got no positive answers. It could mean only one thing, the number either belonged to Ganesh or Shantu. So on further enquiry about the number I didnot get a positive reply from either of the duo.

O.K , so I gotta find out whos number it was. The networks had’nt resumed till then & I couldnot dial out. So everyone just assured me that whoever called up would call back if required. But the strangest part was , the caller never told me who she/he was calling up for. Who was talking from the other end? But yes, the caller knew we were in trouble & had called to make sure we were safe. BUT WHY ??

On further enquiries I came to know the country code was for ISRAEL, and none of us present at the time of situation had relatives in Israel. I tried to call up the number almost twice a month for the next 4 months but I got no reply.

I donot believe in mysteries, coz i believe theres a logic behind everything that happens around us. But there are times like this when you are forced to think, if there’s something beyond plain Logics of LIFE.

And as I think about the above incident at times,
Lemme term it as a mystery, till I find a proper Explanation to it…

So the Mystery of the Strange CALL……………..Remains a Mystery.

PART VIII - The Strange Call…..

I was lying on the bed looking into space. There was a window facing my side & I could still see the crazy rain slashing onto the window pane. I lay there thinking about the past 9 hours wondering what the rest of my world of friends & family were doing at this hour. Was everyone safe? Were they sleeping right now? What kindaf stories I would listen tomorrow? Would they hug me when they see me? And how many people would be still on the roads at this moment? If I hadnt met Shantu, where would we guys be right now? And amongst all this questions I realized my God# 7 was Shantu. I thanked him, even tough he could not hear me. Suddenly…..

A light glowed over the table top which was joined to the window and a small buzzing sound in the distance broke through my thoughts. I got up & ohh Gosh!!, not again,my cell phone was ringing on the table. I just got up & picked it up.It was still buzzing. I saw that there were bubbles inside the screen & I am really amazed how my cell had survived through water. Amongst the bubbles which were adamant to roll out of the screen, I tried to figure out the number. It was a long distance call. It had around 12 digits with a plus sign at the start. But I do know codes of USA, UK & Dubai & it didnot take me time to realize, it was neither of these countries. Why would an unknown number call me at 4:00 in the morning? I just thought of answering the call rather than answering my own questions.
“Hello” , I said
A deep husky voice of a woman responded from the other end.
“Hi, how are you?”
“Well I am fine, whoz th…” , and even before I could finish my sentence, she said
“Good. Everthing ok out there? Have you guys reached safely home?”
“Yes, but whos th….”, Why wouldnt this lady lemme finish my sentence???
“Very good, thats all I wanted to check, Call you later, my bill’s rising”…

Huh!!!! What was that? & who was that?..hmm the voice was really good. I am guessing it was a woman by the sweetness in the voice, but it could have been a guy too…
And I slept in the next 5 minutes thinking it would be somebody’s relatives from another country trying to figure out situations as my mobile number had been globally circulated in the past few hours.

PART VII

Our GOD# 6 led us through a route on just one support, a small dim torch.Some of our mobiles had more powerful lights than his tiny torch.We reached his towers & switched on all the cell phones to go through the dark,spiral staircase. He stayed on the 4th floor and reaching there was a bit difficult as we didnot know where the staircases ended. We finally reached his door which was wide open to welcome us. His mom, dad & younger brother were waiting at the door. Shantu spoke to them & introduced me to his parents & told them the rest of the people were from my company. By then, even, Shantu didnot know the names of the 4 people who had accompanied me, infact, even I didnot know the names of the two girls who i had taken along with me.
His mom, had a typical South Indian accent & welcomed all of us inside. She asked us to sit on the sofas, but we all were so drenched, we preferred sitting on the floor. Aunty went into the kitchen & came out in 15 minutes, by the time Uncle had finished asking most of us what platforms we were workin on & all relative questions. You could have easily guessed that the Warrier house was full of Engineers & they were too glad to have 6 engineers at 2:30 in the nite. The house was dimly lighted with a few candles so that we could make out the appearance & not bang anything down. But the light was not bright enough to make our faces or expressions visible.Aunty got hot Chocolate Milk for all of us & we were overwhelmed by her warmth. She very well was aware of what all we had gone through without even uttering a line. When we all denied and asked her not to take any trouble as we were more than happy to stay indoors, she just exclaimed in her typical dialect “Wouldnt I have done it , if it were my Sujit & Ranjit?? “…Sujit’s my God# 6 and ranjit was his mini version. All of us gulped down the Chocolate milk & it was one of the best I have tasted so far. It was better than any Cafe Shop and no Baristas & CCD’s could get that taste Or you could say,we were really too hungry by then. But the Milk surely made us feel better.

“You must be wanting to change right?,Sujit go get your clothes”, Aunty said.
And once again we were with the No, No Ragas. But it was virtually impossible to get your way when Aunty was around. “How, NO? Wouldnt have I done this if my Sujit & Ranjit were in your place now ?” Sujit was more than obedient. He had gone in & back in 2 minutes with his entire wadrobe in two hands. He had got out the best of his clothes & they were all ironed. We just looked at each other. Shantu was his childhood friend & he just picked up one of the pair of shorts & a plain T-Shirt & went to the washroom to change. We all sat on the floor where we were. Like I said, its not possible to win over Aunty, she scolded each one of us individually & asked us to pick our choice of clothes.
Sujit helped me select the smallest size of his pants & said,”if they drop down, i’ll provide you a belt”. And I smiled & said “Don’t you think you should’nt wait for them to drop & gimme a belt right away”. Everyone burst into laughing,& it was a laugh after 9 long hours. Aunty also provided us with washrooms & a seperate bedroom for us 4 girls.
By 3:00Am all of us were clean & dry. We hung our clothes to dry. And all 10 of us sat in their Living room & was telling them our experience. Aunty silently kept praying to god to bless other lives out there in distress. And my Funky God kept swearing all through the story telling sessions. He got a candle & kept it in the center where we all sat surrounding it. And Shantu mentioned “Its no Use trying to figure out what all the girls look like, U can see them in the morning Sujit”.It was too much of laughter over silly jokes for the next one hour. The best tale was when we told them how Pavan had lost her Sandals in the gust of forceful water and poor Pavan was bare footed for over 3 hours.

Finally at 3:45 , aunty came out and asked all of us to hit the sack. She said that the stories can go on tomorrow morning & all of us needed rest. We dare not argue with her, and all 4 of us went into one of the bedrooms, the guys slept in the living room which had a compatible bed too & Ranjit slept with his parents.

I was’nt sleepy & was just lying on the bed with my eyes wide open.The rest of the three gals were fast asleep by 4:00.I could hear all the 3 guys talking outside, but i didnot bother to get up from the soft mattress….

PART VI

‘BARC COLONY’ , the board read - I had heard, this was one of the best areas in 30 yards. And I happened to see it on a nite when there were no lights & half the area was flooded under water. All 6 of us got off the bus and by now we were like fish, too accustomed to water.

Pavan was staring at me. “What?”, I asked her. She pulled me closer to her, “Mana, i gotta pee real bad, I cant control anymore” . This is the 3 time she had mentioned it to me in the past 2 hours.
“OK, Pavan ..Its water everywhere, do it if you cant control.But if you just hold on for sometime we are about to reach someone’s house and I am sure they would’nt mind you using their washroom”.
“Damn Mana!! i can’t”..she was to tears again.
‘Baby I cant really help you………..’
“Shantu how far is your friend’s place?? “, was the least I could ask
” Not far, just up this hill & we would be soon outtaf water as this road winds upwards”.
“See i told you Pavan, its not far…Now before we leave this natural swimming pool, are you sure you can walk up that road (without bothering me) ?”
“OK!! “ and she really didnot boother me for the next 30 steps.

The walk to the colony was beautiful … there were no lights, only the tiny flickering glow moths ( i am still wondering how they were surviving in those rains), no other animal on the street, huge trees on both sides of the road which was protruding upwards. It was one of the most romantic place, had it been another day.
We reached the gates & 7 gaurds were standing with huge torch lights at the entrance.
‘What place was this? Why were there soo many gaurds.’
Shantu seemed to have read my thoughts. He said in a hushed voice “Many NRI’s stay here”. Oh!! No wonder theres so much security.
They made him sign a register & asked us the block number. Shantu did not remember it and he kept telling, “We have come to meet the ‘WARRIERS’.He told everyone’s name in the family, but the security gaurds werent ready to let us in.”
“Do you have a Bathroom here”, Pavan yelled from behind. All the gaurds who were busy arguing with Shantu were jolted with the question.
“Do u have a bathroom?” she enquired again, this time a little louder.
“Yes, Yes..” one of the gaurds said & led her to the way. He asked one of us to go in with her to carry the torch. I accompanied Pavan, as I was too tired to listen to any arguments going outside.
in the distance I could hear Shantu saying “Try & understand , i have girls here who havent eaten for hours, and I cannot get through his cell number as networks are down.”
“Ok I think I can remember their extension number.”

The gaurds just looked at each other and laughed. I and Pavan had come out by then.
‘Now whats soo funny!!’ was Shantu’s reaction. That’s when one of the gaurds told him , that the extension number was the block number. Well we all burst out laughing, including Shantu.So all that arguing was a WASTE.

They managed to get through their linker line and soon Shantu was on the call with his friend. A quick description of the situation & the number of people accompaning him, he was done with the call. “He’s Coming !!”

Shantu faintly remembered the way to his towers. We all decided to walk in that direction. Two minutes later, we saw an illuminous structure walking in our direction. Something which was above Six feet tall, hooded, in white clothes and with i little glow light in one hand.

He walked past us. i think he realized later that Shantu was not alone.
“HEY DUDE !!”….Shantu turned around & both of them hugged.
“DUN WORRY I AM HERE”..”LEMME GET YOU GUYS HOME”..

And all I thought was “Hey Dude????”…. ????….My 6th GOD was sure FUNKY !!!!

PART V

"So, do you have any idea who's this guy who was injured" I enquired the people in the bus.

"Yes!!" an elderly man said, "he's some guy named "Sabnis"

"WHAT??", my immediate next door neighbours were Sabnis & they had two sons and as far as I knew my colony, I don't think theres any other Sabnis family.

"Yes", the man continued " He's some Sardar".

Ohh no!! I donot know any Sabnis Sardar.

Another man to his left said " Arre, no Kulkarni , Sabnis & Sardar are two different guys.

I couldnot hold on to the suspense . I stood in the bus & yelled out, SABNIS.

He immediately stood up. Ohh my GOD!! , it was Sabnis's Elder Son What's his name?? the entire 7 hours had drained me completely. I was so blank that I couldnot remember my next door neighbor's first name. But when he saw me, a big relaxed smile crossed his face. I am sure he must have seen the same smile on my face too. He called me to his seat, I guessed he was pretty injured to walk. All of us went behind & I started talking to him. Another one hour was spent in discussing what both of us went through. Pavan, Ganesh & both the girls slept or were atleast sitting with their eyes closed. It was 12:00 in the night and we were tired, hungry & sleepy. Too worn out & too much depressed. Suddenly a man in the bus declared , they would move the bus in another 15 minutes and try to slowly head it towards their company; so that the people they had offered shelter to in the bus, could make a decision to go along with them or get off. The group 5 college guys amongst whom was the Sardar, Mr. Kulkarni had confused Shantu with( well I had just recollected my neighbor's name), decided to get off the bus & find their next shelter for the night. God Bless them !!.. we had all spoke for an hour together & they had shared that little piece of cake between all 10 of us.We waved out to them & they vanished in the dark. We were still deciding on what to do, get off or go along with the bus??..Shantu then asked them, "where is the bus heading towards?? "

'BARC', they said.

Now theres always an advantage when you know the area. Shantu was thinking fast. " Ok", he yelled in excitement, "My School friend stays there, and we are best buddies since school".

Buzz Buzzzzz ."Don't tell me!!" Who would call me at this hour?..i looked at my watch , it was 12:15..

'Teju calling..', my cell read..WOW I am still amazed how the guys managed to get through these lines. "Hi Mana..how are you? Couldnot get through your landline, so I thought I'll check with you , if you are ok". All the others in the bus were amazed, no one could get their 6600s, nokias, Samsungs, sonys working..no Airtel, no Reliance, no network & My C115 Moto with Orange was receiving calls after calls.

'I told Teju , I was fine when Shantu told me to ask him to call up his place & gave him the number. I informed teju to call up the 3 numbers Shantu owned at his house & keep trying till he got through & pass on the message at Shantu's place that we were together & were on our way to the "Warriers". My God# 4 hung up immediately and

buzz buzz 'Vish calling ' "hi babes(that's his favorite word), you OK? Where are you now?", I passed Shantu's number to him too and asked him to try them out & pass the same message & added him to ask Shantu's younger brother to inform the same to my mom. I also asked him to send across Shanky's message that she had reached safely in Nerul at a friends place and I had a talk with her.

CALL WAITING was buzzing in my ear during vish's call. So I asked him to hang up. Shantu then realized that we weren't passing my phone number to his parents so that they could contact directly rather than passing messages through friends..Its such a simple logically right thing to do, but it just did not strike me in my first two calls.Guys are so important at such times!! They have their brains in places most of the times.

"Wait I am receiving another call, maybe its teju with some news & I'll inform him to call up again at your place."

'Hasnain calling ' What's wrong with the boys, can't they sleep? 12:30 am and 27^th July had started. He was my collegue."Hi Mana. Have you reached home? I just managed to swim through & have reached now". I informed him , I, Pavan and Ganesh were together and were still on the roads. Asked him to call Shantu's place and give my number. The other girls wanted to send their safety messages home too. So I gave everyone's number to Hasnain & he promised to get back with the messages asap.I even asked him to pass my number to every1.

'GOD# 3 : Vish called back to inform that he had passed the required message to Shantu's place and asked to pass your & Shanky's message too'.

'GOD# 4 : Teju called back to tell me, that my mom is relieved to know I was with Shantu and Shanky was fine too. He had also given my number to Shantu's dad.'

'GOD# 5 : Hasnain called , he had managed to get through all the 3 girls landlines & successfully managed to pass my number for further contacts.'

THEY ALL WERE SIMPLY AWESOME And I couldn't thank God enough for his wonderful messengers they made my life so much simpler in just 30 minutes.

By 1:00 AM my cell phone received calls from Shantu's house, Pavan's house, the two girls houses, one girl's to-be-husband, a few relatives of I do not remember who all. It did not matter, HUMAN CONTACT was too important then.

PART IV

It was pitch dark. I had all the guts to walk in, maybe becoz it was my route for 21 years. But Pavan and the other 2 gals were reluctant. And to think about it now, any sane man would never walk in it. Poor Ganesh (what an apt name, thats my GOD# 1 of this story) did not know what was to be done. He had walked all the route just to make sure that we were safe at an hour like that. The water was rising real fast and the passing one or two heavy vehicles would sway the entire crowd to a corner with a force which was unimaginable. Now what?..Damn we were so near to my house & couldn?t walk in 100 steps when we had covered thousands just to get there.

?

?Mana your cell?s working right?? Pavan said amongst her tears. ?I need to call home for the last time & hear their voices?.

Ok, so this was the last thing I wanted to hear. And now she was making me feel guilty, coz I was the one who got her off the bus with the hope of reaching home early and now all 5 of us were stranded on the road. The other two girls said, ?Lets walk up the bridge & stand there till morning. We would atleast be safe there.?

OK WILL ANY1 LEMME THINK?For Pete?s Sake, this was my area & I knew a lot more people outside it. I just had to think where. I thought about a school friend of mine who lived down the block just opposite the road. I led everyone there. Ganesh kept holding to all 4 of us. When we neared my friend?s house, Ganesh suggested he would check the area first as it was pretty low-lying. One step & all four of us yelled so loud, somebody in the building might have got a heart attack with that shriek. Ganesh had gone neck deep right inside. Its no use going there I said, ?he stays on the Ground Floor? & must have vacated his house hours ago.

And then as we looked hopelessly at the crowd moving in the direction of the bridge, I realized my first drop of tear had rolled out & merged with the raindrops on my face. And they continued to flow.

I was looking into heaven, right into the face of God and asking him with silent words, ?What do you have in store for us? ?

I had finished my conversation with HIM and lowered my head, when I saw something which? looked like our LOGO. Yes!! That?s our company?s bus with its Logo on it. Okie, lets go sit in.

We went running across the street & banged the bus door. It slid open, and frantically we yelled together the name of our company as though we were advertising it.

No, we aren?t from your company, but the bus is surely yours. Our company leases it for the night travel to the factory. All middle-aged people were staring at us.

All hope diminished?we were about to go back, when I said ? Do you think you can let us sit in the bus for sometime, we are very tired walking?.

They just smiled at us & signaled to get in. All 5 of us were aboard and once inside the cosy bus all 4 of us broke out. It was the first time I remembered almost everyone in my Life. People who made even the smallest difference in life. And that?s how I landed to the philosophy of ?PEOPLE FOR REASONS, SEASONS AND LIFETIME?. Ganesh was at his best, consoling each one of us. I gained back to myself in 10 minutes. And then we started talking to the men in the bus. They were asking us how much we had walked, since what time, and they were telling about their respective stories.

Then one of them asked me, ?Where do you stay?? I turned to my left, looked in the direction of my house, & said, ?Right there, across the street. But the water is over 10 feet and no1 is ready to walk there with me?.

?Ohh!! Good you didn?t walk in there. The water is at terrible speed & we have just picked up a guy from your area who was injured, and he is lying on the back seat of the bus?.

I looked up towards heaven and smiled, ?THANK U MY GOD# 3??

PART 3

“I swear i’ll never take part in a marathon or a swimming competition”. Walking 7 kilometers in Water was hell.
Water was still slashing on my face. I was still holding onto my bag and everything was blurred. The raindrops just did not allow me to open my eyes.
GOD#2 had managed to walk us down 5 kms without letting anyone of us flow off in the sewages near by. At mid-junction after 5 kms, people decided to split. Thats when i lost Dibbiya & Osci. We kept shouting, and there was no response. Guess they must hv taken the other route along with God#2. Now it was 3 of us. Me , Pavan & God#1.
The three of us walked down holding hands. By now Mumbai had turned into a mob and in the darkness I realised it was 9:00 PM. Two gals were walking right behind us. “Excuse me!! Could you tell me how long would it take for me to walk down to Sion”. i turned around to check who was calling. She was the same girl who was discussing her marriage plans in the bus.”Well Sion’s another 3 kms from here”, i replied and it would be more than that if you are going to walk down from here as water was waist deep till then.
Both of them were in tears. I said,”You can stay at my place for the night.” And i still can’t forget the smile on their faces.

I still had to cover one last bridge before i could reach the mouth of my area and God#1 accompanied us all through the way. holding on to 4 girls, giving life support.
Buzzzz..Buzzzzzzzz…Ohh My GOD..was that my cell ringing in my bag??..It sure was.

I was not sure if i should be taking out the cell in these rains. It would be spoilt. Damn with the cell, i needed to reach out to my mom. What if it was Shanku?? I had to take this call. My younger sister was stuck in Vashi. And all through the way i was thinking how she would manage. The best advice i have given so far was then, when the only person so far to have managed to get through my cell phone at 7:00 was her.I had strictly told her”Try & go to any friend’s place in that area”, “Dont bother to catch a taxi for home, no-one would drive in this area & it would be useless walking out”. i broke out of my thoughts and searched for the buzzing piece all through my bag. Finally i took it out & it was still ringing after being equally soaked as my innerwears.

“Vish calling…”, Shoot!! how did he manage to get through these jammed lines?
“Hi, what are u doing? I am eating Bhajiyas and seeing the water flood through my Window…hey, where are you, why’s there so much of noise around??”
“Vish, I am stuck..can you do me a favor and call up anyone who can get a message passed to mom, that both of us are fine”.
I knew my mom, she must’ve cried buckets by now…….
“Ok!! Dun worry, i’ll do that. But one more thing, donot try to go in your area. Water’s above 10 feet…And, Should i come there..”,he asked..
& i was thinking ‘ohh God vishy!! Dun get mushy…how do u plan to travel over 15 kms to help me out at this hour’..no time to think about all that..
“Ok Vish, plz call me back if u have passed the message, i have to keep my line free, in case Shanku is trying to call up”.
“What ur sister is not home either??”
“Ok , no time to discuss all that, just call me back”..& i hung up.

Buzzzz…buzzz
“Its me again…I have passsed the message to your mom, but shes said its next to impossible for u to reach home with over 10 feet water around and all the sewages were open. PLease turn back & go wherever you can. Is there anything I can do??”

HE HAD DONE ENOUGH THAN I HAD ASKED…GOD# 3 had just hung the call and it was 9:30, I was standing right outside the gully of my area & thinking if i should override his instructions??

PART 2
We left the company at 5:30 & for the first time, i peeped outtaf the window.Oops..half the cars were in water.People were frantically trying to push them through knee deep water.
By 7:30 amidst the lightning and roaring of clouds, we managed to reach in the interiors of East Mumbai (Shivaji Nagar).Mumbai had shut down power supply by then.
By now people realized, it was next to impossible to reach homes and start thinking of alternatives.
Mobile networks down.Traffic at Standstill.Cars, Buses, Trucks all in a row & thousands of people on road.The best option was join the crowd with the hope of reaching to our nests.

And so our entire bus got off, as though it was a rebel.
Brrrrr…Its soo cold!!!..The water was ice cold…”GOD ARE U MAKING AN ICECREAM OR A COLD DRINK??”

In the darkness, i dont even remember who was holding who’s hands. It was only importatnt, that you were holding onto somebody.
a guy walked past by ” Come hold my hand”.
I raised an eyebrow ” And may I know who’s hand am I holding?”
The guy must be thinking, ‘These gals…even at a time like this, they can be real messy’..anyways he preferred to use better words.”YOUR LIFE-GAURD”.”Ok now quick hold my hand, i am from ur company & we are gonna make a trail so that we donot loose the 60 or more people in the bus”.
GOD#2 was calling. I held onto him & off we went yelling for whichever names we knew of whoever people we knew, to join hands and make a trail.

That One Day…
When Mumbai was least aware that rains could ruin their lives..
Mumbai had never experienced the fear of RAIN GOD…
And on 26th July, 2005..It just took a Toll…

Amidst the lakhs of people who had bad, worse & worst experiences, here i am to tell you, one of my closest encouter with GODS…

Time 4:00 PM : I was with my training batch, in my company busy writing codes for an assignment.Rain was pouring heavily on the roof tops & we were punching keyboards in the basement. I was a new joinee for a renowed Software Firm then, and was undergoing my initial training at the company.

Time 4:10 PM: Buzzzzzzzzzz….Buzzzzz…My mobile’s never on a Ring tone.And it vibrated real bad in my back pocket.People still wonder why i keep my cell in the backpocket when it makes me jump everytime it rings,but then i hate the ringing of a mobile.
“Hello”…”Yes Mom, what is it, I have really low network here”..”No my company has’nt sent any mails asking us to leave”..”We have received no such news”.
Seems like the entire Mumbai was on roads, trying to reach desperately home, and we were still not aware of the situation outside.

Time 4:15 PM: All of us were finding this really adventurous.the best part was, if Mumbai floods a bit we might get an off tomorrow.All 28 of us in the room started praying “Oh God, Plz flood Mumbai.We need an off desperately”. Guess our prayers were answered above expectations.

Time 4:30 PM: Mails started flooding in the 1000 or so computers, in the entire building stating ‘Buses schedule’, to be left at 5:00 PM .Assemble outside.
Everyone packed their belongings & importantly picked up their umbrellas & winchis & stepped outtaf the company.The first time rain slashed on our faces & we realised the umbrellas wont survive.Everyone closed their umbreallas & walked upto the buses all soaked with water in less than 20 seconds.

Time 5:15 : It is very difficult to gather an employee strength of 600 people.Buses were over-crowded by the time we tried to get in. And we lost most of our buddies in the rush. 5 of us stuck together from the same area. Me,Dibbiya,Osci,Pavandpz and GOD#1…