Memories of 26th July, 2005 - Water, water everywhere.

Memories of 26th July, 2005 - Water, water everywhere.

We watched at first in fascination, then trepidation, as the water steadily crept into the building compound, the slowly seeped into our house. Frantically we tried to remove everything from the ground level of the first room into the next room. A feeling of helplessness gave way to horror as we watched the clear water grow murky because of the gutter water now trickling into the rooms at the back via the kitchen and toilet.
My son and I emptied the lower shelves of the cupboard, which contained clothes, books etc and dumped them on the bed. Surely the water would not rise so high. But we were wrong. The flood had started at about 3 pm and by 7 pm we were standing knee-deep in water. Our car in the compound was now covered with water up to the headlights. The plants we had purchased from the Green Grower Nursery were still in the car. The fish we purchased for the awuarium in the office were still in the plastic bag in the house. We put the bag in a bucket of water, but as the water rose, the bag moved out and joined the medley of flotsam of newspapers, buckets, mugs, slippers, mats, bottle caps, worms and cockroaches.
By 9 pm the water level had reached the mattresses on the bed and the sofa-cum-bed. All the clothes and other things we kept on the bed were slowly getting wer. The neighbours called up upstairs to share a meal but we hesitated - still waiting for the water level to go down, so that we could make our way to Colaba or at at least Mahim, where we could spend the night with relatives, but it was not to be. Finally at about 10 pm we went up to the first floor and had dinner prepared by our neighbours.
Our neighbours gave us mats to sleep on but we were restless. At about 11.30 pm the water had reached the electric meters on the ground floor and suddenly the lights went out. With the help of torches we kept looking out at the water level but looking didn't help at all. The water kept rising higher and higher. Now we could only see the tops of our cars in the compound. The scooters and bikes were already buried in the pool of water.
Calls kept coming in on the one mobile with us that was still in use. (my BPL phone was out of service). We learnt that one sister-in-law was stuck in her office at Malad. My Brother-in-law went to pick up a nieve who was stranded in the school bus. We finally picked her up at 10.30 pm. Another sister-in-law was stuck at Siddhi Vinayak Temple at Prabhadevi. A friend who worked in a hotel had to spend the night there. The few people who managed to return home at night in our building, had to wade through water that was neck deep. Our compound and adjoining roads were now a virtual swimming pool.