26/7: The Mumbai Deluge and I
Mumbai & Rain :
The Contrast: Mumbai & Delhi:
If anyone put Mumbai & Delhi on two panes of a weighing machine, the differential quotient is, 'Delhi have nothing of his own, neither pepople nor weather'. Whle Mumbai have a cultural background(people) and weather.. hmm… from the last 4-5 years the weather attaining a tempearture that is not usual for the state. In this overcrowded city the rain God have given one more bow, in the arch like city. And like Delhi ki Sardi we now have Mumbai ki Baarish.
26/7 and the Twisting Tissue:
After the famous/historial (whatever you say) 26/7, the memory tissues got one more reason to twist. Any one can guess that every Mumbaikar have some unusual memories of the day, a lifetime memory I bet. I have also preserved the memories of that very day, span across in few pages of my diary. Coincidentally that was the day I had first entered in Maharastra.
NCST & MAH-CET :
The Exam:
It said that God made fortunes in advance. And I am a firm believer of the same. In the year 2005 I was looking deliberately for the job or some post graduation course. And this hunt propelled me to apperared for the NCST entrance in Allahabad on 23rd January and MH-CET entrance in Delhi on 13th February. The good marks and the ved bhaiya factor ignte my urge for Mumbai at such a level that despite mother's reluctancy father gave his consent. :), resolution passed at first level.
Ticket date:
The NCST Course was to commenced from 06th of August while the MAH-CET admission process had the 28th July as the last date, based on these dates I got my ticket of 25th July. (It took around 29hr. time to reach Mumbai from Patna, a distance of 1700 kms.).
The Journey :
25th July, 2005 :
This was expected to be my last day in Patna for that year. The train was scheduled to depart at 1.00 PM from Patna junction. The time's wheel swings from 4.00 am ￢ﾀﾓ 12.10 pm , each seconds soaked in emotions. At 12.30 pm I was in train with the luggage placed at the upper berth. That was mine first Railway journey on a 30 hr track covering 3 indian states. The sky was cloudy there, and also short spells of rain was occurring. The train started moving swiftly towards Mumbai. 1.10 pm ￢ﾀﾓ Danapur (Bihar), 1.50 pm ￢ﾀﾓ Ara (Bihar), 2.50 pm Buxar (Bihar), 4.15 pm ￢ﾀﾓ Mirzapur(U.P.)....
I was writing diary and recording each station that went passed by (my one of the favourite works) and was putting forth my memories going by the time.The guy sitting next to me was 'Kishore' who worked in the Indian Navy. He was playing the kishore kumar song 'Kabhi Palko mein asso hain, kabhi ...., ' One of the line of the song that remained in my memory till now was 'Jo Aata wo Jata hain, Ye duniya aani jaani hain yaha har sah musafir, safar mein zindgani hain' .
I had got two books for that journey, 1. The case that shook India and 2. The Legend: Vallabhai Patel. I was going on reading the book, wrting diary and enjoying the journey. I took the dinner at 9.00 pm and slept by 10.30 pm.
26th July, 2005 :
Morning and the expectation:
I wake up by 5.45 am, the train was in Itarsi (M.P.). I went down and took tea, and bought some newspapers. In the news its as usual the Natinal Politics and BJP performance in state were the headlines. I had read the Astrology section for Aquarius in Times of India and the text was which had mentioned that some unexpected changes are welcome. The train was running at a good speed and reached bhusawal on time at 9.25 am., where I had bought 3 -dozen bananas. Before my lunch at 1.15 pm I had finished reading both of the books. At this point of time the train was expected to reach 'TilakNagar' by 6.00 pm. I managed to get the window seat facing the wind at this time. As the train was moving inches closer to Mumbai the beauty of the livid nature flashed back the Ruskin Bond lines 'Being close to nature is a spiritual experience'.
Day Time and the fading hope :
The train reached Pachora and here the train was delayed due to some unavoidable reasons as told by the Pentry man. So the train which was seemed to be on/before time got delayed for 1-2-3-..... afterward due to the unavoidable reason.From Pachors till Nashik City the weather was cool, and short spells of rain was occuring. But in the heart there was corner filled with doubt for late train, the mumbai locals, the rain ..... As the co-passengers were talking that if the train got late and reached TilakNagar by 8.00 or 8.30, its really difficult to get into local train.
The watery truth :
As soon as, the train reached Khardi, the Railway personnel have announced for the first time that due to heavy rainfall in Mumbai and the pity condition of track, the train reached mumbai not before 3 am (on 27th July). The pantry wala taking advantage the the situation, were requesting the passengers to book dinner as train reached mumbai in morning. One of the co-passenger saw a local train was running on the parallel track and putting forth his best possible logic he told us that, as the locals were moving, it hardly takￃﾩ 5 more hours. As locals were running why not superfast run? What I was think of , that brother had to wait on station for extra five hours. :(.
The train started moving again, an air filled with joy filled across the train. Then comes the Aasangaon, and the final blow of the journey. The Railway personnel announced that due to record breaking heavy rainfall in mumbai, there collates 5 ft water on the track and the situation of the city was pity. All the trains (Local-Express) were cancelled for indefinite period. Till the word Cancelled the announcement was more or less sound good, but as they announced the indefinite period, a qualm grasped my stomach. An unknown fear filled in my heart.
The Final Phone Call :
The mind went back into the lane of memory & for a moment I was cursing myself for the decision (of mumbai coming) despite mother's resistance. Everybody, hastily looking for some STD-booth to made a call to their family/relatives. I also rushed for such hunt but had doubt about the security of the luggage as all of certificates were there in that.
However I came outside the Aasangaon station and manage to get a STD-booth after 15 minute of walking. OOPS!!! there were already hundreds of people were in the queue waiting for their turn. At that point of time, I realizes how much havoc the rain caused to the city, the local people were discussion the same. After 45-50 minute I got my turn, I did remember the time-slot of hardly one minute was given to every one to made the call. After which the person standing behind him started yelling . When I made the call it was as short as of hardly 20-25 words.
Time is Illusion and the Chants:
All these incidents were happening at such a pace that time appears like an illusion for me. While returning back to the train, I knew that there were 2 trains staying ahead and 3 staying behind our train. The way water had logged outside the Aasangaon station , it was like that water seems to be a boiling couldron.I came back to my berth, wrote my diary, chants the rhyme of Hanuman Chalisa.
The place where the train was standing was the outer signal of Aasangaon Station and there was a hill to our right side and the water pouring like a hell there. Suddently I had listened some passenegers were rushing next to my bearth. There was a pregnant lady, severing with pain. She got some relief after taking some medicine, but to my utmost surprise neither the station master nor the GRPF personnel were present at that time (around 10.30 pm). I tried to keep my eyes open, but they were heavy weight, the instant they close I began to feel myself sinking down on my berth.
27th July :
Water inside train:
Suddenly I woke up and found that there were some hulchal had been going on my berth. I got irritated and I would have been shouted on them if I hadn￢ﾀﾙt seen the 4 inches of water in the train. Oh God!! What is this, that￢ﾀﾙs was my first impression on seeing the water. It was 3.30 am in the morning. The darkness sheet covered the sky and the rain was still pouring steadily. Till 6.30 am the fear factor had been clearly vivid on the faces of each and every co passenger.
Titwala Dam Flooded:
At this time, Mishra G, one of the co passengers informed us that the ￢ﾀﾜTitwala Dam￢ﾀﾝ get flooded and the water doing Natraj dance in its rudra roop. Some passengers who resided in Mumbai had tried to fled through some alternate route early morning itself, but they finally returned back by the time Sun was about to set ￢ﾀﾜShubh ke bhooley shaam ko ghar vapaas laut aaye￢ﾀﾝ.
The Aasangaon Market & the Mumbai vada pav:
I went outside the station in knee-deep water to the market, and was looking for some STD Booth, I got one, but the booth owner told me in pretty sarcastic fashion that ￢ﾀﾜWe now been isolated from the rest of the India￢ﾀﾝ, His laugh was none-less than a Satish shah one, and the way he turned a serious topic into a joke was ridiculous. Anyhow, I had tasted the mumbai￢ﾀﾙs vada pav for the first time in Aasangaon.
Search for railway personnel:
Soon after that I had tried locating any railway personnel with the help of some co-passenger but no one was there to help us out. All of passenger were feeling cheated, yelling at the railways. No one had any idea about the status of the train, whether is cancelled, go back or ￢ﾀﾦ.We had left with vada pav, bhaji for our lunch,snacks and dinner everything at that point of time. What was a day!!!!.
The NGO Ideal:
Thanks to the God, a NGO named Ideal came for our rescue. Around 2.30pm they introduced themselves and then they had provided Khicdi, and other medical aid to all the so called ￢ﾀﾜFlood Affected passengers￢ﾀﾝ. The passengers who were under the fear of theft and hunger, and dissatisfied with the Railways got a reason to cheer. But the quantity of food and the people who were in hunt of that was unmatching￢ﾀﾦ. The people were larger in numbers then the food supplied the usual Indian scenario. The pregnant lady had been taken outside the Train as her condition was getting miserable there.
The miserable Situation:
It is impossible to present the picture of mental trauma of the passengers varies from all age groups in words. With no lights in train, rain water pouring continuously from the sky, and about 6 -8 inches of water inside the train on which a lot of insects crawling and other substances were floating like polybags and others. The luggages were occupying the lower berth and the people were hanging on the middle or the upper berth. That was a fearful and unique experience for life. I was sitting on my berth, and writing my diary in the dim light and chanting the Hanuman Chalisa.
Death of the lady:
At around 9 pm we got the news of the death of pregnant lady. A wave of sadness and death silence hovered the bogie, I was too won￢ﾀﾙt able to think anything at that moment, the news was taken aback with dismay by every passenger. The news had such an impact that nobody on that night. There were a pin drop silence and everyone was thinking about that lady. Although there had been no talkative relation with that lady but that was the humanity that forced everyone to think about her in such situation.
28th July:
The night that was:
The Thursday morning, the frameless emergency window was looking out on hills po with water and each molecules of the body was shivering in unison with the breeze. The absent minded air of the lady￢ﾀﾙs death news suddenly dropped me, and I suddenly came back to life. I realized I hadn￢ﾀﾙt slept for the yesternight and my body was paining as I was sitting in the same position for the whole of the night.
The returning of the train:
From the morning itself the passengers had shown a great agitation against the Railways which forced railway officers to appear on the scene and they had assured of some action in the mean time. Later on, during 11.30 they had announced that the train will go back to Patna, as there were no possible routes to enter in Mumbai at least for next 2 days. They had also arranged some buses till kalyan for the passengers who were resident of Mumbai.
Superfast or Passenger:
Finally at 12.45 am the train had started moving towards Patna. What to say, Frustration, Fun. Lucky or Unlucky, none of the word was seem to be appropriate in my mind at that point of time to describe such a unique experience of my life. A new dimension in its full swing happened before my eyes; the best part was that I was able to record them in my diary using the words.
While returning the superfast train was running like passenger train and it had taken 42 hrs instead of the normal time of 29 hr to reach Patna. The worst part was that we had no food present in Pantry to eat till Mugalsarai. We were depended upon the outside food.
Back To Patna:
The journey that I had started on 25th July finally ended on 30th , when the train returned back to the place from where it had originated. and this added a new experience's bow in my life's arch.
