26 / 7

On 26th July, it poured like never before…
Water was swiftly filling up everywhere…
HR sent a mail saying we could leave early..I
had finished work and decided to scram..
Kudi and I left office at four convinced that if we
manage to reach aarey that was 10 mins away ,
we could get home definitely from there..
While everyone else hung on at work,
some because of the work load,some unsure to leave,
we set off….Truly, water had filled up knee length a
lmost all our way to aarey..
Rajjo, kudi’s hubb called up asking her to retreat and
stay in off cause his car ( as heavy as a Ford Icon for heavens sake )
had been swept away by the current of water..
Would we listen? No way.
With kudi’s excellent driving skills and one helluva car
that Maruti 800 is,we were at the opening of aarey
colony after an hour ( phew! )
we realised that due to some land slide, the entire route
was jam packed..The very first sensible & prudent decision
of that day was, to not go ahead…
We turned around, kudi still wondering if we should
try the powai route..Finally we decided to get back to office …
be safe…not experiment , not take any chances… anymore!!
Water levels on the same route back had risen. and how!!
Born optimistic & rebellious, both of us continued marching ahead…
People after every two mins warning us that its really bad ahead
water had started flowing into the car, steadily rising…
People were walking gingerly unsure when they might
just land into an open drain or any big pot holes on the punctured roads…
Traffic was slow moving, and our car got stuck at one point..
One mallu man was helpful enough to help us out of the ditch
the tyre had got stuck into and guided us genuinely
–“ stay only in the middle of the road “ he said in mallu accent..
point taken, we progress…..kudi talking to her car consistently ..
She calls it ‘ ram pyari’ We were ready to park some place and
hang on in the car,Till the situation was better but there
was no place, andAbandoning the car was no choice in our head…
So we persist.. I push the car a bit .. kudi howling at meto get
back into the car cause she could see men passing
lewd comments and staring.. Something I was oblivious to…
One can call it semi nervousness, semi adventurous..
But with the water mounting up higher in the car and kudi
now unable to feel the accelerator, phone lines jammed,
it was no longer fun !
Although we were hop, skip and jump away from office
we were now sure we could not move further causewater
had reached the window level….
the distance traveled for the next 30 secs is indescribable…
It seemed like some supreme energy suddenly maneuvered the car
Taking us through a lane and as if a supernatural force made
a building perfectly untouched by the water clog appear in one corner…
We parked in the huge parking lot, our next move already planned.
To find a landline phone, inform our family that we were fine…
We landed in an office on the fourth floor
Found comfort in an office called ‘Direct Logistics ‘
And spent the entire night there….till brij found his way
to the office on the basis of the landline number i had given him
Phew!!!!That was quite something, but today when I look back,
It seems like it was a cakewalk as compared to all
the catastrophic narratives I have been listening to…