Mumbai, 26th July 2005
8:30 AM : I woke up at the sound of alarm just to realize that I was too late for college. Yes! you guessed it right, this incident happened when I was in second year diploma. My college was in Bandra and I would commute daily by "Lifeline of Mumbai-Local Trains"
My first lecture was at 9.30 am, so it was impossible for me to reach college for first lecture. I called one of my friend to mark my proxy for that lecture. I love the concept of proxy, I wish we could do the same thing in office. Anyways, I got up lazily and reached college directly for next lecture.
As soon as I reached college my friend who marked proxy for me told me "Yaar meine teri proxy toh maar di but sir ne pakad li proxy " I was like OMG now I will have to face the consequences.
1:00 PM : I was upset and worried because of proxy scene. I proceeded for next lecture. We all were listening to our dearest "Hire Madam" without any interest. In the meantime it had already started to rain heavily outside. Someone from our classroom said "Madam please let us go home it's raining heavily" Hire Madam said "No, rain will stop in sometime, sit quietly"
After 30 minutes, a boy came in classroom and said "Madam I have a message from Principal" Madam said "What is it?" He said " Principal has asked all students to leave because trains might get affected due to heavy rains." But our Madam was one stubborn lady. In spite of Principal's orders she continued her class for 10 more minutes.
2:00 PM : Happily we all packed our bags and headed towards railway station. Little did we knew that our happiness was momentary. As soon as we stepped out of college gate we realized how heavily it was pouring. Mini rivers were flowing around us. We tried a lot to get an auto but all in vain. Somehow we managed to reach Bandra station.
3:00 PM: Usually, Shweta, Me, Sampada and Bhagyshree would commute together. Shweta and Sampada would take Virar bounded train while Bhagu and me would board on Borivali bounded train. But that day due to some reason Bhagu didn't turn up with us. Shweta and Sampada boarded on Virar train as usual. I still remember I took 3:00 PM Borivali slow train from platform one. Train moved smoothly till Vile Parle.
But even before reaching Vile Parle station's platform. Train stopped all of sudden.
5:00 PM: After almost 2 hours finally motorman made an announcement in train "Bhari Varsha k kaaran gaadi aage nahi jayegi, Due to heavy rainfall train will not go ahead" I was waiting patiently till now but after hearing this announcement I got tensed. While I was just pondering on what to do next? Someone tapped on my shoulder. I turned around to see a girl almost of same age as mine. She asked me "You are going Malad Right?" I was shocked and amazed how the hell she knew it. Even before I could reply she said "Even I am going Malad, I see you everyday at Malad station." Don't be shocked. This is very common thing for daily train commuters. Mumbaikars have one additional type of friend "Train wale friend". People who travel in same train daily tend to know each other's faces and becomes friend eventually, sometime we don't even know each other's name but we are "Train friends" So coming back to my story, we both decided to jump off the train. Yes! jump off because train was not on platform. Already water was logged on entire tracks. In fact it was impossible to guess where exactly the tracks were. It was fully covered with water. When I jumped from train I realized that water level was till my hip. My new train friend "Mini" and me crossed railway tracks and decided to go by road. We started walking on road....no!!! actually you can say we were swimming. One can't walk when water level is above your stomach.
6:00 PM: We both were very positive about getting some type of transportation. We would ask each auto driver to drop us till Malad. If they would say No, we would plead them to drop us atleast till Andheri Station. No one agreed. Finally one Autowala agreed for Andheri station. Happily we sat in there, little did we knew happiness was momentary. We must have reached hardly half a kilometer, when another autowala coming from opposite direction said "Arre Marna hai kya udar ja rahe ho, sab jagah paani bhara hai ....Mat jao wahan" Our Autowala looked at us and said "Sorry Madam aage nahi ja sakte" Mini said "acha, jahan se aaye hai wahin chodo hame yeh jagah pata nahi hai" He said "Ok madam" he dropped us at same spot from where we took the auto and charged us 20 bucks. Can you imagine??
Again we started swimming and managed to reach Irla in Vileparle. At Irla we saw one BEST bus, I asked conductor "where is it going?" He said "Andheri station" Mini and me immediately got in.
7:00 PM : We were sitting in that bus and bus didn't move even half meter.
8:00 PM : We were still sitting in that bus and bus didn't move even half meter.
9:00 PM : We were still sitting in that bus and bus didn't move even half meter. By now we both were shivering and feeling hungry. None of the shop was open. Even street light was not on. It was totally dark outside because electricity was not there at all in entire city which is very rare thing in Mumbai.
09:30 PM : God sent a Angel for our rescue. Few college boys who were also sitting in bus with us managed to get few packets of biscuits and chocolates. They were so kind that they distributed it to everyone in the bus. When it comes to crisis like this we get to see the spirit of mumbaikars. They always come forward and help you in situation like this.
10:00 PM : We were still sitting in that bus and bus didn't move even half meter. We lost our patience and decided to get off the bus and started swimming again. It was dark outside and still raining. But road was not empty. It was crowded. I looked as if some kind of rally was going on. Everyone was walking through the water, it didn't seem as if flood had stuck our city. As it is said nothing can stop Mumbai. I witnessed it that day. Buses were not moving, trains stopped, cars, autos bikes everything stopped but not mumbaikars. We kept moving. On the way we met so many kind aunties, they would tell us, "beta hamare sath sath me chalo, dhyaan rakho apna" at few places people were standing holding their hands in circle just to indicate that there is open Man hole.
12:00 AM: Finally we reached Jogeshwari station. Yes we walked down from Irla till Jogeshwari. It was midnight and we were dead tired to walk ahead.
.................................To be continued
8:30 AM : I woke up at the sound of alarm just to realize that I was too late for college. Yes! you guessed it right, this incident happened when I was in second year diploma. My college was in Bandra and I would commute daily by "Lifeline of Mumbai-Local Trains"
My first lecture was at 9.30 am, so it was impossible for me to reach college for first lecture. I called one of my friend to mark my proxy for that lecture. I love the concept of proxy, I wish we could do the same thing in office. Anyways, I got up lazily and reached college directly for next lecture.
As soon as I reached college my friend who marked proxy for me told me "Yaar meine teri proxy toh maar di but sir ne pakad li proxy " I was like OMG now I will have to face the consequences.
1:00 PM : I was upset and worried because of proxy scene. I proceeded for next lecture. We all were listening to our dearest "Hire Madam" without any interest. In the meantime it had already started to rain heavily outside. Someone from our classroom said "Madam please let us go home it's raining heavily" Hire Madam said "No, rain will stop in sometime, sit quietly"
After 30 minutes, a boy came in classroom and said "Madam I have a message from Principal" Madam said "What is it?" He said " Principal has asked all students to leave because trains might get affected due to heavy rains." But our Madam was one stubborn lady. In spite of Principal's orders she continued her class for 10 more minutes.
2:00 PM : Happily we all packed our bags and headed towards railway station. Little did we knew that our happiness was momentary. As soon as we stepped out of college gate we realized how heavily it was pouring. Mini rivers were flowing around us. We tried a lot to get an auto but all in vain. Somehow we managed to reach Bandra station.
3:00 PM: Usually, Shweta, Me, Sampada and Bhagyshree would commute together. Shweta and Sampada would take Virar bounded train while Bhagu and me would board on Borivali bounded train. But that day due to some reason Bhagu didn't turn up with us. Shweta and Sampada boarded on Virar train as usual. I still remember I took 3:00 PM Borivali slow train from platform one. Train moved smoothly till Vile Parle.
But even before reaching Vile Parle station's platform. Train stopped all of sudden.
6:00 PM: We both were very positive about getting some type of transportation. We would ask each auto driver to drop us till Malad. If they would say No, we would plead them to drop us atleast till Andheri Station. No one agreed. Finally one Autowala agreed for Andheri station. Happily we sat in there, little did we knew happiness was momentary. We must have reached hardly half a kilometer, when another autowala coming from opposite direction said "Arre Marna hai kya udar ja rahe ho, sab jagah paani bhara hai ....Mat jao wahan" Our Autowala looked at us and said "Sorry Madam aage nahi ja sakte" Mini said "acha, jahan se aaye hai wahin chodo hame yeh jagah pata nahi hai" He said "Ok madam" he dropped us at same spot from where we took the auto and charged us 20 bucks. Can you imagine??
Again we started swimming and managed to reach Irla in Vileparle. At Irla we saw one BEST bus, I asked conductor "where is it going?" He said "Andheri station" Mini and me immediately got in.
7:00 PM : We were sitting in that bus and bus didn't move even half meter.
8:00 PM : We were still sitting in that bus and bus didn't move even half meter.
9:00 PM : We were still sitting in that bus and bus didn't move even half meter. By now we both were shivering and feeling hungry. None of the shop was open. Even street light was not on. It was totally dark outside because electricity was not there at all in entire city which is very rare thing in Mumbai.
09:30 PM : God sent a Angel for our rescue. Few college boys who were also sitting in bus with us managed to get few packets of biscuits and chocolates. They were so kind that they distributed it to everyone in the bus. When it comes to crisis like this we get to see the spirit of mumbaikars. They always come forward and help you in situation like this.
10:00 PM : We were still sitting in that bus and bus didn't move even half meter. We lost our patience and decided to get off the bus and started swimming again. It was dark outside and still raining. But road was not empty. It was crowded. I looked as if some kind of rally was going on. Everyone was walking through the water, it didn't seem as if flood had stuck our city. As it is said nothing can stop Mumbai. I witnessed it that day. Buses were not moving, trains stopped, cars, autos bikes everything stopped but not mumbaikars. We kept moving. On the way we met so many kind aunties, they would tell us, "beta hamare sath sath me chalo, dhyaan rakho apna" at few places people were standing holding their hands in circle just to indicate that there is open Man hole.
12:00 AM: Finally we reached Jogeshwari station. Yes we walked down from Irla till Jogeshwari. It was midnight and we were dead tired to walk ahead.
.................................To be continued
