Mumbai rains.....

This post is dedicated to my uncle, Venkat (the original vetty), who walked the 30 Kms from Kolaba to Borivali, braving the rains. Guy started walking at 5 in the evening and reached at 5 next morning.
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Although the torrential downpour was ordered by nature, it does seem that most of the damage was man-made. The officials, it appears, did not even issue warnings before opening damn valves. Result, 10 feet high water in 10 minutes. Leave the loss to homes and shops, too many people ( final deathtoll of 298 and counting) died.

It was pathetic to see and hear why buffaloes died in hundreds. The dairywallahs could hardly save themselves. They did not have the warning and time to untie these poor animals and let them swim to safety. They died an unnecessary death. If not like Lord emsworth loves his pig, i like the buffaloes. They have super attitude towards life. To stop digressing...

There have been numerous stories of people going out of their way to help people in distress. All the people who walked the distance from Mahalaksmi Station to Bandra (about 12-14kms) were offered water/tea/biscuits by the residents of Bandra at the point of entry into Bandra. Tales abound of people cutting across community, caste and creed extending helping hands to whoever needed them.

Gestures like offering a ride to a stranded stranger, permitting use of mobile phones, offering medical aid to the injured, all this in torrential downpour and swirling flood waters, actually reinforced one's faith in humanity and made one think why it has to take such tragedies to bring forth the milk of human kindness.

When questioned about the reality of such statements, Venkat said " Boo to that!" And added " No freewater, chai, or bread for the 12 hours i walked. In fact, it was pathetic to see women feed small children from the umbrellas (rain water caught in them) while the fellas in cars i am sure had a bisleri bottle or two, but they were saving it for a rainy day. One or two local shop wallas were selling bisleri at more Rs.100 and 150 a bottle.
All through the 30-odd km stretch, there were no volunteers leave alone police etc. There were people falling in holes, but no locals to guide the crowd towards the shallow side. Worse still was all the eve-teasing.
Noone gave a free ride to any stranger. After the airport at parle, the andheri bridge and beyond looked fine with no traffic and there were cars and SUVs screaming past. Leave alone offering rides to any of us, these buggers would not offer a lift a to even old blokes with small kids. Human kindness, my left foot. It was apathy at its worst."

It once again all adds up to the impotence of the Indian media. Amid all the damages, the papers were singing songs of praise about the spirit of the Mumbaikar, and about how Mmbai is the city to be in if a torrential outpour/ anything out of ordinary in the name of crisis occurs. The media definitely has to be more responsible prior to approving the newscats and reports from its journos and the stick to the need of the hour, which should be to report on the general norm of things, but not on feel-good outliers and exceptions happening supposedly at some corner."

All said and done, my heart goes out to all the victims of the torrential outpour. But then, one has to move on and learn to leran lessons from incidents like this. The responsible people should take pains to practice and plan strategies to defend against such further complications.