Memories of a Trip - 26/7

It was once in a lifetime scare which none of us will ever forget.

We started walking from office at 5.30 in evening and reached home at 11.30 in nite. On the way the water was at places knee-waist-neck deep. What started as an adventurous trip ended in one of the most will-haunt moments for us!

After waiting for company bus for hour n half, we decided to try walking n finding some vehicle on the way. We reached western express highway at 8.30 and the way people were helping each other all throughout was one of the most inspiring and typical to Mumbai scene. At Greenfields and Fantasy land, where the water was almost gushing and taking anything and everything along with, people were forming human chains and trying to pull what ever living was there...

Once on bridge under the highway, we started calling whom so ever we could cal to ensure them that we were ok and there was absolutely nothing to panic about. The reality... even we were not aware of till then... there were options to go some where else, at someone's relative's place, but even the spirit was high and we wanted to make it to OUR home ourselves. (Besides the common thought... highway would be safest and no reason why walking there would be difficult!) Then the journey on western express highway began. In front of mahananda dairy, it was sumthin more or less like a river in monsoons. The flow was strong enuf to take away even the strongest in... and the traffic, there was bumper to bumper traffic all the way. Some had even stranded there vehicles and started on their own. Of many such sites, there was an Indica, which was almost in water above the windows. Hope there wasn't sumone inside, coz today's paper mentioned some 16 people dying coz of suffocation sitting in cars... people sat in cars for more then 30 hours... it definitely would be remembered as the worst traffic jam at least in till this date...

At 9.30, rains almost stopped and we thought that's the end, just to realize that worst was yet to come... it started pouring with all the more ferocity at around 10. Even now the energy and hopes were not down. We kept on walking without much thought or worries. We could even manage to sing songs on the way, to enjoy RAINS...

Once at kandiwali, we thought we could take rick now, but the spirits were so high, we thought to complete this once in a lifetime journey all the way on foot, and this was for better actually. At mahindra gate no 1, the bridge seemed to have collapsed and the water was coming opposite to us from lokhandwala. It was at places almost waist-neck deep. At 11.00 pm, almost 6 hours walking in rains and water, hungry and all tired, our spirits were almost dying. The thought that the home, what a sweet word which symbolizes safety and shelter was almost there...

We did managed to reach home, and almost safely and without much casualty. A journey which lasted almost 15 kms and more then 6 hours...Yeah, it can be said that staying back would have been better and what you did was foolish, but then who realized that it was nature's way to show the smallness of human being. Agreed that we are safe and alive but then it was a close encounter, which will make us feel it ourselves, next time some news channel shows pics of a flood affected life...

It shows what life means...

Savy

[Savy's Note: The Rain Gods were furious and the downpour was the punishment rather then the boon which it normally is... the skies couldn't hold the anger, and passed down what ever it held in its chest.Life was shattered and humanity once again evoked. It was one such moment when man stood for man...

Being a part of one such journey, here's what we met on the jounrey from Office to Home - 26th July 2005.]