Floods in Mumbai | Floods in Mumbai

The phone went dead.

I still recall my mother's voice cracking over the phone telling me not to move out of the house. She, like other `mumbaikars' was stranded at work for the night. The sound of rain lashing down showing no mercy, still rings in my head.

26th of July 2005, a day which Mumbaikars won't forget the rest of their lives. A day which has left its mark in everyone's heart either as grief for the loss of loved ones, fear of it happening again, or as sheer awareness that arose in the minds of many when they were stuck for hours ion what we might call one of mother nature's worst forms. On Tuesday, Mumbai suffered a severe battering from the skies causing a devastating deluge. It all happened so suddenly that before the people realized the danger, it was too late to go home. No food, no water, people wandering around the streets of Mumbai helplessly. The flood was the cause of the death of many including children

There was a time when we wondered what else could go wrong! Little did we know what Mother Nature had in store for us next! A rumour and a false alarm about a tidal wave hitting Mumbai spread like wild fire resulting in a fatal stampede. Because of the flood there was a landslide in Andheri. Here too a lot of lives and homes were lost. That's not it though! The suburbs were deprived of their electricity for about five days because of which there were a lot of problems in hospitals. Villages in Kalyan were washed away and the railway lines destroyed. The rivers overflowed causing more floods. A lot of medicines were washed away and pharmaceutical industries suffered great losses.

Even now the stench of garbage and carcasses is everywhere. The aftermath of the flood includes dead bodies destroyed homes and the trauma people faced finding out that their loved ones were dead. And what's more! Mumbai is teetering at the brink of an epidemic due to contaminated water and uncollected garbage.

Now as we wade through our losses and watch the city slowly recover, we wonder, how many catastrophies will it take for the government to implement a crisis management plan? How many more lives should be lost before they start caring for the city's well being? On that day, we the citizens of Mumbai united to help each other through the tragedy, not the Municipality or Government. There is no use crying over spilt milk but I would take this opportunity to salute the spirit of `Amchi Mumbai'!