Epilogue
Got tickets to Guwahati via Delhi.The tickets were confirmed, thank God .We were to leave that very night.Spent the entire day killing time.As to finances I had left with only 350 bucks.Four or five of us each took a loan of 1000 bucks from the father of our friend.I realized a Murphy’s axiom,namely when you need a thing you won’t find it.I had two bank accounts,each with their own ATM cards.But both of them had messed up and I had applied for duplicates.So ATMs everywhere,but not a card to withdraw with!
After a good dinner on drumsticks,boarded the train and settled down for the night.This traveling was a new experience as between five of us we had only a little bag.Talk about traveling light.
After we got to Delhi we freshened up and decided to explore what we can. Had heard about the Metro and wanted to see what the fuss was all about .Along with two others spend half the day in the Metro. I could have never believed that such a thing could ever exist in India. Spotlessly clean walls and platforms ,central airconditioning.CCTV cameras. And the trains!. Just like whispering death, if you were stupid enough to stand on the tracks. If you did not look at the faces you would have difficulty believing you were in India.And on my travels I came face to face with the dichotomy between India and Bharat.The Chandni Chowk station is like all other stations.You come up to the ground on an escalator,go a few steps,turn a corner and almost run smack into an old Gurdwara.The order and cleanliness of the Metro station was replaced by chaos and filth.A narrow alley three feet wide opened out into the crowded main market which has been there since the days of Akbar and Jehangir.Goes on to show how much we have to improve.Anyway that is another topic.Also was threatened by a policemen for drinking beer in public.Thankfully the matter remained there and we completed the drink in peace
The rest of the journey was quite prosaic and mundane.We caught the connecting train at Delhi and reached home about 32 hours later.And stepped out of the train into a place stricked by drought.Such an irony,I did not know whether to laugh or to cry.Seems the Gods above have not lost their sense of humor... (Concluded)
18 Sept 2006
17 Sept 2006
Deluge-II
0812 hours
The 9th of Sept dawned bright and clear. Just a rhetorical statement as the sunup would not be at this hour. A thumping on the door woke me up. Opened the door, stepped out and …..opened my mouth in amazement. The whole compound was flooded. The water level was about a foot. And another thing attracted my attention.Ants,thousands of them of at least a dozen species were evacuating their nests. That place would have been a naturalist’s delight. Even to my untrained computer engineer’s eyes, I could identify at least 50 species of insects ranging from slugs to earthworms to grasshoppers.
After a quick breakfast the evacuation started with gusto.Clothes,computer ,went up.All the other odds and ends,even my wristwatch and mobile went into my trunk.This last bit I was to regret later .I made atleast a dozen trips to the higher floors and wading through progressively increasing water levels.I got bitten about four times by red ants.Almost stepped on a wiggling snake when I was taking the monitor up and could not see where I was going.And I think I made a discovery that day.Saw maybe four or five hybrids of snakes and lizards.They move like snakes but have four sets of legs like lizards. Color black and as long as 8 inches. I like to think of them as some sort of missing link. But that is probably a load of hooey. And what made the task more hazardous was that if you brushed the walls there was a danger of something plunging in their stinger. Thankfully nothing serious happened.Tne books and other things I left in the loft of my room. Don’t know where I got the strength but single handedly carried up my hold all and trunk, each weighing about 20 kilos to the first floor. I think my technique, which I call the coolie lift did the trick !!You see I spend my spare time at railway platforms watching coolies carry impossibly heavy loads. They don’t have the strength of a Bhim.
This whole op lasted about 3 hours.Meanwhile the mess was shifted to the first floor and the news brought some relief.The terrace was the favorite haunt now and there was no dry patch to be seen.900000 cusecs of water had been released from the dam and that night was full moon.So due to high tide in the sea this extra water would inundate more areas and the SMC were warning us about the water level being up 20 feet in some areas through sms.This freaked us out and we could forsee our future in a refugee camp.Some folks who lived nearby ,aleady braving the thigh deep water decided to leave while it was possible.But we lived 3000 km away.
1230 hours
The lunch bell rang and that was the sweetest music to our ears.Long lines snaked to the serving area and man oh man, did I ever get to eat so tasty food.It was only daal,dry fried mashed potatoes and steaming rice,but felt like manna from heaven to us.Predictably nobody bitched about the food.This restored our moods considerably and we looked at things with a more rosier view.I started reading ”Is Paris Burning?’
1400 hours
An outcry drew my attention outside.Asked one of the fellas what the hell was it.Turned out that the front gate was chest deep and Surat station was about to be flooded.The only hope was to go by the back gate where the waters were thigh up and make our way to a little station 15 minutes from Surat.Any train could be the last train as water could inundate tracks suddenly.Decided to abandon the sinking ship,as it were.I grabbed a tee and a pair of shorts.Could not even wear my watch or take the cell.On a wing and a prayer we set out,with no final idea as to our destination.
We struggled and trudged through swirling waters and eddies which threatened to sweep us off our feet.Finally reached the station and after some discussions decided to go Baroda.The situation there was better.Reached Baroda about three hours later in a general coach.A friend’s empty house was to be our digs for the night.Washed and scrubbed as if my life ….err skin depended on it .Dinner was at another friend’s place where it was decided that the best place would be home sweet home. Slept quite soundly .It really had been a long day. (End of part II)
The 9th of Sept dawned bright and clear. Just a rhetorical statement as the sunup would not be at this hour. A thumping on the door woke me up. Opened the door, stepped out and …..opened my mouth in amazement. The whole compound was flooded. The water level was about a foot. And another thing attracted my attention.Ants,thousands of them of at least a dozen species were evacuating their nests. That place would have been a naturalist’s delight. Even to my untrained computer engineer’s eyes, I could identify at least 50 species of insects ranging from slugs to earthworms to grasshoppers.
After a quick breakfast the evacuation started with gusto.Clothes,computer ,went up.All the other odds and ends,even my wristwatch and mobile went into my trunk.This last bit I was to regret later .I made atleast a dozen trips to the higher floors and wading through progressively increasing water levels.I got bitten about four times by red ants.Almost stepped on a wiggling snake when I was taking the monitor up and could not see where I was going.And I think I made a discovery that day.Saw maybe four or five hybrids of snakes and lizards.They move like snakes but have four sets of legs like lizards. Color black and as long as 8 inches. I like to think of them as some sort of missing link. But that is probably a load of hooey. And what made the task more hazardous was that if you brushed the walls there was a danger of something plunging in their stinger. Thankfully nothing serious happened.Tne books and other things I left in the loft of my room. Don’t know where I got the strength but single handedly carried up my hold all and trunk, each weighing about 20 kilos to the first floor. I think my technique, which I call the coolie lift did the trick !!You see I spend my spare time at railway platforms watching coolies carry impossibly heavy loads. They don’t have the strength of a Bhim.
This whole op lasted about 3 hours.Meanwhile the mess was shifted to the first floor and the news brought some relief.The terrace was the favorite haunt now and there was no dry patch to be seen.900000 cusecs of water had been released from the dam and that night was full moon.So due to high tide in the sea this extra water would inundate more areas and the SMC were warning us about the water level being up 20 feet in some areas through sms.This freaked us out and we could forsee our future in a refugee camp.Some folks who lived nearby ,aleady braving the thigh deep water decided to leave while it was possible.But we lived 3000 km away.
1230 hours
The lunch bell rang and that was the sweetest music to our ears.Long lines snaked to the serving area and man oh man, did I ever get to eat so tasty food.It was only daal,dry fried mashed potatoes and steaming rice,but felt like manna from heaven to us.Predictably nobody bitched about the food.This restored our moods considerably and we looked at things with a more rosier view.I started reading ”Is Paris Burning?’
1400 hours
An outcry drew my attention outside.Asked one of the fellas what the hell was it.Turned out that the front gate was chest deep and Surat station was about to be flooded.The only hope was to go by the back gate where the waters were thigh up and make our way to a little station 15 minutes from Surat.Any train could be the last train as water could inundate tracks suddenly.Decided to abandon the sinking ship,as it were.I grabbed a tee and a pair of shorts.Could not even wear my watch or take the cell.On a wing and a prayer we set out,with no final idea as to our destination.
We struggled and trudged through swirling waters and eddies which threatened to sweep us off our feet.Finally reached the station and after some discussions decided to go Baroda.The situation there was better.Reached Baroda about three hours later in a general coach.A friend’s empty house was to be our digs for the night.Washed and scrubbed as if my life ….err skin depended on it .Dinner was at another friend’s place where it was decided that the best place would be home sweet home. Slept quite soundly .It really had been a long day. (End of part II)
Deluge-I
Prologue
For a very long time whenever somebody asked me how was life I would just shrug, make a sour face and mutter, “Same shit, different day”. Not anymore, however. During the past month many lifetime experiences were squeezed into a space of few days and now I can never complain of dullness. Let me take you back to one month. The day was Monday; the date 7th.Microsoft was to come to our college for campus. And since Microsoft being what it was, banners and festoons fluttered gaily. Those who were eligible to sit in the written had butterflies in their stomach. The rest, including me were just curious observers. All day long, disquieting rumors of water being released from the Ukai dam on Tapti reached our ears. Some low lying areas of the city were also rumored to be under water. But nobody gave much credence to them and certainly nobody thought that the situation would deteriorate. Sure it was raining but for a whole month, there were only three days of sun. But the penny really dropped when the execs could not travel from their hotel 1 km away to our campus due to water. That was when alarm bells started to ring and practically the whole campus flocked to the gates to see how high the waters had risen.
2000 hours
The situation looked alarming, but somehow not out of control. The main road from the gates was built on higher ground and the low-lying areas on both sides were inundated. The road looked like a causeway. The lights were out but there were plenty of flashes. Apparently many folks considered it to be a good photo opportunity and were posing for photographs standing ankle deep in water. If only they had known what was to come later, they would not waste their batteries and saved more juice for the coming days.Even though the water level was pretty low where we were standing, what was disconcerting was how the waters advanced millimeter by millimeter with nothing to stop them in the march ahead. The waters seemed to take as much notice of us as an elephant would take of a grasshopper in its way. The water level swiftly became a topic of debate. Many felt that the boys’ hostels would be under water that very night. The girls’ hostel was already in danger. I personally thought that no way was my ground floor room going to be flooded that night. Heck, it might never get flooded. You can never tell. Finding that matters were out of our hands we returned to our dark rooms.
0030 hours
The first and second floor guys had a normal night. But for the ground floor ones, it was a like no other. With two other guys I went out to monitor the water. To our shock the waters had advanced about 50 feet from last. And since water everywhere had the same level. The situation was damn grim. The main flow divided into two and executing a pincer movement around the main building two streams –one from the library side and another from the direction of hostel office joined in front of electrical engineering department.
0315 hours
On another routine check. Feeling like a flood control department man monitoring the level of a river in spate and checking whether the red line is touched. The areas around canteen were under less than 6 inches of water and the mech department could only be reached with wet feet. The labs of mech and civil departments were now threatened. Same could be forecasted for the library and the computer center. In fact, were it not for a higher road between our hostel and the canteen and the absence of a culvert, waters would have long ago entered the hostel compound. Met a couple of guards who just told us that waters had entered into the ground floor of girls’ hostel and they had just returned from the director’s residence and shifted him lock ,stock and barrel to the first floor. We decided in the light of things that was a good policy as we had computers and even a drop could ruin the things. But could not do much as there was pitch darkness in our rooms.
0500 hours
Woke up from fitful slumber to find the grass outside the balcony sopping wet and the skies dry. This freaked me out and I banged on my neighbor’s door .He agreed that we had better start packing up. Though sometimes I used to look askance at my trunk it was my best friend today and all odds and ends went into it. Hoisted the trunk on the chair, disconnected the pc and tried to grab some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day……. (End of part I)
For a very long time whenever somebody asked me how was life I would just shrug, make a sour face and mutter, “Same shit, different day”. Not anymore, however. During the past month many lifetime experiences were squeezed into a space of few days and now I can never complain of dullness. Let me take you back to one month. The day was Monday; the date 7th.Microsoft was to come to our college for campus. And since Microsoft being what it was, banners and festoons fluttered gaily. Those who were eligible to sit in the written had butterflies in their stomach. The rest, including me were just curious observers. All day long, disquieting rumors of water being released from the Ukai dam on Tapti reached our ears. Some low lying areas of the city were also rumored to be under water. But nobody gave much credence to them and certainly nobody thought that the situation would deteriorate. Sure it was raining but for a whole month, there were only three days of sun. But the penny really dropped when the execs could not travel from their hotel 1 km away to our campus due to water. That was when alarm bells started to ring and practically the whole campus flocked to the gates to see how high the waters had risen.
2000 hours
The situation looked alarming, but somehow not out of control. The main road from the gates was built on higher ground and the low-lying areas on both sides were inundated. The road looked like a causeway. The lights were out but there were plenty of flashes. Apparently many folks considered it to be a good photo opportunity and were posing for photographs standing ankle deep in water. If only they had known what was to come later, they would not waste their batteries and saved more juice for the coming days.Even though the water level was pretty low where we were standing, what was disconcerting was how the waters advanced millimeter by millimeter with nothing to stop them in the march ahead. The waters seemed to take as much notice of us as an elephant would take of a grasshopper in its way. The water level swiftly became a topic of debate. Many felt that the boys’ hostels would be under water that very night. The girls’ hostel was already in danger. I personally thought that no way was my ground floor room going to be flooded that night. Heck, it might never get flooded. You can never tell. Finding that matters were out of our hands we returned to our dark rooms.
0030 hours
The first and second floor guys had a normal night. But for the ground floor ones, it was a like no other. With two other guys I went out to monitor the water. To our shock the waters had advanced about 50 feet from last. And since water everywhere had the same level. The situation was damn grim. The main flow divided into two and executing a pincer movement around the main building two streams –one from the library side and another from the direction of hostel office joined in front of electrical engineering department.
0315 hours
On another routine check. Feeling like a flood control department man monitoring the level of a river in spate and checking whether the red line is touched. The areas around canteen were under less than 6 inches of water and the mech department could only be reached with wet feet. The labs of mech and civil departments were now threatened. Same could be forecasted for the library and the computer center. In fact, were it not for a higher road between our hostel and the canteen and the absence of a culvert, waters would have long ago entered the hostel compound. Met a couple of guards who just told us that waters had entered into the ground floor of girls’ hostel and they had just returned from the director’s residence and shifted him lock ,stock and barrel to the first floor. We decided in the light of things that was a good policy as we had computers and even a drop could ruin the things. But could not do much as there was pitch darkness in our rooms.
0500 hours
Woke up from fitful slumber to find the grass outside the balcony sopping wet and the skies dry. This freaked me out and I banged on my neighbor’s door .He agreed that we had better start packing up. Though sometimes I used to look askance at my trunk it was my best friend today and all odds and ends went into it. Hoisted the trunk on the chair, disconnected the pc and tried to grab some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day……. (End of part I)
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