It was in the end of June 2005 that it had been raining incessasantly for several days. I was only going to the office and back. The streets and the city of Vadodara were full of water but were motor able though with some difficulty. Unfortunately an urgent meeting came up in Mumbai, which I just could not afford to cancel or postpone. Since all flights were functional, I hardly thought it to be an issue.

Though the weather was turbulent, our flight reached Mumbai without any event. It was raining incessantly in Mumbai as well. After the meeting when I reached the Mumbai airport for the return flight in the evening, I was informed that the all flights to Vadodara had been cancelled as the Airport there is submerged in water. I wondered what to do. I had no intension of staying on in Mumbai. With the weather unrelenting, I wondered how many days it would be before I could get back home. No it would certainly be better to get home somehow and face whatever came there. I rang up our travel coordinator in Mumbai office and asked her to book me a ticket for a train to Vadodara. She however called back within a few minutes and informed that the train service to Vadodara had been suspended due to a breach in the rail track near Vadodara. But, being the very home loving person that I am,  I was still determined to somehow get back home. So I checked several airlines at the airport and asked then the options available. Fortunately, Jet Airlines could find an available flight to Mumbai on the early morning flight the next day. I thought it a stroke of luck and took the ticket.

After spending the night in our company’s Bandra Guest House, I returned early in the morning to the airport with fingers crossed. Fortunately, (or not as would find out later) the flight to Ahmedabad took off on time and despite the very turbulent weather landed safely at Ahmedabad at about 8 o clock in the morning. The journey from Ahmedabad to Vadodara by road usually takes about 2 hours via the expressway and that is what I was counting on when I took the flight. I asked our local office to send me a SUV from Ahmedabad just as a matter of abundant precaution. The Qualis was waiting for me when I landed at the Ahd airport. I picked up a packet of sandwiches and told the driver to leave for Vadodara. The roads in Ahmedabad also had several inches of standing water at most places but we did not have much difficulty in reaching the expressway. It was then that I faced the most shattering moment in this whole saga. We were informed that the rains had breached the expressway and no traffic was being allowed on it.

Then only two options remained, one was to take a hotel room in Ahmedabad and await the opening of the expressway and the second was to chance the other route on the national highway. I asked the drivers opinion on the condition of the road on the National Highway. He said that he had come from Vadodara last evening and it was Ok then. That seemed like a good enough reason for me to try the same.

We somehow managed to negotiate this road right up to Anand, even though it took us up to 12 noons to get there. The roads were full of water and the Qualis was in it right up to its wheels. At around Anand, the water started climbing even higher than the wheels of the vehicle. The driver then informed me that if we go on any further its very likely that the water will enter the engine and we shall get stranded. I again had to choose between the options of option of heading back to Ahmedabad or finding some other higher vehicle to take me further as the quails was surely unable to do so.

On this road we were not alone, other SUVs and buses and trucks were also trying to negotiate these waters. Again on my drivers advise, I stopped and boarded a bus and send the quails back. As the water further was really very high, almost 3-4 feet, the bus moved at an excruciatingly slow pace. Also there were traffic jams at several places where vehicles had broken down and were left stranded. By evening my mobile phones battery also died out, and my connection with my wife also broke down. She had been a source of moral strength to me through the entire journey up to now. I had finished long back the lone sandwich that I had carried. How much I missed a cup of tea that day I can hardly explain.

By late evening the bus somehow reached the outskirts of Vadodara and since it was going to Surat, I got down at one suitable place there. I had two pieces of luggage with me, a small suitcase, like an overnighter and the laptop. With one in each hand I tried my best to keep them out of the water coming up from the legs while I walked. Fortunately I found an auto rickshaw that agreed to take me up to whatever point he could go near my house. He took me to about 4 Kms of my house and then refused to go any further. I had no opti