Jis paani se dhote hain, usi ne maari. Review on Mumbai Monsoon Disaster 2005

Mumbai, the city that never sleeps; the city that never stops came to a complete halt of the day of the deluge. People blame the government for not having done anything. To an extent I agree to the fact that the government did nothing except'wait and watch'. But for rains which were record breaking(much more than the highest recorded in Cherapunji) no divine power could do anything. It was the spirit of Mumbai which made it crawl back into shape after this and only the spirit of Mumbai and no other force. It still sends shivers down my spine when I remember that day. My sisters-in-law were stuck at Kalina for two days while returning from college. Some good samaritan lady had offered them a night's stay at her place. The next I went to pick them up from Mulund. I had to try several routes to reach at least till Kurla but all in vain. I manage to reach the Eastern Express Highway from where I went to Deonar, to Govandi, to Chembur where again the roads were closed, I took a turn to Chembur camp and reached Suman Nagar from where I took to my feet and wadded through chest deep water for about 4 kms only to reach till Kurla station. Kurla station was like a refuge camp only that there were no facilities and this was a complete dead zone, no mobile networks, no power supply, no telephone lines working, (the one PCO that was working had a humongous que of about 50 people, who eventually could not establish connection with their homes). The station was crowded with people who has spend nights in the stranded train, women who crying to reach home. Some of them had little infants waiting at home. There were a few people who had managed to bring vada-pavs and were distributing those along with water to people. Alone in all Kudos to'Apun Kaa Mumbai ka Log'. Keep it up. Still I wonder what about the Rs. 50, 000 Crore that Mumbai pays as Taxes annually, why didnt that come to our help.