Chennai, (I still love it by the name of Madras)... a growing modern city in India, has been my karma bhoomi for the last 16 years now. In these 16 years I have struggled and there is a constant struggle to keep pace with what my desires have been. A fight to always be on top... In this struggle, I have least been bothered about what is happening in my surrounding. It has largely been with me and my family. Life had been good!!!
They say, life is a leveller and a great teacher too. Like in Avatar, all things are interconnected. I do feel the nature does conspire around you to teach you and bring to your face what else you are missing to see the purpose of this life. The rains that lashed in waves after waves in the last few weeks, brought this whole city onto its knees. I could not be kept away from that. When the lakes and ponds surrounding my apartment complex breached its banks, water gushed out like rivulets with its intense ferocity... The night was calm as I happened to stay in a higher ground apartment. The next day morning as I took out my car to go to my office I was shocked by the magnitude of destruction that has happened. So many people have to leave their homes and move away with just themselves intact. My couple of attempts to use my usual road was pushed back but I being I, wanted to still make it. The statement was, "What nonsense, I have an office to attend and my life was dependent on that".
Well somehow in the afternoon by 12.15 pm, I started in a taxi along with a friend of mine who was equally eager to go. To top it up we had a courageous taxi driver in his Indica who was eager to make the first buck of the day. Our first main road attempt ended in cops saying to turn around. Well we were a stubborn lot and wanted to make it through. After the being part of the slow moving crowd realised that there is a 4 ft water ahead. We could not anyway turn around as there were many more stubborn heads like us... :) Finally our guy halted for a few seconds and then hit the accelerator and waded through that 4 ft water. I almost freaked out but the guy did a fab job of making us reach the other side. Oh Boy!! I thought that it was all done now, least realising that there was more to come.
Well having reached by 1.15 pm, I started to focus on my work. Well that did not last long as my focus started drifting to the window pane which was getting darker and thunder clouds started to play beautiful music... I ran to my friend and started to edge him to move on. Well finally by 5.30 pm we started. Without any transport or any cab that we could not get from Ola or Taxi4sure, we decided to walk the 5kms back home. As we started to walk back, through the back road of Sholingnalur SEZ there was a good samaritan who was equally eager to reach office in his WagonR. He gave us the lift through the back gate.. well less that we knew that we were actually getting into the dragon's mouth. Wohoo... as we stood at the back gate of the SEZ we saw a sea in front of us. Well, a peculiar human tendency that when pushed and that too with strangers with you.. you tend to push yourself more. Well our wonderful person drove us right up to his office which was next to his entry point of the SEZ. At that point we had to get down into the water.
After profusely thanking him, my friend suggested to remove our shoes but then realised that we have no clue where we were stepping and on what. Better to sacrifice the shoe than our beautiful feet... There we started walking in 2 ft deep water. Our brave decision was being questioned by our own self after having walked 500 mts from the office. Now desperation took over, as the coldness took over. As I started heading towards desperation, my courage took over to look out for options. That is when one of the Wipro bus driver was about to leave the SEZ with his bus, I could only ask his permission to get in. He did not even blink once to say, "Do not worry, step in.. I will drop you on the way". Well our happiness had no bounds. Having jumped in we now had to be patient to reach home. As the bus rolled out of the SEZ on to the road next to the lake, the realisation dawned that it was a very daring step to even have thought to walk. There was 4 1/2 ft of water. The bus literally inched in the water at a steady pace keeping close to the median. I could not differentiate where the lake was and where the road. It was the median that made me feel that we are on the road. It was a scary scene. The place that used to be filled with birds and a beautiful life today looked like a murky brown sheet of death. Water had covered in every inch of the land as if saying this is my place and let me feel it till I can. One could feel that the road had taken a big battering and with vehicles coming from the other side on the same road, the displacement of water shook the huge bus... After the struggle for 20 mins we covered the distance of 2 1/2 kms and reached our cross road where we got down.
While getting down, I handed this humble driver 50 bucks which he was not even expecting. I just nudged it into him thanking profusely. As I got down, I was feeling so grateful to the lord in that bus and the cab friend who gave us a lift. Humanity comes touching us in many ways.. but the most humbling fact was that "Nature is a leveller and does tell that you that all are equal.. care for one another and you will survive".
They say, life is a leveller and a great teacher too. Like in Avatar, all things are interconnected. I do feel the nature does conspire around you to teach you and bring to your face what else you are missing to see the purpose of this life. The rains that lashed in waves after waves in the last few weeks, brought this whole city onto its knees. I could not be kept away from that. When the lakes and ponds surrounding my apartment complex breached its banks, water gushed out like rivulets with its intense ferocity... The night was calm as I happened to stay in a higher ground apartment. The next day morning as I took out my car to go to my office I was shocked by the magnitude of destruction that has happened. So many people have to leave their homes and move away with just themselves intact. My couple of attempts to use my usual road was pushed back but I being I, wanted to still make it. The statement was, "What nonsense, I have an office to attend and my life was dependent on that".
 |
| Water almost 3ft of water |
Well somehow in the afternoon by 12.15 pm, I started in a taxi along with a friend of mine who was equally eager to go. To top it up we had a courageous taxi driver in his Indica who was eager to make the first buck of the day. Our first main road attempt ended in cops saying to turn around. Well we were a stubborn lot and wanted to make it through. After the being part of the slow moving crowd realised that there is a 4 ft water ahead. We could not anyway turn around as there were many more stubborn heads like us... :) Finally our guy halted for a few seconds and then hit the accelerator and waded through that 4 ft water. I almost freaked out but the guy did a fab job of making us reach the other side. Oh Boy!! I thought that it was all done now, least realising that there was more to come.
 |
| Water expanding across the road |
After profusely thanking him, my friend suggested to remove our shoes but then realised that we have no clue where we were stepping and on what. Better to sacrifice the shoe than our beautiful feet... There we started walking in 2 ft deep water. Our brave decision was being questioned by our own self after having walked 500 mts from the office. Now desperation took over, as the coldness took over. As I started heading towards desperation, my courage took over to look out for options. That is when one of the Wipro bus driver was about to leave the SEZ with his bus, I could only ask his permission to get in. He did not even blink once to say, "Do not worry, step in.. I will drop you on the way". Well our happiness had no bounds. Having jumped in we now had to be patient to reach home. As the bus rolled out of the SEZ on to the road next to the lake, the realisation dawned that it was a very daring step to even have thought to walk. There was 4 1/2 ft of water. The bus literally inched in the water at a steady pace keeping close to the median. I could not differentiate where the lake was and where the road. It was the median that made me feel that we are on the road. It was a scary scene. The place that used to be filled with birds and a beautiful life today looked like a murky brown sheet of death. Water had covered in every inch of the land as if saying this is my place and let me feel it till I can. One could feel that the road had taken a big battering and with vehicles coming from the other side on the same road, the displacement of water shook the huge bus... After the struggle for 20 mins we covered the distance of 2 1/2 kms and reached our cross road where we got down.
While getting down, I handed this humble driver 50 bucks which he was not even expecting. I just nudged it into him thanking profusely. As I got down, I was feeling so grateful to the lord in that bus and the cab friend who gave us a lift. Humanity comes touching us in many ways.. but the most humbling fact was that "Nature is a leveller and does tell that you that all are equal.. care for one another and you will survive".
1 comment:
Though interesting... It is too sad. Nature undoubtedly proves time and again to be stronger than human intelligence. Testing time like this has paved way for unity... Good Job Chennaites!!!! God... Show mercy!
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