PART I - Where am I ??!!

Where am I?? A question that the Maya kept asking every 2 hours...

After so much of struggle and having come to big city, Ravi wanted to make it big. A dedicated employee and had been a fast tracker all his life. If one had to look at his resume one would be stunned by the kind of growth and roles he had performed. He had always felt good about his growth and spoke about it often. He had been married for the last 10 years to Maya and have two wonderful kids both school going. With his hard earned money he had brought a villa at one of the posh and leading builders on the Old Mahabalipuram Road. The villa was slightly on the higher end but he could not resist his temptation to buy it. It very important as both Ravi & Maya as they loved to host small parties and to have a good social life this villa was perfect and idealistically located. He had taken a loan on 80% of the property cost and has been paying EMI religiously for the last 4 years. He was eagerly waiting to pay up the EMI. As time moved on he brought a BMW X3, which was now one year old was his darling. Well life was good and their other plans were building on. As the year end neared his plans for the much awaited family foreign trip was on. December was the month of holidays that this family of 4 eagerly awaited for.

It was 1st Dec'15 when the rain pour had started very early, rather it had started pouring on through out the night and early morning saw no stoppage. Well it was a big day at office for Ravi as he had some major deals to be finalised and was eagerly awaiting for its closure. He had rushed off to office by 8 am, inspite of Maya's insistence not to go. She was not feeling too good because of the rains and also wanted Ravi to stay and work from home. Well his X3 had ensured him reach office in luxury and quicker. It seemed to be a bad day for Ravi, the deal results were not out and the final results were getting postponed by another week. He was furious and was becoming impatient like the rains outside, which was pouring without a comma or full stop. It had been pouring continuously for the last 12 hours now. To distract himself he had poured himself into the activities and plans that he had kept aside. He had noticed that most of his colleagues had not come to office. He did not bother to call them, rather was more happy in the work he was into. It was 2 pm and he felt hunger pangs. He had not bother to look at his cell phone which was on the silent mode. As he got up he realised that there were 6 missed calls from his wife. He had ignored all her calls. As he called her back, he could hear a feeling of anguish and scare. Maya again insisted for him to come back as it was pouring outside. He said that he would leave in a while and be home and not to be worried. He did not check on the rains post that.

Finally at around 5.00 pm he left his cabin and headed to the car parking, as he found the office to be rather empty and everyone was running away. That was the point he realised what a mess it was outside. It was dark and rain was pounding earth as if the heavens have opened up with anger and frustration. He hurriedly made his way to the parking lot in the basement. There was 1/2 feet of water there. He cursed the admin folks for not having pushed the builder to make better water draining arrangements. He got into the comfort of the car and played the music as the engine came to life. As he got out of the office parking he was invited by table tennis ball size water droplets hitting his windshield and the intensity of this was real high. His wiper blades had come to life the very instance and were running a 100 mtr sprint on the windshield. As he got out of the office and took the left onto the main road, he found that his car was wading through 2ft water. He remembered to make a quick call to Maya and tell her that he had started. She rattled out that the roads were bad and he should hurry. He cut the call and tried had to focus on the road. At Sholinganallur as junction he pushed his car 3 ft water and he could here the engine struggle as his car exhaust was trying hard not to let the water come in. Ravi kept pushing the accelerator on a rated flooded free road. At last after having come to the Junction close to Sathybhama college he took the right to get closer to his home. House was hardly another 3 kms. He found a no water patch and was glad that now he would reach home soon. No sooner had he finished his thought he saw that he was facing a sea in front of him. He was wondering what happened to the road...

He now on his mental map and GPS that showed him the road. Having pushed his car for another 300 mts, he realised that he could not feel the road. His cell phone rang and he knew it was Maya. He put his car speaker on. Even before Maya could say anything, Ravi started asking about his kids and what she is planning for dinner. He did not want the surrounding impact him in anyway. Now he was more determined to reach home, and he never wanted Maya to feel panicked at this point of time. He said to her that he will be there in another 15 mins and cut the call...

To be continued.....

Nature Mr. FURY

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".

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

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".

Need.. The way we see it!!

The laughter, the wild gesture of this women playing in water, the giggle of the other women, it was really contagious.

It was the day when the sun was out in Chennai after the torrential rains that have lashed out in the city flooding. The heavens seems to have opened up and the city was submerged with 290 mm of rains in one day. It was a harroing time for me to drive back from my office back home to my safety net. My car had run through knee deep water on the main atrial road connecting Sholignalur and Medavakkam. As I was making my way through the water, there was only a prayer for my safety and the safety of car. I was oblivious of the others who were behind me. As I reached home, I was in a state of shock as to what I had crossed. The night was restless and the eagerness was for it to be over. Could not bear to hear the pounding of the rains on the tin roof of the adjoining appartment. The next day as the clouds started to clear, there was a happy feeling and the eagerness to see the sun. It was such an irony to be waiting for the sun in Chennai which has got a lable of being a hot city. As the news started flowing in, the realization dawned that I was in a place which was a lucky hole of being on a dry ground. But my neighbours were not so lucky, there was neck deep water and the sound of distress everywhere. Within a couple of days the rain Gods being merciful, and the downpour being less my friend Wasim and I went out to see what is the situation around. The worst part was the loss of connectivity and our cell phones being just mere boxes without any signals.

Slum board area with knee deep water

After having gone driven our two wheelers across some of the difficult stretches where it was difficult to state if there was road or only holes we reached out to a place which has been in the media for the last few days. This place has been in neck deep water. The folks near by had people who had brought villas worth crores. Their houses was in absolute shambles with watermarks still visible to have touched ¾ of the stilt. Thankfully that day, the waters had come down and was crossed the villas and reached the slum development board area. This place we could not dare to take the Activa any more as the water level was high. We decided to walk through. As we went deep into the place, the water started rising and we both were in stuck with the intensity of the impact that has hit the place. Most of the houses and shops had locks and did have signs of people having left the place in a hurry to safer places (I suppose).

The watermark shows how much water
this place has seen...

As we walked further where we could see young guys trying their luck with luck with fishes in the stagnant waters, some of them were jubilant too as they seemed to have caught a few. There was signs of team work too, as few of them got together to cast their mosquito nets to catch fishes. There were streams of water that were gushing out of the streets before meeting the main road. Those openings had a good current enough to push a small child out into the open lake which was 400 mts away. As we waded through that part carefully, Wasim and I started to talk about what kind of relief work that can we done here and we were thinking for getting food and other materials that we could collect and give it to the people here. All of sudden, something caught my attention and then I realized that there was a lot of giggle and laughter just a few 100 mtrs ahead.

And I was like, wohoooo… now this is a twist in the tale. There were many ladies who had come in from their appartments and were having a holy dip. There were a couple of ladies in their Nighty who had put their head against the stream current and were floating. They would bob out their head for a while to gasp air and then again go in. Oh boy!! They were in a delightful state. The other ladies who were around them were getting ready to have a bath and wash their clothes. A little further we could see a whole community of people who had come down to wash their clothes and have a bath. As if this was not enough we saw young men and women brushing their teeth in that same water. Cleaning themselves up and their vehicles too at the same time trying to fish too..

Wasim & I walking down

This was a contradiction to what we had been thinking as they would have been marooned and in need. When we caught up with some of these people they started saying that the sight was bad a couple of days back where water was running upto waist deep and there was no support that the government or any one could come in and do. While today, they were finding ways to limp back and they have found ways to have fun and enjoy. Yes, a lot of them have lost a lot but then one does not get this kind of water everyday so have fun and enjoy as long as it lasts.

As I walked back, I was lost in the fact that the need keeps changing with time. And the human being is resilient. He would crib but then survival is such a strong instinct that he will bounce back and find his way through wether one gives help or not. The question that I was left wondering was, So when does one say that it is a need for him or her? And how would one keep a track of the changing needs of people in such a calamity to help them or I may get really later and have spent the money and effort just to know that it is not the need any more at the time of serving them.

हर पल

हर पल में ज़िन्दगी बदलती है । 
हर पल, हर पल बदलती है॥ 
में बदलूं  या ना बदलूं।  
यह पल बदलता है॥ 

हर पल की नज़ाकत को समझ। 
उन लम्हों को एहसास कर॥ 
पानी की तरह बहता जा। 
अपने उन पलों को समेटता ज॥ 

हर मोड़ पे एक नई पहचान बना। 
हर रिश्ते में एक नयापन ला॥ 
छोड़ चल अपनी परछाईयों को। 
समेट ले उस नये यादों को॥ 

कुछ ख़ुशी के पल देता जा। 
उन ग़मों को भूलता जा॥ 
एक खटै मिठास सी सुरुवात है। 
घोलता जा अपने उन नये पलों में॥ 

हर पल में ज़िन्दगी बदलती है । 
हर पल, हर पल बदलती है॥ 

Soul peace

My soul is always at peace,
But I search for answers.
Unknown to what I know,
Struggling to find a meaning for life.
For my destiny is fixed,
And I carve out ways and means to reach.
Hope to find the peace my soul already knows!!!

Feel for me!!!

Would it even matter to me,
How am I remembered??
For I would no longer be there to feel.

Yes, you may feel for me.
But,  I would no longer know that pleasure.
If you feel for me now,
Do say it and be with me in action and thoughts
Without any action or expectations,
I would know how much you mean to me...