My 1st Encounter with Mumbai Rains

Being a Mumbaikar for last 13 years, I have seens many faces of the Mumbai Rains. Sometimes fascination, sometimes romantic, sometimes angry and some time disastorous. I like the city when its soaked in rain waters and covered with clouds. I love to see the vehicle speeding on roads and splashing waters on both the sides. I like to see the sea waves hitting hard on the walls of sea shore on Marine Lines.

I have two or three very emotional memories of the mumbai rains. The Mumbai rains are as unpredictable as the City itself.

I came here on 13th Aug 1997 for my higher studies. With great difficulty I was able to complete my admissions in the college on 16th Aug 1997. The college was to start on 25th Aug and I had a whole week. My father left for the native place on 16th evening itself. I was staying at my Aatya’s house. My cousin sister had been bed ridden as she had polio and had been operated six months ago. Actually she was the one who had strongly stood behind me that I should come to Mumbai for my higher studies.

She was not keeping well from 10th Aug or so and could not sleep the whole night. She was having breathing problems. After check up from a specialist doctor we decided to admit her to the KEM Hospital on 21st Aug. In the afternoon we reached the hospital.
In the afternoon when we had left for hospital the skies were clear and there was no indication of any rains. But from around 3.00 pm it started drizzling. Me, my uncle and cousin brother stayed there till the evening and then we left for our home. It had been a very tiring day and went to sleep immediately after a light dinner.

Suddenly at around 2.30 AM in the morning I heard the door bell ringing continuously. I was bit scared. My cousin brother was still asleep. I opened the door and found the neighbour standing there. That was the period when we did not had a landline at Aatya's home and Cell phones were a luxury. So any communication used to happen through this neighbours phone line. He was saying something but I was still not fully consious. I only understood that there was a phone call from hospital. By the time I reached there my brain cells were activated and i remembered everything. I was praying that everything is Ok. But I was wrong. God was not in a mood to listen my prayers or rather my prayers were late. My sister was no more!!! We had to rush to the hospital immediately. I ran towards home and told my brother about the call. We got ready and as soon as got down, we realized the trains won’t be running at this time and the rains had started pouring in. As we were fast asleep both of us never knew that it had rained so much. Water was already logged at the New Era Theatre Square near Malad station. I was praying that we do not encounter any more water blockades and we reach there in time. We took a taxi and started our journey. The Rain Gods were extremely happy on Mumbai that day. It was raining like anything. Despite of the vipers put on, the driver was having difficulty to see the road ahead. Luckily the roads ahead were clear in we reached there in half an hour.

By morning we had informed everybody of the death and were waiting for our residence society people to come to the hospital. The rains which started somewhere in the evening previous day were pouring in like anything and disrupted the city's normal life including its life line the local train services. The people from the residence society had started at around 4.30 in the morning but hadn’t reached till 7.00. By this time me and my brother completed the hospital formalities and took the custody of the dead body. My Aatya was unconsolable and was continuously crying. She was accusing the Doctors of not taking enough care of her child.

Everything was totally new for me. The city, the rains, the hospital atmosphere. That was the night, which brings goosebumps on my body even today when I remember it. At one point of time, Aatya was sitting near my sister's dead body on the cot and my brother was in the Hospital Office signing papers. I was standing alone in a huge corridor. I was scared to hell.

The people from our society reached at 7.30 AM. As the formalaties were already over, we hired an Ambulance and started our journey back. We reached our society at round 9.30 AM. The rains had caused water logging and there by traffic jams. Some of the relatives had already reached there, while some had already started in morning from Thana but were stuck in between. We had to hold up the funeral rituals till they reach. As the cell phones were not for middle class people at that time, we were unable to contact them.

Somehow the relatives reached there at around 1.00 PM. There after we took the body to the Smashan and finished the funeral at around 3.30 to 4. Luckily the rains had stopped at around 12.00 in the afternoon. But there were light showers from time to time.

That was my first encounter with the Mumbai Rain. A pretty bad experience.