It was an atypical sunny day, with just a few droplets of rain to remind us that we were in the middle of the monsoon. Suddenly, without warning, the skies darkened a little after noon. Neither twilight nor night, a strange wetness that gave way to sheets of water.
The elements had decided to take revenge on years of abuse. The seas joined skies as the water trapped scores of people in houses and buildings, kids in schoolbuses, trains and cars. Everywhere, the water clung to your skin, hugged your limbs and slowly pushed you along, with thousands of others, vainly trying to stay afloat.
The deluge that submerged Mumbai on July 26, 2005 was a meteorological phenomenon, as the suburbs recorded an unprecedented 94.4 cm (944mm, higher than the 838 mm recorded at Cherapunji) of rain in 24 hours. This, spread over a radius of just 20 to 30 kilometres only. The island city, or South Mumbai, in contrast, recorded only 7.34 cms of rain the same day.
More than a thousand lives were lost in the flooding, 736 in Mumbai and Thane, 191 in Konkan and 132 in the rest of Maharashtra. More than 50,000 people had to accommodated in relief camps as their dwellings were submerged in water. A conservative estimate from the Indian Merchants Chamber put the loss to the economy at around Rs 5000 crores.
Residents of Kurla and Kalina, neighbouring the domestic airport at Santacruz, were without power for more than 12 days after the deluge, dependant on neighbours and friends for food, drinking water and clothing. Medicines disbursed in some relief camps were past the expiry date; relief material and foodgrains were disbursed in areas unaffected by the flooding, denying those who really needed help.
Diseases like leptosporisis, typhoid, cholera and gastroenteritis had reached epidemic proportions and a vast majority was prey to fevers and symptoms akin to malaria. The rains, extraordinary as it was, dredged up more than just the garbage and the filth of clogged drains, as anger against corruption and mismanagement rose with the rising waters.
While the glitterati stepped out into the muck to file PILs and clean the streets, others pilloried elected representatives for the invisible cloaks they donned and environmentalists pleaded for an end to the willful destruction of the city. But the first and last word can only be an image: of an unending chain of people walking through water, holding onto one another for support, reaching out and helping as only humans, with hope and the will to survive, can.