Flood Fury

चप्पल कहाँ उतारूं "Where do I keep my slippers?" asked my 91-year old mother-in-law after spotting a pair of chappals floating in the flooded bedroom.

यहाँ उतारिये "Here", I responded after bringing a teapoy close to her feet and helped her remove her slippers. 

With the entire house flooded thanks to incessant rain in Hyderabad on the night of 13th October, her reaction was natural. She was pretty shocked seeing the flood water in every room. She wanted me to call for help. I asked her whom to call. She gave names of few neighbours. When I told her that their houses were also flooded, she said इतना पानी कहाँ से आया "from where has so much water come"? She had not stepped out to see the flood water entering our house. In 15 minutes, the road had 4 feet of water with a force! We didn't want her to feel traumatized. See a clip below showing the flooded road early next morning.

Between 8.30 and 10.30 pm that night, eight inches of rain fell in Hyderabad. It was a deluge. At 10.30 or so, when all the rooms had been flooded, we requested her to go to bed. See the flooding and her reluctance in the video clip below. Water in the clip taken at 10.30 pm looks pretty clean. But after it receded in the morning, it left a trail of slush and mud all over. That was a tougher task,

I had shared the above video clip with my Naval friends saying 'Your Naval Buddy feels at home in the flooded house'. Many of them lauded the sense of humour despite distressing times. Thanks buddies for keeping our morale high.

The rain continued to pound till 1 am that night. Then the wind speed picked up, taking the clouds away and the rain reduced its intensity. By 3 am water started to recede slowly. When it receded, the floors became filthy with slush and muck all over. Not to mention the nauseating stink! Few more pictures below.

Humour@Midnight

We had to lighten the mood despite being in a hopeless situation. My mother-in-law wanted to go to the rest room at 1 am or so. As I helped her with the slippers, she put her first leg down in water. Cold and muddy water was most unwelcome for a 91-year old. She reacted saying पानी बहुत ठंडा है meaning the water is very cold. My wife who was standing close by, responded हाँ अभी गरम करती हूँ 'yes just wait we will heat up the water for you!' So much for keeping our heads above water.

House Resembles a Launderette

Next few days were an ordeal to clean up the house and assess the damage. We didn't realise that water had entered the suitcases packed with sarees, woolens, dresses and other clothes. It was very heartbreaking for my wife to see the destruction of her silk sarees, pullovers, shawls and other belongings. We had to first dry the damaged clothes before even thinking of donating it! Where to dry with clouds still threatening us? So, we tied up clothing lines running from one room to the other. See the picture and a short video clip.

The clip below shows the house converted into a धोभी घाट meaning a launderette!

Is it Clean Enough

After we shared few pictures of our flooded house with our daughter and family in California and son and family in Chennai, messages/calls started coming in. Because of the house being in total disarray, regular online tambola game with grand children had to be called off. In fact the house resembled the days of being posted out while we were still in the Navy. Boxes spread all over with hardly a place to manoeuvre or walk around! After few days, when we did have some semblance of a living room, Neeta informed Naman our youngest grandchild, that we could now play tambola. The conversation went something like this:

Neeta: We are ready to play tambola.

Naman: Is the house set?

Neeta: Yes, it is cleaned up.

Naman: Is it clean enough to play tambola?

We were indeed touched by the innocence and concern of a 5-year old! Needless to add the game went on and brought much needed relief to all of us.

When The Government Surprised Us

The local municipal body Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had drawn lot of flak in the media for allowing the builders over the years to encroach upon the land adjoining nalas (storm water drains), lake embankments and for blocking the natural flow of rain water or the overflow from lakes/ponds. In this context, the readers may view a well researched analysis by Dr Lubna Sarwath. However, GHMC teams worked relentlessly during the floods. In our colony too, the water level would have risen further had it not been for the GHMC team which came and dismantled the walls and other obstructions for free flow of rain water. We must mention Ms Srujana Sree, Asstt Engineer from GHMC who waded in waste deep water and supervised the flood relief operations during middle of the night. That's a befitting example of woman power on culmination of Nava Ratri which celebrates Goddess Durga for nine days. We need more women like her. Here is an action clip shot from the JCB.

Nine days after the flooding, GHMC team came to our Colony to inspect the damage door-to-door. To our surprise, GHMC handed over a token amount of Rs 10K as flood relief to every house which experienced water ingress and had damages. The amount was handed over after due verification of Aadhar card and online OTP. Although the damage in each house was much more, but the gesture of GHMC was appreciated by the residents. A total of Rs 356 crores had been distributed by 860 teams going to 3.56 lakh houses during 20-30 October (Postscript).

Damages

The damages in our house ranged from furniture to clothes to books to electrical gadgets to plants. 

However, the most precious item to have got damaged was a 47-year old  souvenir autographed by late Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw and his wife when they had visited BITS Pilani. We as engineering students then, had designed and produced that souvenir. The Field Marshal had signed it when he came to interact with us in the Institute. See the pictures with smudged autographs below.

But as we say 'nothing belongs to us forever'. This too shall pass unto dust.

We thank all our friends across the globe who showed their concern for our safety during the floods. We have had sunny days thereafter. Life moves on. The lake with its calm waters will continue to attract the birds as in the past.

You may like to browse our earlier story titled 'Shrinking Urban Lakes and Impending Disaster' posted in Jan-2020. We never knew we would suffer so soon!

Nature's ways! God bless.

     -   Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/25th Oct 2020 updated 0n 31st Oct

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