Here Comes The Rain Again!

Rains!

I love the rainy season! I always look forward to the day when those thick gray clouds take over from the scorching sun and give the effect of night (more like late evening perhaps) in the middle of the day. After all the teasing with thunder and lightning when these bearers of relief finally decide to take pity on the mortals below, the feeling is something else; the petrichor, the sound of rains drops finally making it to the earth, all of us taking a collective sigh of relief and a lot of us spreading our hands out of the window to feel the rain drops fall. That cold droplet of water hitting your hand somehow makes you feel that time will change and get better in the coming days.  This is that time of the year when all of a sudden everyone gets a craving for pakodas and hot tea. I doubt there is a better feeling than to sit at home, tea in one hand with a plate of pakodas in front of you and watch the rain cool everything down.

I am guessing this year god, in view of all the tasks at hand these days, did a little miscalculation. You know the kind we all do sometimes: missing the decimal, forgetting to convert to similar units before using the value; that kind of stuff resulting in the answer value from being in decimals to being in thousands. Chennai, which was on its normal course with motto of ‘one city, one weather all year’ suddenly had to deal with the worst rainfall in past century.

Chennai came to a standstill after being hit by the worst rains in the last century

Now you combine these rains with the fact that the growth and urbanization demanded land which led to the lakes being filled up and city being constructed on top of it. Also, all the city planners and architects seem to have missed their classes when the topic of ‘Drainage System’ was being taught. (Actually I don’t know if this topic does exist in the course because come rains and every city in India is filled up with water. That’s probably something for the HRD ministry to look into.) So when you combine the two things what you get is one of the largest and oldest cities in the country come to a standstill because of floods. I will be honest, to see boats on the same street as two wheeler and four wheeler was a once in a lifetime experience (I hope I don’t have to see that again). In fact there are areas where water is filled up to a height which has submerged whole full length buses and the current is so strong on the main roads that it may (and probably has) taken vehicles and people along with it. You know how bad the situation is when the international airport has to be shut down because of excess water on the runway. Just to reverberate the fact this is all in the middle of a metropolitan city and not some remote village.

Boats in the middle of road? Yes, the transport system has changed in Chennai

Agreed 500 mm rain in 36 hours was a lot to deal with, but the lack of government action never helped. Volunteers and general public took it on themselves to help each other out in this time of grave peril. Humanity took the front seat and all temples, mosques, churches and even shopping malls were opened up for those stuck in the floods, providing them with a safe place to stay and food to eat. The police has been on duty full time helping the citizens reach their homes safe when these same officers don’t know whether their home is safe or not. Chennaites have remained strong in this crisis and will get be back in no time.

Left on their own, people took it upon themselves to help each other out

Funny thing is Government did not wake up till the media did, and media woke up when social media was on top of them. Army has been up and helping the people forced to be trapped in their own homes with nothing but water in sight. I have been fortunate as my area did not see any waterlogging but I belong to an extremely small group of lucky people. I see how worried my family is for me that even after repeating several times that my area is okay they continue to worry; I hate to think of what state a parent would be in who have children stuck in the affected areas.

As I write this, the rains have been away and sun did come out from behind those gray tormentors to give people the hope that time will change and it will get better.

Feedback (and prayers) Appreciated!

PS: I was not living in a hole and writing on ‘Intolerance’ did cross my mind but it’s too late for that now. Everything that could be said (and more) has been said already. In light of the Chennai rains, the people have shown that humanity comes way above the petty politics that has been in action for the past couple of months. Though I don’t expect the topic to die down but I sincerely hope people can see beyond what the politicians and media keep showing them on repeat and use their own respective heads.