DoomsDay in Mumbai

Yet another black-day in Mumbai's history..
Mumbai is always famous for Bollywood, Monsoon and BEST. You can't make any connection between these three. But the week of 25th to 29th July 2005 was pretty nasty - more like a Bollywood film-script, in which, the lightning strikes, clouds thunder and it rains like anything.
The Monsoon struck Mumbai in this week with all the might it has ever shown and torn the city-life apart.
We talk about making Mumbai as India's reply to Shanghai, but it can never be like it. It will only be Mumbai till the end of this world..!! But in this week, Mumbai experienced how this end will be..
It rained like more than it has ever done - The record rainfall in last 100 years, or probably one of the worst. Cherapunji is the place where world's hieghest rainfall is generally recorded, but now even people from Cherapunji will visit Mumbai as the most rained place.
It was a real test of Mumbai's character and Mumbai passed in this test with distinction. The Spirit of Mumbai never died off. And here we are today.. millions of people hit by the rain, thousands of families destroyed, 500crore worth wealth lost, 1000 cattle and 25000 sheeps killed, trains stopped for two days. Still on the Friday 29th July, everything seemed to be back to normal. What other evidence of 'Mumbaikars' courage do you want?
If you listen to the stories told by the people, who were stuck up in the rain for more than 36 hrs, you will feel that even the Arebian Nights dont have more fascinating tales. The great display of humanity, unity and daring spirit was exhibited in these three days.
People walked on the roads which looked like great River Ganges. They stayed in the buses, cars, sumos. They walked for more than 30 miles. They reached home by the time only God knows when.
While Mom and Dad were held up in the traffic, the school-college going kids were not spared by the Great Monsoon. They were locked in their schools, in their school buses. They starved for entire 24 hrs, but never did we hear their crying voices. That's the character of Mumbai I was talking about. The residents from the neighbourhood, took good care of the infants, gave them food and water and clothes, and more importantly courage and moral support.
The Financial Capital of the Country, was dumped in the floods and what were the rescue teams doing? At some places they started working, some places they didn't even able to reach and at some other places there existance was not even visible.
I wonder how was the Weather department not aware of this forthcoming calamity? What they were doing while it started raining on Sunday night? Did they ever know that it will rain to that extent? If they cant predict these calamities even after having all the modern technology, why we, common people, should pay taxes to run useless departments like this? Why the alerts were not given in all newspapers and television and radio channels? Why it was not intimated to common public s day before Tuesday that it was dangerous to go out? We will never know the answers.
But I tell you one thing, Mumbai is the great city to live in. It never stops due to such disasters. It is observed time and again that it revives from its ashes and flies sky-high like the Great Finix Bird. Salaam Mumbai..!!!!!!!!!!!

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