Narmada Bachao mein ho jayein Fanaa....

Aamir Khan starrer "Fanaa" is banned in Gujrat by BJP, following the actor's remark on Narmada Dam project. Doesnt it sound funny? What is that which relates these three unrelated things, The movie "Fanaa", Aamir Khan's remarks on Narmada Bacho and BJP,with each other?

The Narmada Bachao Andolan is group of social activists headed by socialist Medha Patkar. These activists aim to bring justice to those people who have been displaced due to the Narmada dam that has been constructed by the government. Aamir Khan, director of Rang De Basanti, Rakesh Mehra and a few other cast members from Rang De Basanti joined this group of activists in their fight for justice. Narmada Bachao Andolan(NBA) has been in the existence for quite a few years now. Why is this interest in NBA created all of a sudden in these celebrities. Well, everyone knows the reason, "Rang de Basanti" was in theatres at that time...But, this reason is well justified, as everyone has right to be a selfish person, though not a right by constitution but by an undisputed consensus of all selfish minds here and to make use of all available opportunities to succeed.

Below are the extracts from a debate, telecasted by NDTV and participated by Aamir Khan, a BJP spokesperson, few Gujarat people and other audience.

=start

Someone from Gujarat people : "One should not comment on any issue when he knows very little about it".

Host : Ok, what is that, you feel, Aamir doesnt know?

There was no answer from the audience.

(Conclusion : People protesting against Aamir themselves either dont know about the issue or dont know what are we protesting against.)


Host (To Aamir) : How come you suddenly got interested in Narmada Bachao?

Aamir Khan : I personally have stayed in Gujarat for my shooting and I have seen the water crisis there. I personally feel that Gujarat should get water but not at the cost of the people who would get affected by this project. I was just supporting the demand of proper rehabilitation or the people getting affected and am not against raising the dam.

Host : But water crisis is all over India, then why only Gujarat should get water?

Again there was no convincing answer from the actor.

(Conclusion: Either he was hiding the reason behind his support to NBA or he really doesnt know the reason for which he was supporting them.)

=end

Fine, here I dont want to talk about the public (public being the people protesting against Fanaa). I have already talked about such people in my previous post. Lets concentrate on Aamir Khan and BJP).

Aamir Khan repeatedly made the statement, right from the start, that he was not against Narmada dam and just wants rehabilitation of the affected people. He was just pleading, like many others including the Supreme Court of India, that those whose homes and livelihood had been disrupted by the dam work, should be rehabilitated.He was not an expert on the technicalities of the dam but was only moved by the plight of those who had lost their homes. He loved the people of Gujarat as much as he loved people from other states and wished them well with plenty of water. Whats wrong in this?....nothing, atleast I feel. He is simply a citizen of India and he has right to do so. If someone thinks that he is there for publicity, then that person has a choice of ignoring this publicity stunt, but he doesn't have any right to decide whether Aamir Khan should support NBA or not. It is the actor's personal issue.

Conclusion: One should not worry about Aamir's motive behind his participation in NBA. It is him to decide and we to ignore.

Now what remains is BJP. BJP politicians from Gujarat including MP, Harin Pathak and members of the BJP Yuva Morcha even while listening to these repeated assurances of the actor, went on accusing him of being anti-Gujarat, anti-dam and anti-whatnot! Whats wrong with these people? Would these people have protested against me if I had made such statements? No way, who cares about me?....then why so much about the celebrities? There are many answers to these questions, but what I feel more accurate is that the popularity of Aamir frighetened them so much that they started feeling insecured and went anti-aamir. Sounds funny? or irrational? The Supreme Court had made the similar statements as that of the actor's. If BJP feels that Aamir is anti-Gujarart, then it simply shows that BJP is anti-Supreme Court.

But only this was not enough for BJP that they went ahead and banned Aamir's next release "Fanaa". (Oh boy, I need a break, to control outburst of my laughter...)

Did I abrubtly end this post?....Yes? think again.....

Democracy: Not just rights, but also duties

Before I start analysing The Indian Mentality, I find it absolutely necessary to define Democracy. People here are just aware of the fact that India is the largest democracy in the world, but most of them simply dont know what does that mean exactly...so let us try to find it out...lets recapitulate few points that we learnt in Civics.

Literal Meaning of Democracy : Rule by the people (from the Greek demos, "people," and kratos, "rule")

More precisely, Democracy is a Government "of the people, by the people and for the people".

Democracies can be categorised into:

Direct democracy : All citizens, without any elected official, come together to make public decisions. This can be implemented only for a small group, but cannot be implemented nationwide.

Representative democracy: Here, citizens elect officials to make political decisions, formulate laws, and administer programs for the public good.

Some people define democracy as Freedom. But it must be understood that the words democracy and freedom cannot be used interchangeably. Democracy is not just a set of ideas and principles about freedom, but it also contains a set of practices and procedures that have been reformed through a long, often tortuous history.

Any society, to be called as democratic, needs to contain time-tested fundamentals of constitutional government, human rights and equality before the law. Time-tested (reformed and corrected by time) fundamentals of the human rights and equality before the law when merged with duties of the individuals make a constitution. To make a constitution succeed, it is very important that every individual is aware of his own duties. It is not sufficient to be aware of only human rights or equality rights. The constitution must be superior to all other laws, and must be always superior to an individual. The superiority of the constitution is a key factor to sustain democracy.

In India, the constitution defines "the executive(the administration), the legislature(the Parliament) and the judiciary" as the main organs of the government, and also describes their powers and responsibilities. It also regulates the relationship between them. Thus the constitution acts like a brain, where the intelligence to control and to operate the system lies. Every law implemented by the goverment has to be in confirmity with the constitution. Indian constitution specifies the goals of India as Democracy, Socialism, Secularism and National Integration, and in addition it also describes the rights and duties of citizens in order to achieve those goals.

All democracies are systems in which citizens freely make political decisions by majority rule. But rule by the majority is not necessarily democratic. Majority rule must be coupled with guarantees of individual human rights that, in turn, serve to protect the rights of minorities. Rights of minority are not by the goodwill of the majority and also cannot be eliminated by majority vote. These rights are protected because democracy protects the rights of all citizens.

Everyone is aware of fundamental rights provisioned in the constitution, and everyone fights for them, but always forgets that there are also some duties specified, rather legally enforced, for each citizen. You can have a look at your fundamental duties, if you really care to, here.

It should always be a simple and fair equation : "No duties??? No rights...". But why is not the constitution so harsh? Because it wants each and every citizen to understand the serious need of implementing the duties in order to protect their own rights. This cannot be achieved by harshness or enforcement of duties, but can only be achieved through awareness.

Indian mentality lacks respect to the constitution. It lacks respect to the fundamental duties. It knows only about fundamental rights. It calculates using a reverse equation "No Rights??? No duties...". It considers government as a separate entity and as a scapegoat. It finds it derogatory to accept the blame. It is selfish and not willing to contribute to the nation. Such an unaware mind does not deserve a democracy...

You Are Fired !!!

(This is a very old unpublished post. And now I know that nobody reads my blog, am publishing it with a few names changed)

India was really doing bad on the 2nd day of test at Chinnaswami stadium, Bangalore. But it dint really matter much as the opponents were Australia. It was going to happen, atleast after a happening 150 from Clarke and the quick 100 from Gilchrist, that led Aussies to score 474 in the first innings. And as usual, McGra had eaten up all the stars from Indian side leaving India to 150/6 at the end of the day...

We finished watching highlights on the TV kept at the reception of the hotel we stayed in which for our two months training. Cursing at the Indian batsmen, we went to our rooms on the third floor. The only good thing on that day (I am hiding one more from you, but will write about it some other time) was that we returned from the office before the highlights acually started. I was going upstairs and I saw Jyotika sitting on the stairs, keeping her head on her knees, looking at the floor...she seemed to be very upset...but it least mattered to me...so I ignored her and went to my room. I took a shower and changed my clothes, got into my 3/4th and T-shirt. BBoy...i was really hungry, more hungry than my fat, glutton room mate, Abhinav. Pathetic habbit he had of relaxing for hours after returing from the training. I kicked his @$$ and asked him to get prepared to go for dinner.

"Hey man, i am feeling like having Grilled Chicken today...are you ready to spend again?", I asked him.

"Dude, I am always open for such luring options, although we had Grilled Chicken almost three times in this week", He replied. This offer was so tempting for my lecherous fatty roomie Abhinav that he got ready within a minute and stepped out even before me.

Those days we had found a good restaurant, Food Mahal, that served some really good North Indian chicken dishes. We had gone PURE NON VEGGIE those days. We used to have chicken even at the lunches. It was really a strategic decision to eat non veg at lunches, considering that the queue would go a mile long to get Veg lunch.

We returned back to the hotel after contributing once more to the poultry industry.

"Delicious it was", Abhinav sounded really satisfied.

"As usual, but I loved it more today...did you see that girl sitting at the table next to us?", I said.
"Oh that one...she is in our company man...our next batch of joinees, I noticed her on the very first day she joined", he said as if he had climbed up the Mount Everest and was looking down at me just to ridicule.

"!@!#!@#", I am intelligent enough to give a quick reply to such statements.

We reached the third floor.

"So much of noise here, what has happened?", I said.

"I dont care, I want to sleep now...", Abhinav said carelessly and went to our room. He was so indifferent about the surrounding world that he deserves a special post from me on this blog.

I went to room no. 302, from where the noise was coming.

The same girl who was sitting on the stairs, was lying unconscious in her room. People were trying to wake her up. After 5-10 minutes, she showed some movement. After some vomiting she was able to utter few words....."doctor...".

"What happened to her", I asked Rahul(her JUST friend).

"I dont know....lets take her to hospital....please quickly....", said he.

"Alright, We will go together. I will call Ritesh too", Rahul, Ritesh and I had developed very good friedship in a very short period of a month.

I went to Ritesh's room and told him about all the matter.

"Pankaj, I dont want to go to the hospital", Ritesh.

"What?? Are you mad?"

"You dont have any idea what happened here, thats why you are saying so...I am not mad...that girl is mad"

"What happened dude? tell me...I think its kinda food poisoning and there is no reason to make a fuss outta it"

"She had an overdose of sleeping pills..."

"@#@#$!@!..why?"

..........We ran to 302 and decided to take her to the hospital...

I went a few meters ahead and brought back an auto....two girls sat with the unconscious lady...

"Take her to the hospital next to the chowk ahead", I said.

"Yea, its open 24x7", Ritesh added.

Auto went ahead and we decided to walk towards the hospital, as in Trivandrum it is very difficult to get an auto after 8 in the evening. Useless city!!!!


Our plan was to just admit her and come back. Her roommate was going to stay in the hospital. We reached the hospital after ten minutes or so.


"Why is she still in the auto?????"


I decided to keep quiet and let the senior people handle the drama. Yes, drama!!! Doctors were not ready to take the case without notifying the police. Sounds like bollywood??? It was happening right in front of our eyes. She definitely needed medical assistance, doctors knew it. Anything could happen if not given any, doctors knew it and we too.


An unconscious girl in the auto, her two roommates and we three guys....the rainy night...had nothing to do but simply looking at each other...


"We have no choice."


We again looked at each other...helplessly.


"Ok. Who would call him???"


Col. Nayar was the head of the admin staff at our company. He was extremely strict and very rude. We knew that if we talk to him about this incidence he would take us left and right.


"I will call him." It was Chandrika, Jyotika's roommate.


We stood near the auto and she went inside to make The Call. We were just standing in the rain and watching her talking on the phone. She was noting down something.


"We need to take her to Mediplus hospital. Our company has some tie up with them. Col. Nayar is going to call them and make sure that they admit her. I have the address."


We asked Chandrika to take the auto to Mediplus. We also easily got an auto as it was a 24x7 hospital.


"It is going to be late, we need to get up at 6:30 in the morning", I said.


Noone responded. I kept quiet throughout our journey to Mediplus. Prakash called Chandrika and asked which room she was admitted to. Doctors were really helpful. Hospital was also well equipped. Must be one of the biggest in the city, I thought.


Jyotika was given preliminary medical assistance and was asked to be kept under the observation for the whole night. She was out of danger, we got the word from the doctors.


"What a silly girl", I said.


Everyone stared at me. I again went quiet. I went to the canteen and brought some coffee for all.


"Stupid coffee", I said.


"Yea...pathetic", Ritesh agreed. Finally...the silence was broken. Everyone was smiling. There was nothing to worry about now.


"Do we have to make any payment? I have collected some cash", I asked.


"No, our insurance covers it all", Chandrika answered.


All done. We were happy that she was out of danger and we saved her life. Now, it was time to go back and sleep. Catching the shuttle at 7:15 in the morning was a tough job.


"I have an idea", Prakash said.


"And what's that?"


"Lets bunk the office tomorrow".


"Bunk??? We don't get any leaves during our learning period, you know that", I said.


"Arey, see it is 2 A.M. now, right?", he continued, "So, we could stay here for some more time and then go back and tell our CR(class representative, we were in "Initial Learning Period". It was just like a school.) that we got late because of all this scene and just could not get up and missed all shuttles."


"Useless story. We still have the option to reach the office by auto.", I said.


It was really late. Even, I was not feeling like going to the hotel and sleep just for 2 hours and then get up and go the office to attend those boring lectures. But, officeeeee...was so beautiful...those beautiful girls...


After some time my lazy mind took over my flirtious one and I agreed to bunk the office. We stayed there until 4 AM and then went down to catch an auto to go back. No one was there!!!...crap...we had to wait until the morning to get an auto. We slept on a bench in the hospital.


In the morning we made sure that we don't reach our hotel until all the shuttles are gone. We called our CR and told her that we got late in the hospital and that's why missed all shuttles. CR agreed to talk to Col. Nayar about it.


"Great man, finally we are not going to the office...".


We went back to the hotel at around 830 AM. Everyone had left to the office. We just wanted to relax, as we had a really bad night while sleeping on a bench.


.....


"Get up Prakash...., your phone is ringing...".


.....


"Who was that"...


"Our CR..."


.....


We immediately dressed up and caught an auto and went to the office. Office?...yea we were told to report immediately...not by our CR....but by Col. Nayar....


"It's all your fault", I said.


"$#$%#$%", Prakash replied.


"We are screwed, why the hell has he called us", Ritesh.


....


In just half n hour, we were standing in a line in front of Col. Nayar.


We tried to explain what happened at night.


"You could have called me immediately when you found her unconscious in hotel. We and hotel people could have arranged everything...", Col. Nayar said.


"But, we were scared and so thought of taking her to the hospital rather than wasting time in anything else", Ritesh said.


"You guys don't understand. Your parents have sent you here and you are our responsibility. No one would like it if you get into some legal problems. It will be very difficult for us to get you out of that. You are here to learn, you should just do that and let us handle everything else. And why do you need so many guys ? You just want to be a hero whenever you see any girl in trouble."


"Excuse me? Even if it was a guy we would have done the same thing. You have misjudged our intentions", I said.


"We don't need people like you...I can fire you right now", Nayar got furious after my statement ( Yeah, just Nayar, not Col. Nayar...he ws talking rubbish and we were ready to argue).


"We are sorry sir. Next time we shall call you and wait when someone is about to die...", Ritesh tried to be sarcastic.


"Yes sir, we are really very sorry. Not for taking her to the hospital, but for trying to bunk the office. Can we go and attend our classes?", I and Prakash tried to pacify him.


"Your leave is already sanctioned...do you want to cancel it?", Col. Nayar smiled.


What the ..... what was that drama all about if the leave was already sanctioned ...


"Yea, cancel our leaves, we will attend the classes".


"Remember, it is our job to take care of you guys. I simply don't want anyone getting into any sort of legal problems. You did the right thing, but you should have come here in the morning. You guys are matured enough to understand what I am trying to say. Have some break fast and go to the classroom.", he went back to his desk.


We did the right thing, but by intentionally not attending the office it was going hamper the sole purpose of helping someone selflessly. That is what Col. Nayar tried to say, after all we were in our ILP (Initial "Learning" Period).

Dirty Business

Well..I had completely forgotten about this one...It just came up when I was chatting with my colleagues during the tea time.

I saw this, infact used to see this every day, at the same place, Bandra Station, and the same overhead bridge...

For complete one year that I spent in traveling to Bandra, this was the most hated thing, every morning I had to glance at which...Not just me but every person going to Bandra East.

This is regarding a beggar we used to find there in between the herd of people, always lying on his back. What's so different? you will find thousands of such beggars in mumbai...well, this man had no limbs and no hands...simply a trunk with a head...to add more, noticing carefully, one would find a syringe injected inside his stomach...also, half of his face was seriously burnt...He was completely immobile...and who knows, perhaps mentally dead?

Disgusting?...well, I happened to see that every morning...

Furthermore, while returning from the office, in the evening if you dont find that beggar at his place, what would you think?

That's exactly what used to make me upset...a simple trunk, lying helplessly in the morning, suddenly disappears in the evening...and in the next morning, is ready to welcome you again...???...never got a chance to see who was behind this 'teleporting'...but I wonder how it happened, and still happens, in the presence of thousands of people...

I don't want to comment anymore on this, as you must have got why I have called this as 'Dirty Business'...

Displaying Marketing Skills @ Bandra Station

As per my daily routine, at 7 in evening, I left myoffice and went to Bandra Station. As usual, stationwas overcrowded and people were moving with "BABYSTEPS". Normally it takes 10 minutes to cross theoverhead bridge which is less than 50 meters inlength. I was also moving slowly with the crowd.

Suddenly, I heard a person shouting in Marathi,

"8 vajta mumbai chi power cut honar aahe".

I tried to spot the guy, but it was impossible.

He repeats it in Hindi,"8 baje mumbai ki power cut hone waali hai".

Now everyone got confused and started looking for theguy who was shouting, as power cut in mumbai is amajor issue.

He again repeats it in english,"Power cut in Mumbai at 8".

Thats it now, i wanted to know who was shouting andwhy he was shouting....so I came to one side of thebridge just to spot him.

He shouts again, "Power cut at 8"

Yes, i spotted him this time. A middle aged man was sitting selling some goods.

Shouts again in Hindi, "8 baje bijli jayegi.......aaoaao Candles leke jao".

yes, you guessed it right, he was trying to sell someCandles, using his own Marketing Strategy. And the strategy was really working for him, people were actually buying the candles. Mind you, he was not even from IIM :)). It was probably his first day on Bandra Station. But now he daily sits there. His strategy doesnt work much now as everyone came to know about it.The very first lesson which MBAs learn, "Change your Marketing Strategy on regular basis and Target areas too". Remeber what happened to ONIDA? :))

Whew!!! I am Alive - 26 July 05

Finally...That day has come....The day I have been thinking of which for the past one month...The day of relief but still the day of grief...

8 a.m.,

604, L2, Poonam Pragati,
Poonam Nagar,
Andheri(E), Mumbai

As usual the alarm in my mobile rang horribly and I threw my mobile away. I just heard some murmur from the next bed. Oops, not again. The mobile as per its routine had hit my roommate. He threw it back to me and I finally got up. I had to reach office at 9 for some important work. But it was already late. Hurrying up I got ready, took my umbrella, put on my jerkin and stepped out. I realized the dampness in the air, as it had rained heavily last night. Luckily it was just drizzling when I went out. Hoping that it wouldn't rain till I reach my office, I stood in the queue at the bus stop. The bus came and my journey towards the relief began....

"It is going to be really a relief....Yes....I am resigning today from my dull job at TCS".

9:30 a.m.
Andheri Station.

The bus stopped at Andheri station. The effect of the downpour in the night was clearly visible. I had to walk through calf-leveled water to reach the station. Oh my leather shoes...Alright, just a few more days to go.....As expected, the trains were running late. I went to platform 2, and started waiting for the Churchgate slow. The crowd was almost the double in number. The train came, and everyone started fighting to get inside. I used the normal tricks to get in first and grabbed the standing place near the next door, where Bandra station would have come. The train took a long halt at khar and reached Bandra after half an hour. Stepping down on the platform, I started thinking about my project manager's reaction that would come out after I submit my resignation letter. I caught 310 which dropped me at RBI, Bandra Kurla Complex.

10:15 am
RBI, BKC

By this time it had started raining heavily. I walked to the first floor and had a glance inside the office. Whew! my manager was still to come. I switched on my desktop and started my routine work. After some time, my boss came. Frustrated by the rain, he didn't look in any sort of mood to tolerate my resignation. So I decided to postpone the action till the lunch time. The things were just not going my way. I went to CMC canteen for lunch and mixed up my brand new two fold umbrella with some old and almost a dead one. Doesn't matter....just a few more days to go...I came back to the office and started working, in fact started waiting for my manager to come back. My heart started pounding heavily....come on..after all I was resigning from a MNC and also was about to sacrifice all the opportnities to go onsite that would have come after few months. Should I really? I decided not to give any second thought to the decision of leaving the company and took the resignation letter out from my drawer which was ready to be signed and stamped for last few weeks. My manager came back and looked at me skeptically as if he knew what I was about to do. But how would he be knowing...I just laughed at his unawareness and asked him for his five minutes. That's it, I handed over my resignation letter to him and said "I am resigning" . I was expecting some outburst reaction from him, but surprisingly he simply smiled back and asked "So where are you going?". I just couldn't believe, I had done it...my very first resignation letter...costing around Rs. 60000 against the service agreement...Whew!!!...

I tried calling my father to tell about my resignation....unfortunately, Orange network was down for some unknown reason, so I called from my office mobile, Tata Indicom.

3:30 pm,
My Desk,
RBI, BKC

I was feeling really relaxed and relieved. I had discussed all the procedure with my boss and had already sent an email to my HR manager. Everything was done, just negotiating upon the bond amount and taking the service certificate were the issues left, which I was supposed to do after the notice period gets over. My boss handed over a heavy knowledge transfer plan to me, for the complete notice period. It was going to be really hectic. I met my group leader, my boss' boss, he was also reacting patiently. Like the dampness I smelled in the morning, I smelled the professionalism there. I realized that it takes tremendous efforts to think professionally as my managers. Hats off to them !!!...

5 pm,
Group Leader's Desk,
RBI, BKC

The desk phone rang.....He discussed something over the line....and asked everyone to leave the office early. Because of tremendous heavy downpour all the trains were out of service. That was the news he had...something which was really very trivial as compared to what actually the situation was...

The professional had made a mistake there....he shouldn't have asked anyone to leave the office...

I, along with my friend, Abhijit, left the office and went down. I had not seen such a heavy rainfall in my whole life...nothing was visible beyond a few feets. We started walking by sharing the same dead umbrella. It did not work against the awful and overpowering force of water falling down. We got drenched within a fraction of a minute. I luckily carried my bag on that day, in which we kept all our valuables, folded our pants upto knee and started walking towards the bus stop. Bandra Kurla Complex, the most well planned commercial area in Mumbai was flooded with a few inches short to knee level water. Zero, absolutely zero chances of any bus coming there to pick up just two of us. We had to walk towards the highway to catch a bus. We really enjoyed the scene there, children playing out in water and even the elder ones. We both had heard a lot about the rains in Mumbai, and thought it was normal for all mumbaikars to see that much of water logging...we continued to walk towards kalanagar bus stop on the highway...

5:30 pm,
Kalanagar Bus Stop, Western Express Highway
Bandra(E)

We reached the bus stop and stood in the queue. I had to call my father, so I took out my mobile. But Orange network was still down.

"What's happening? Why were all the vehicles on the road not moving? The signals here never stayed red for so much time...I looked at the signal...It was not working, probably a power cut...Power cut, in Mumbai?...strange..."

Not even a single bus was coming towards us, nor any was going opposite. Vehicles were immobilized because of a major traffic jam somewhere towards Andheri. We waited for half an hour there, but we could not spot any bus heading towards Andheri. Finally we decided to go by a taxi. A taxi was standing right in front of us and we asked the driver to come to Andheri.

"Main 2 ghante ho gaye ek hi jagah pe khada hoon taxi leke....traffic aage nahi jayegi...subah tak wait karna padega aise hi".

6:15 pm
Same place

We laughed at taxi driver and started making joke out of him. Suddenly, my friend pointed out something towards the road by which we had come to the highway...

The fear began to grip my mind...the knee level water in which children were playing had risen upto the waist...in just 45 minutes..."Oh god, please save me...I cant swim"...

Horrible...Bandra was never a low lying area.

Wakola, Khar, Santacruz....OH MY GOD !!!!!

On my way back home were all these low lying areas... and there was no way back to the office, everything was flooded there in Bandra Kurla Complex.

"We have to catch any bus to secure our lives", I just thought of it, and at the next moment, in the picture ahead was a bus to Boriwali going from the wrong side of the road. We started running to catch the bus, and finally stepped inside. The bus was overpacked, not even an inch to keep our foot. I asked whether it was going towards Andheri by any chance.

"Haan, jayegi Andheri"...I looked at the taxi driver we talked to, he was still there...Whew !!!...

I again tried calling my father...Orange was still down...Indicom was congested...

The whole picture was clearly in front of me. The traffic was jam because of water logging in low lying areas, and as usual trains were out of service because of the same reason...well that was normal, but why was there so much water in Bandra?

We kept moving towards Khar...and our journey towards grief began...

7:30 pm
Khar

Fighting against the heavy gush of water, our bus reached khar, where the water started coming inside the bus, upto the last step at the door. The engine was completely under water, but was still working. Outside was the scence with floating cattle, motor cycles and even we spotted a maruti 800. It was all dark till then. Street lights were off, no electricity in residences, shops. Headlights of the bus had gone underwater. Using small torches, few local people, were trying to show bus driver the way of getting the bus out of water. But impossible it was...many floating obstacles were in the way.

"Its been two hours I have been standing, my legs have given up, I am hungry too..."

10:30 pm
Khar

After tremendous efforts put by the driver and all the people outside, our bus got out of that area. My Tata Indicom finally worked and I called my father.

"Don't get down from the bus, its been declared flood situation in Mumbai...I have been watching NDTV for past 2-3 hours, thank god you called me and you are safe. Don't get down...you can't swim"

"Don't worry papa, I will reach home by 11:30, the bus was stuck in between but now its moving"...signal problem again...Fine, atleast I could convey my safety to my parents. The person next to me asked me for my mobile after watching me talking. His situation was even worse, he did not have telephone at home, he had to contact someone who could post his message to his family. After 3-4 attempts he was successful and looked really relieved. He got up from his seat and asked me to sit there...But he was an old man, so I asked him to sit back. After that my mobile was in demand, many people used it. The feeling of helping others was really very nice. A girl and her mother were sitting next to me, they asked me for my mobile...and Tata Indicom went down...after doing the needful for many worried and terrified people in the crisis situation.

11:00 pm
Just ahead of Khar

"Actually my Airtel is working but the mobile is discharged, can I use your mobile with my sim?", the girl asked. I removed my sim card and gave my mobile to her, she made a call using her Airtel. The things were just not going my way....both of my mobiles got discharged.

Her mother gave me 2 biscuits to eat. Finally...I ate something. In the meantime, one of us had gone down and had brought some chips to share. I asked him from where did he get those and he pointed out at a small store lighted with 2-3 candles. I went down in water and brought some biscuits from that store. Getting down from the bus could have resulted in some life snatching accident as there was hardly anything visible. fortunately this time everything went my way. I was back in the bus and shared biscuits with Abhijeet and other people there.

It again started raining heavily. It was all dark outside and in addition to that, was this rain. We tried to look outside to get a clue about the location, but the attempt went futile. And the bus stopped again, the driver switched off the engine. Again traffic jam and this time it looked like we had to stay in the bus for the whole night. Driver went outside to get a glimpse of the situation ahead, returned back and asked us to stay in the bus throughout the night.

We were just behind Wakola, the most low lying area I knew on the Western Express highway. The water level had risen upto second floor there. SECOND FLOOR !!!

Many people went outside to see what all was happening, and we finally got some space to sit. We were 4 persons sitting on a seat of 2. I was near the window. The downpour had lessened its strength. It was simply drizzling out there and I had a chance of looking outside. We were still in the water. Although water was just upto the knee level, it was not logged, it was flowing, probably the flood water. It was spread over many miles, covering every inch available. It was impossible to figure out the skeleton of the roads. Everyone in cars, buses, trucks had given up driving, but there were people on two wheelers as well. They had to stand in that water, keeping their feet in the cold water for a long time. Finally one of the persons in our bus asked those bikers to park there vehicle somewhere and to come inside the bus...Whew !!!

5:00 am
Same place.

Just woke up. I just dont know how did I manage to sleep in such circumstances. Perhaps it was the sense of relief and satisfaction of helping others which made me sleep so deeply. I looked around, many people had already left. We were just 20-30 now. We waited for one more hour. Many people had started walking towards Andheri. Finally, we also decided to walk and stepped down. Water level was still upto the calf. Going further ahead, was a flyover and below it was horrifying water logging upto the waist level. People were trying to go across it, but we simply realized that it was more than impossible.

We went on the flyover and headed towards Andheri. Now we were far above the water...but looking downwards we could easily see the devastating effect of the flood...Wakola was completely floating...and the water level was upto the second floor...few brave men were trying to rescue the stranded ones...but no BMC workers were present there...how could anyone expect those guys to come there at all...it was an impossible task to reach such places as the whole Western Express Highway was blocked...thousands of vehicles, and lakhs of people were stranded there...

We kept on walking, witnessing the nature's curse to the largest city in India, the costliest city India, the liveliest city in India, the largest slums in India, the dirtiest part of India...flood has now swept away even the smallest spec of dirt, every inch of slums, every moment of liveliness and perhaps every penny of the poor.

We kept on walking, witnessing the longest walks some people had, right from churchgate to andheri, for a few, perhaps to Boriwali, walking through the waist level water...we also walked for 10 minutes...perhaps the most scary 10 minutes, as I din't know swimming.

We kept on walking, witnessing the brave hearts helping the helpless people, perhaps braver than the lions.

We kept on walking, witnessing the joyful people, perhaps enjoying the flood water, or.... perhaps hiding there losses.

We kept on walking, witnessing the longest and widest traffic jam we had ever seen, perhaps India had ever seen...

We kept on walking...waiting for Andheri to come...

Finally, After 3 hours of walking, we reached home....it was all dark inside...and outside too...

No power...my friend had battery of his mobile alive, i used it and called my parents to convey my safety...

"Whew!!! I am home....I am alive..."

...and the battery went down...