Monday, October 24, 2005

Out-castled

The news that Mumbai was flooded during last monsoon was just another news to me. I was not at all affected by the calamity and thot abt it as something that happened in a distant land. Almost the same thing happened when I heard abt the Tsunami incident sometime back. Even though I was sorry about the people who got affected, cant really say that I was damn shocked or my life changed because of the news. Again something happening to remote places... remote people.

But day before yesterday, for the first time, I saw and understood what flooding was all about. The area where I stay, HSR Layout happens to be one of the places affected by the heavy rains that ‘rocked’ southern Bangalore. Some of the major water bodies around Silk Board area, Begur lake and Madiwala lake overflowed and water was left free to gush through the residents layouts stringing around outer ring road and Hosur road. I was as usual busy with my weekend activity, ie snoring away to glory, when my roomie woke me up at around 10 in the morning when he returned from his temple visit. The previous night had some heavy rains, and when he left for the temple, everything was normal. When he returned, there was water all around the place. All the roads were under water. Water had not risen to heights more than say half a feet, but it was rising steadily. I stepped out to have a look at the slowly increasing water levels at the cross road leading to our place.

Now, what really shocks me in hindsight is the fact that I was not at all shocked by the entire incident. Is it because my room is on the first floor and there is no realistic chance of water reaching up to that level? Is it because there isn’t too much valuable stuff for me to rescue except for my bike, even in the worst case? Is it because I have become too numb to react to stuff like this? I don’t know.... For me, the sight of water level rising in the road leading to my place, and seeing water slowly entering our car park area, didn’t ring any alarm bells, didn’t cause any panic. It was business as usual for me...

We did a quick strategic planning session and decided to shift base to Indira Nagar where our friends were getting ready for a game of cricket. Changed to our cricketing gear and off we went in my roomies’ jeep. There was a water cover for all the roads until we left HSR area. We had some cricket and spent time until evening at another friends’ place. After supper, we went back to our flooded shelter only to realize that the water level had risen far higher in all the adjacent areas for us to cross. Vehicle was diverted to our friends place without even caring to put an effort to go on foot and check our rented shelter.

Now I am a bit confused. Have my surroundings become completely dispensable for me? I don’t think I am attached to anything around me. I don’t care a damn abt the rented house I stay. I don’t care a damn abt the office where I work from. As long as my left jean pocket has my mobile and my right jean pocket has my credit cards, I am happy and content.

Is everything all right with me??

I had plans to upload some pics that I took on my mob-cam before leaving my flooded house. Dont have the mem-card-reader with me now. May be I will do it later.

Here are the images....









A view from my balcony. No, I was not promised the lake view when I booked the house. Our life boat.












One of the roads to my house. Fit for a speed boat now :_( Hovercraft?












An ill fated school. What you see is the first floor.
An ATM in the middle of sea?

16 comments:

Unknown said...

hey what happened to ur bike?

Geo said...

Nothing :_)

It was the only thing which had the risk of being affected by the flood waters because it couldnt be taken up to the first floor. But the waters were not high enuf to enter the exhaust.

silverine said...

It was the worst rains I have seen! I have heard schools have been closed for two days. Very sad state of affairs indeed. I really feel terrible for the people whose homes are waist deep in water. Guess, there is nothing anyone can do about it.

kickassso said...

jeans , mobile and credit card for survival eh?
I have only jeans:D
the first thing i would carry of to safety Is my music system:D...I was asked that in an interview once!
and btw....welcome back to the present..
your accounts of Dhwani has inspired me to take a more leading role in our fest!

Erosimian said...

which bike do u have?

modded silencer?

most bikes have their exhaust ports less than 2 feet from the ground.

Geo said...

@Silverine: Some ten years back Bangalore had 250+ lakes and now the count is around 80. We have successfully converted river/lake beds to building plots... Don’t think there is anything left to be done now.

@kickassso: Call my friends and swipe my card at ‘Haze’ or ‘Stigs’ or ‘Enigma’...thats what I meant.

Nice to know u r gonna make merrier... plunge right in... You won’t realize this now... but there is nothing like your college fays...

@duttan: It’s a Yam Enticer. Fact fit silencer. :_) I am now confident of using it as a multi-surface vehicle. Yday I could hear steam boat sounds from the exhaust when I rode it through waist deep water.:_)

Jiby said...

i have seen people convert a desert into a land with the best climate in the world, california...and there's the sad state of affairs with bangalore which until a decade back was India's pride...i just read that article on how lakes there were covered up, in the indian express before i came to your blog.

i have also never been in situations like these...wonder why nature's fury is out on full blast all over the world for the last one year...a friend fled from hurricane wilma's path only to see a post fall onto his car which had his worldly belongings, where it was parked at the motel he took refuge in...by a freak accident!

Sujith said...

i guess ur swimming (vellathil kai kaalittadikkuka) experiences mite've come handy.. ;-)

kickassso said...

nice atmosphere for vellamadi:P

Geo said...

@Jiby: Sorry to hear abt your friends' misfortune. Has nature become more violent these days, or is it because of our interventions which force such things to happen? Is it because things like this get more publicity when it affects the ‘influential’ urban people.

@jithU: Rome burning, sorry drowning... you playing your guitar???

@gangadhar: Welcome :_)
Its raining cats and dogs all over...

@kickassso: Like a friend of mine put it across "Water outside, water inside" :_D

Mirage said...

The pics speak louder than words... really very unfortunate. Hope things are gettin bk to normal now. tc

n hey thnx 4 stopping by!

Aashi said...

Yes Geo...guess we cant do anything when nature plays its game!!

Rita said...

Hey Geo,
From your pics it seems that situation was very bad. How are things now? Take care

Rat said...

Water all over.
Inside and outside (the body), is it ?

Nice pics.
Nice to learn that your 'convertable' is doing fine :D

Anonymous said...

Happy diwali Geo!!

Aashi said...

Happy diwali Geo!!