Walk Walk Walkin' to Heaven's Door

900-odd mm of rain in about 36 hours, that was what we experienced.
6.5 feet of gushing water at J.B.Nagar near the international airport.
10 feet of storming water at Amboli Andheri-west. 4.5 feet of water at
S.V.Road Andheri. There was water upto the ground floor of Shopper's
stop at Andheri. At many places there was waist high water.

@17:00, Tuesday 26th July, 2005

my story begins at 05:00 pm on Tuesday when our office decided to let us all go a bit early because of the heavy rains. My UK colleague has come here for my project, so I was told to accompany him to his hotel. We left from Vashi-Mhape at 05:15 pm, saw a huge traffic jam on the main road leading to the Thane-Belapur highway, tried to take an alternate route thankfully...it was neither flooded nor there
was any traffic there..a stroke of luck, so finally reached the highway and joined a huge traffic jam. Meanwhile...I got a call from mom saying its raining very badly...my Dad was stranded somewhere close to Worli...near his office....my sister is somewhere at Juhu...anyways...the traffic jam was so bad that Mhape to Airoli which normally takes about 30-40 minutes, took about 2 hours. I tried making a few calls...they were not going through on the first attempt...one had to keep trying continuously...

@19:00, Tuesday 26th July, 2005

Beyond airoli and on the bridge and the eastern express highway, no traffic at all, but trust me absolutely blinding rain. so progress was rather slow. the driver of the esteem at this point started getting edgy...i told him to go as far as possible...somehow convinced him to drive on..still the mobile networks were haphazard...sometimes full network...sometimes no network...suddenly got a call from my project leader saying that i could take the vehicle home...and it should not be a problem...i tried calling up home repeatedly...but i was not getting through at all..and now we were reaching gandhinagar..


@20:10, Tuesday 26th July, 2005

on top of the gandhinagar flyover...there was a bit of a jam...cars moving slowly...reason...at the exit of the flyover...there were floods and it seemed like flowing river...our esteem was rocked like a boat...somehow the driver drove on..and we reached IIT...there was complete blackout...no lights anywhere...no street lights so cant make out where there is a divider and where the road...driver drove on...just beyond the main gate of IIT...HUGE FLOODING...only way we could make out the divider was because people were walking on the divider...and water was knee high.

Check this mid-day link for unbelievable pictures....

@20:40, Tuesday 26th July, 2005

All of a sudden...the esteem broke down...i thought to myself...not here...please...god help...the driver wanted to abandon the car...but i coaxed him to try a couple of times...suddenly the engine coughed back to life...i told the driver that we are almost close to renaissance...just a few KMs to go...we started again...noticed that the water level was so high...that all 4 wheels of a honda city ahead were submerged inside water...thankfully...by some good luck...water did not come inside the car...the driver i must say was extremely skillful...and drove on...I was still trying to call up home but to no avail...mobile networks were completely jammed..

on reaching the road adjoining the powai lake...saw lot of flooding...powai lake was overflowing...all the water was on the roads...OH MY GOD!! started to think we were not going to make it...to make matters worse...a truck had broken down on the road and traffic was starting to build...thought to myself...if the driver stalled here right now...we are goners!!!

@21:00, Tuesday 26th July, 2005

Thank god that didnt happen...the driver actually told me that its better to wait for a while and let the water from the engine dry out...before we proceed again...I thought that was the most prudent thing to do...and we waited for about 10-12 minutes...while the driver was just accelerating with the car in neutral. We got going again and took a diversion around the broken down
truck...the water level was rising and i realized that its better to make the journey further in a bus...high ground...less chances of break-down...it was then that i saw an LnT bus....waiting just ahead...this bus was the same bus which left our Mhape...office at 05:00 pm and now it was close to 09:00 and we are just at
Powai...but thankfully much closer to home than Vashi!!

@21:20, Tuesday 26th July, 2005

20 minutes and We were absolutely stationary...almost at the gates of LnT Powai office...and pretty close to Renaissance...so i thought its best that I get into the LnT bus now...otherwise...it will go ahead and I'll miss it...so I instructed the driver to drop my UK collegue off at the hotel about 15-20 minutes away...and i
joined the bus...I was to come to know later that there was almost 4 feet of water on the road leading to Renaissance and my poor UK colleague had to wait until 04:00 on Wednesday before he could get into the cosiness of his hotel room.

@21:30, Tuesday 26th July, 2005

Anyways...back at the bus...seeing the traffic jam going towards SakiNaka...I decided to spend the night at my LnT's Powai office. I asked others in the bus...many people were skeptical about it...Jayashree the bus co-ordinator was in two minds...i convinced her that its better we spend the night in the comfort of the office...where we could get coffee and biscuits...and stretch our legs...and attend to nature's calls...and most importantly make calls to our dear ones and inform them about our state...

All mobile networks were jammed...only very few calls were going through...somehow i got through to my mom...told her i'll be spending the night at the powai office...at that time I came to know that my sister was stranded at Andheri station...my dad started for home...and then after spending 1.5 hours in a traffic jam...he decided to go back to office at worli...

@21:45, Tuesday 26th July, 2005

We called up the admin department at LnT Powai office...asking them permission for us to stay in the office...at first they were completely uncoperative...I thought that was ridiculously inhuman...but in the end...they relented to our repeated requests...and finally we were allowed to spend the night at powai office...once in the office...i saw that many people from Powai...have stayed back in the office..so atleast we were not alone...:-) there were about 30 people in the bus...but in the office we saw atleast 100 people or more...we got hot coffee to drink and some biscuits to eat...

@22:30, Tuesday 26th July, 2005

Hunger had taken me over completely...I had not eaten anything since my lunch at 13:00 in the afternoon...then suddenly I realized that I have the lunch that my mom gave me in the morning...i was not able to have it since I had lunch with my client..well...all was not lost...and sank my teeth into some chapatis and potato curry...YUMMY!!!

@23:00, Tuesday 26th July, 2005

staying at the Powai office gave me opportunity to call up everyone and inform that I am reasonably safe...the mobile networks were long dysfunctional...and from the landline I first called up my mom...told her that I was fine..i then called up Rishi a friend of mine who worked in Powai...he told me that he had left his office at 03:00 pm...on his bike...and somehow...managed to reach home by
around 09:30 pm...pushing his bike through more than waist deep
water...he also told me he saw people being swept away by flowing flood water...these are unbelieveable sights in a city like Mumbai...I spoke to my project leader (PL) and my Manager...my PL had somehow managed to reach his home at Airoli in about 2 hours...and my manager was still stuck in Mhape office..

@00:30, Wednesday 27th July, 2005

Long night lay ahead...but I was in no mood to sleep...i logged into one of the PCs and just wiled away my time browsing...thats when I came to know that there was close to 620mm (almost 2 feet) of rain in about 12 hours...THATS UNBELIEVABLE!!! saw some others watching movies and tom-and-jerry cartoons...but somehow i was not in a mood to do such stuff...

@03:30, Wednesday 27th July, 2005

Suddenly, 2-3 colleagues came around and told us that the rain had let off...they had enquired with some policeman who mentioned to them that traffic's pretty clear at SakiNaka. So we decided to leave as soon as day broke..

@05:00, Wednesday 27th July, 2005

I left from LnT Powai office at 05:00am and our bus took the SakiNaka route, a big mistake! Upto SakiNaka there was no traffic jam what so ever...immediately after sakinaka...the bus encountered a big jam...Having not slept a wink through the night, I was feeling extremely sleepy so I dozed off...

@06:20, Wednesday 27th July, 2005

woke up after about hours time...and found that in 1 hour the bus had moved just about 50 meters...i was absolutely frustrated...i decided to get down from the bus and walk it up home...

@06:40, Wednesday 27th July, 2005, The Long Walk To Heaven Begins...

I started the walk at around 06:15 - 06:20, thankfully, there was no water-logging...but I saw that the Andheri-Kurla road was a huge mess, it looked like a graveyard of cars and buses. At J.B.Nagar there was still water-logging, although it had receded substantially.

@07:40, Wednesday 27th July, 2005, The Long Walk To Heaven Begins...

After an hours walk I reached the highway at around 07:40 am. Desperately tried to hitch a lift, but no one was willing to give one. If a guy stopped his car to help
others, people would crowd him...and a couple of good natured guys were kind enough to provide lifts. Yet many others driving alone or with their drivers didnt even bother to stop and just splashed water on the waiting people and just drove away.

@08:30, Wednesday 27th July, 2005, The Long Walk To Heaven Begins...

Finally, I walked back right along the highway, the only thing willing me along was the overwhelming urge to reach home as early as possible...and there was more surprise in store..just after the jogeshwari flyover I noticed the carnage caused by the floods. Cars were lying hither-tither absolutely randomly, some cars piled up on
top of another. You could make out that people have abandoned their cars and have just ran away saving their lives..there was even a Mercedes...which was abandoned...I just thanked god...that I had not taken my car to office on Tuesday..

And Finally....

All's well that ends well. I got home at 09:15 am on Wednesday completely famished, with blisters on my feet..only to know that there is no electricity and drinking water in my colony. But still there is not place like home. I went off to sleep almost immediately hoping everything would be normal soon....could not take a bath bcoz there was no water...Actually...not that there was no water....there was water...but there was no electricity to pump the water to the overhead tanks...

The waters have receeded now...but things are looking pretty grim in and around Ambernath, Badlapur and Dombivili...I still havent been able to contact my grand parents in Ambernath...the phone lines are completely down...

Lets hope this comes to an end soon...and normal lives are restored as soon as possible...

The Quotation Times

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place. -- H. L. Mencken
Rama:- This is so very true; Many-a-times I get a nagging feeling that the other guy is lying more because I know that I will lie if I were in his place. ;-)

The surprising thing about young fools is how many survive to become old fools. -- Doug Larson
Rama:- Well, we have to thank our advancements in the field of medicine for that.

Actions lie louder than words. -- Carolyn Wells
Rama:- Hell..Yes!!

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause. -- Mark Twain
Rama:- You should ask Atal Behari Vajpayee for that :-))) He's very experienced and talented at timing the pauses rightly. ;-)

Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But in fact they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman. -- Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845
Rama:- OH MY GOD! I never thought of that.

To Lenore,without whose never-failing sympathy and encouragement, this book would have been finished in half the time. -- P. G. Wodehouse (Dedicating his book "Heart of a Goof" to his daughter)
Rama:- Talk about an honest dedication, you cant get anything more honest than this. :-))

The Old New Thing : Why is the line terminator CR+LF?

The Old New Thing : Why is the line terminator CR+LF?

Now thats what continuing the confusion with no end in sight. The whole story of the Carriage-Return/Line-Feed thingy makes an interesting read, but ultimately no conclusion is reached. I mean, what should I do? Treat CR/LF as a single "new-line" character? Or two "new-lines"? Or only LF as a single "new-line"? Or only CR as a single "new-line"?

OMG! so many options but no end in sight, the tunnel just gets longer and longer and no light in sight!.

-Rama.