(Written in July 2006 after the Mumbai Floods)

Singing in the rain

A strange title for what has obviously been a traumatic couple of days in the city of Mumbai.  Its possible – its just possible that the city might start to sing  a few new tunes after the events of the flooding over the last three days.

As a city we have always prided ourselves on our collective resilience.  Through governments, bomb blasts, riots, rains, stock market booms, creation of various flyovers, slum demolition, there’s been an essential joie de vivre about this city – a flavor which had people addicted.

That resilience is still intact.  All through the incredibly long, amazingly frustrating commute back that was Tuesday, people adapted with amazing speed to a disaster that they couldn’t really fathom.  The central business district had only received a tenth of the downpour that the suburbs had received, and therefore when the first wave of panicky phone calls started to pour in from concerned families and friends the initial reaction was “don’t worry – will leave early and will keep you posted”.  Over the next few hours as colleagues left early and returned from flooded train stations or managed to get word back from frozen traffic jams which were kilometers long, the advice was straightforward “Stay put”.  Those pioneers could have had no idea how valuable that single piece of advice could possibly be. By 9 pm it was clear that whatever was happening was unprecedented.  As one of those who was stuck in one of the interminably long traffic jams – the key fact which hit was the fact that there was no official word.  No reaction from the government – all through Tuesday evening as we waited it out inside the cars, watching sheets of rain lash us and  water swirling around  the roads, the radio channels only kept playing inanely cheerful  “singing in the rain”  songs – in Hindi and English. The few channels who still had newscasters kept providing disjointed updates of traffic jams – and their falsely cheerful voices were beginning to grate on us.  The other thing which came through clearly was the difference in technology of the mobile networks.  Only two of the four network providers were working and that patchily.  The other two promptly collapsed.

Most of us stayed over in cars or went to the nearest shelter we could find – churches, schools or  houses of people known to us.  Woke up on Wednesday morning at 5:30 am and the sky was still eerily overcast – the rain had let up.  Still no power in the surrounding buildings and no information – we didn’t know the scale of what had hit.  For those who were in their cars – nothing had changed overnight – there was still a long frozen line of cars and buses with people dozing inside.  The waters had started to recede somewhat and it was evident that the only way to get home was to walk. Only it wasn’t just walking.  It was wading and in some places it was swimming.

In every case it was the efforts of the local people around which pulled people through.  Clearly the force of whatever nature had unleashed on us could only be met by the force of human nature – since nothing was going to be forthcoming from the powers that be.  That resilience that I mentioned before? – this was the point of time when it was the most apparent.  People from surrounding neighborhoods came out to offer food and water to complete strangers who were by now reduced to walking automatons.

There are many tales to tell – and many that will emerge as time goes by.  Over the last three days though while I have seen the resilience that is expected from Mumbaikers I have also seen an increasing level of anger and worse – resigned apathy.   Its difficult not to feel angry when you reach home after 16 hours on the road and switch on the TV (being one of the lucky ones to have power),  only to watch on one news channel – politicians blame the weather bureau for not providing a warning, while on the next news channel – a grave looking official of the weather bureau says that its physically not possible to predict these incidents till about 3 hours before they start and that this had been done and handed over to disaster management cell.  However the “prediction” was for “heavy to exceptionally heavy” rains – which is not really the language you use when you want to signify oncoming disaster.  Watching both the interviews it was pretty clear that that it was a case of “pass the parcel”.

Later that evening with a group of friends who had gathered – for comfort, conversation and normalcy – and to get away from the prolonged exposure to disaster which was now flooding us via the TV, the radio, the internet and the mobile phones – the feelings of anger became more apparent.  People from all walks of life  have felt let down by the lack of a plan – by the lack of central direction among the few who were trying to manage the disaster – and by the lack of timely information. 

The fact of the case is that this city survived not because the official mechanism swung into action and was seen to be helping; but because citizens everywhere took the lead in doing whatever little they could.  And for a disaster of this scale – that is precious little.  Comparisons to the London bombings of 7/7 were immediate –it was evident there that there was a plan. 

As one person said – “Mumbai survives on hope and prayer” – how else can you explain the fact – that civic officials openly stated on TV that whatever rescues they could make were because the waters receded when the ocean tide changed. Its clear now that Mumbai cannot hope to come anywhere close to aiming to be a true Megapolis.  You cannot have a city this size make do on a hope and a prayer.  For someone whos always been an optimist – I cannot – in all conscience continue to hope that things will change for the better. 

And then there was the great divide.  The southern most tip of the city (also the most affluent) received about a tenth of the deluge that soaked into the north. So the residents of those suburbs can’t begin to fathom what the fuss was all about.  For those who stayed in the northern suburbs – it seems to have been the equation from hell: because the water invaded from inland and not from the sea – the further away from the sea you were – the more you were impacted.  Since most people work in the south and stay in the northern suburbs, this also means that the longer your commute back, the worse things got as you walked on. Can you begin to imagine the fear and angst that must have been building up in these people as – the closer they got home the worse things seemed to get? 

The impact of all this?  For once I hope the famed Mumbai resilience does not reassert itself too soon – I hope that we all don’t forget this and go back “business as usual” – I hope we don’t start to feel good about how quickly we picked up the pieces and went on.  If we do that – this will be another of those incidents which fades away from public memory and which does not contribute to the collective learning at all. 

“Its clear that the city cannot continue like this.  This time – it was too close – it could have been me” – this is the feeling among the collective consciousness today.  And this is true irrespective of the socio economic segment to which you belong.  

In the past the city was seen as being the mechanism to access a better quality of life for many.  “Yes, its noisy, polluted and dusty” went the popular refrain – “but you cant beat it in terms of the opportunity that it provides”.

But  in the last decade,  people have seen other cities – seen other opportunities.  And now, incidents like this will ensure that this city will continue to export its best people to other countries, and more and more,  the people who stay back will start to question that decision.  I know I do.