26th July 2005 a day when Mumbai flooded

On 26^th July 2005 a cloud burst in Mumbai & Mumbai’s rainfall broke all its previous records. Water flooded into many people’s house. Mumbai’s lifeline i.e. Railway trains had stopped running. Public transport i.e. Bus service & private transport services both were badly affected due to road jams & water logging. The level of water at some places was even higher than small vehicles. At some places water level was even higher than some people’s height. Many areas didn’t have electricity. Phone lines had stopped functioning.

I remember studying Diploma in Pharmacy in NSS college of Pharmacy in Tardeo. It was afternoon time. My teacher was supposed to show my batch mates dilation of a rabbit’s eye when a drug autropine is put in its eye. I being an animal lover thought that I won’t be able to see a rabbit suffering & hence decided to leave the practical lab. Luckily my teacher had gone out for some work & I ran away from the practical lab to return home.

It was raining like cats & dogs when I came out. Somehow I managed to reach Mumbai Central station quickly & got a train immediately without even waiting for a minute at the railway platform. While being in the train I heard from my fellow passengers that all trains were running very slow. I saw that the level of water was too high on the railway tracks & I was wondering how the motorman was able to run the train. Some people were telling that after some hours trains may stop running if the rains won’t stop. I was feeling happy & was feeling proud to be an animal lover. I thought that had I not have been an animal lover I wouldn’t have left my practical & I may not have got a train to return home. Somehow I reached home. After a few minutes the rainfall increased. I was worried as my father was still at work in Churchgate.

After some hours in the evening the public transport service was tremendously affected. I remember losing electricity at home. Many parts of Mumbai didn’t have electricity. Trains weren’t running maybe due to electricity problem or due to water logging on railway tracks. My mother & I had requested my father to remain in office but he didn’t listen & decided to return home. Unfortunately he got stuck. He walked many kilometres & managed to reach home.

It’s difficult to forget this day as for the first time I experienced nature’s harshness & got to know how dangerous cloud burst can be. Somehow by the grace of GOD I was lucky than many people of Maharashtra. I pray that something like this never happens anywhere. Now it’s necessary for all to understand that our activities have affected the nature in a bad way hence our activities should be environment & nature friendly to prevent such disaster from happening. Some scientists & people think that they can command & conquer nature but nature keeps proving time to time that it can command & conquer us.