Chennai floods: 7 days without light, WiFi and water

I always wanted to experience something adventurous, well like every other teenager. And that day came on 1st December, 2015. It was my last day of exam and with all the excitement of going home and getting over with a one long, hectic semester I took a bus to Chennai. Well, I never thought Chennai will be so unpredictable.  I never knew Chennai will be such an adventure. I never knew there would be a flood in Chennai to welcome me and to take me in its embrace. Things were as quick as the wind there and my mind was completely blank.

The bus was moving in its full speed and the bus was full. And so were the roads leading to Chennai. Although, its just a rain and its normal in India to have such experience during rains. 2 hours, 3 hours and 4 hours! The bus that was supposed to reach Chennai at 6 reached there at 8:30.
 I was glad that finally I reached and in an hour I will see my sister and then tomorrow morning I would be in air port and soon with my family. I was excited but still there was something fishy in the air. It seemed like something bad is about to happen. And yes my heart was right as always.

I got down from the bus and I managed to reach the pathway after struggling in the middle of the water. I called my sister and the second problem arose. She told me I had to stay there for an hour or so because my brother can’t reach there that easily it’s flooded.
So finally I found an empty seat in a crowded railways station and sat there alone and I was a bit scared too because I was alone and I look pretty much young. I was starving as I didn’t eat anything at all that day and I was tired like hell because of many sleepless nights during exams. I found a shop there and I bought a lot of snacks and my seat was occupied by someone else I found an empty seat in a little bit isolated area and I sat there and opened my slice and the lays packet and I was about to put one chips in my mouth at 9 PM the first bite of food in the whole day and I noticed that a man sitting in front of me is giving me a weird look and he was giving me a weird signal by moving his arm around his head.
I was so damn scared and freaked out and thankfully my sister called me and I told her about this and she asked me to move to the metro station so I kept everything back inside my bag and headed towards the metro station in a hope that I will be safe there for a couple of hours.

I had one very heavy big safari bag with me along with an American tourist bag. I carried it and I asked the guard there to show me the way to the lift. I finally went near the ticket counter and I stood there waiting for my brother and opened my lays and finished everything except kurkure and then my sister called me again to take a metro to alandur as soon as possible.

I ran to the ticket counter and caught the last train and I reached there .My brother was waiting there for me. I took a sigh of relief because I thought that now finally I will reach my sister’s house. But no, don’t expect anything. You are not allowed to. Not on the 1st December.

He was on bike because the roads were not in the situation of travelling by car. 1 hour, 2 hour!! Where’s the house?  Heck lot of traffic and water till the level of thighs. My thighs were giving all the support to my 30 kg bag and I was completely wet and was shivering so much that it was hard for my brother to balance the bike. After a lot of patience I finally managed to ask him that how long it will take to reach the house. He said 15 mins.

But again 15 mins, 45 mins, 1 hour! No way are we going to be in house tonight. I felt like I will die soon. We were trapped. All the roads that we thought can lead us to our destination were gloomy and were literally a river not a road anymore. We tried calling our friends there but in vain. I was completely wet so I somehow managed to change in a workers’ washroom in a restaurant and then we managed to pass one cold, gloomy, horrifying night in a footpath. We had no blankets no fan no food nothing. But yeah we were a good feast for all big evil nasty mosquitoes there!
Somehow we managed to pass the night and reached house in the morning when the roads were not dark anymore and the water was less in a short cut way which was told to us by a localite. Thanks to him. And flight was cancelled and we were stuck in home.
We found out to our surprise that there were no signals no electricity and no water. BRAVO! Another  adventure. Seriously it was worse than being in a big boss house. 7 days without internet without talking with anyone without drinking much water and without seeing light; one word, HORRIFYING. We all felt so helpless it was like we have everything yet nothing. It was like all you need now is just to see how does it feel to see switched on light; how does it feel to hear that ‘trin trin‘sound how does it feel to have everything to eat. There were malls to get food but no food. We had mobiles but no signal we had fans and lights but no electricity. We understood the power of nature very well that day. And we realized our ‘aukat’ as they say in Hindi. We humans are nothing in front of that extreme power.

Those seven days every human there in Chennai was so helpless. We had everything but all we could do was to wait till the rain stops. Nature silently tells us who the master is but sometimes us, the spoiled kids need kicks and this is when we face floods like in Chennai, earthquakes like in Nepal and Jammu and the list never ends.   I will never ever want anyone to face such situation. But I do want and so does everyone to understand to maintain that balance and to not play with nature. This Earth of ours is everyone’s. If it is for humans it is for animals too. A little ant has an equal right on this planet as us. So we as humans should take the responsibility. Not the responsibility of the planet because then we will spoil it we have to take the responsibility of not being arrogant of not being a selfish evil intelligent homosapien but a responsibility of being loving, caring and less practical!