Three Days on a Lonely Island

Pre-Srcipt(P.S): This post is going to be boring, read at your own risk.

The last two words aptly describe Vadodara in the past week. When it rained for the first time even somebody as non-poetic as me felt like writing something, almost ten dozen Hindi poems have been written around this magical moment and some of them are really wonderful, but there are so many of them. However, things after that first shower have not been so magical, it has been raining, raining and raining since then. The water levels in both Vishwamitri (river) and Ajwa dam rose above the danger mark, sounding the flood bells. Incessant rains resulted in water logging in most streets and on Thursday, 30 June, power was cut and it almost cut us from the world and life almost came to stand still. As all transportation links were broken most people were restricted to their homes and some to roof tops.

Then started the three-day stay on the lonely island: my home. The phone started ringing with relatives asking about the situation and we could tell them only about our locality(As unbelievable as it might sound, while most mobile networks failed BSNL was working in some parts). No electricity No paper, no news, no network and back to primitive world for three days. Deprived of essential means of entertainment (the boxes), we resorted to chess, cards and Dumb Charades. Luckily, things were not as bad for us; water did not enter our homes and just managed reach the entrance of our society.

Come Saturday and rains took a break, I went to visit the nearby bridge over the Vishwamitri, which by now had become a tourist place. This is something unique to Indians, however grim and alarming the situation may be we do find means of entertainment. The nearby schools and societies were already flooded, with cars submerged and people restricted to the rooftops or higher floors. At a point on the slope of bridge, water was flowing over the bridge although only with a very mild current.

On a sad note, things are not as good in other parts of the city and the state, many people have died and thousands have been forced to leave their homes. I cannot provide an accurate picture of the situation in other parts because life has just swung back to normal for me. Probably I can provide a more detailed account when I am able move out of the society and roads become approachable. Luckily, as I said before, it did not affect me much, but I still remember the Friday night when we checked the water level near the entrance of society more than four times during the night to be more aware of the situation. That night was crucial.


On 26 January 2001, I still remember I was studying for my 10th board exams on my bed when it started shaking, which was Gujarat Earthquake 2001, almost 19000 people died. In 2002, Gujarat riots thousands died and it still haunts the city. Now the floods, while was Vadodara was spared during the earthquake, it has been severely affected this time.