Undesirable romance with rain

First Person Account

Of cloud-burst and undesirable romance with the rain

By Kartik Lokhande
NAGPUR, July 31, 2013: Traffic trickled in absolute slow-motion as strong currents of water, which came with heaviest spell of rainfall this season, sapped roads in almost all the parts of the city. Drivers literally navigated their vehicles through knee-deep waters, and pedestrians were left with no choice but to get soaked to the bone.
These scenes were very common across the Orange City on Wednesday evening. It all started, after a short span of golden sunshine, with the pleasant rainfall in the morning returning in furious mood after a short break in the afternoon. The rainfall started when I was on way to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to cover a press conference, as is the part of every journalist’s duty. it was roughly around 3.45 pm when rainfall started. I was near Maharajbagh and rushed to NMC, where I heaved a sigh of relief with a hot cup of tea that also took some time to come.

Scene was the same everywhere in Nagpur city on July 31, 2013. This particular photograph reveals situation at Jhansi Rani Square. (Photos courtesy: Anil Futane)

However, with every movement of minute-hand in the time-piece, Rain God also decided to increase ferocity of his hostile mood. Soon, the scattered rain-drops riding on wind defeated the force of air. They started falling in a close straight formation, piercing through wind. Soon, human eyes could not detect if rain-drops were falling on ground or water was falling in long unbroken strings. Soon, capacity of the earth to accept the Rain God’s blessings exhausted. As a result, water started accumulating on roads, basements of commercial and residential buildings.
Even at the NMC, situation was no different. Almost every corporator present in NMC office when intensity of rainfall increased, started getting calls from residents of respective wards, informing about waterlogging and seeking help. Corporators then started making calls to Fire and Emergency Services Department. NMC employees who were preparing to leave the office at the end of another day at work, changed their minds and decided to stay put till the rains receded. Unfortunately NMC, which is supposed to extend help to citizens in such a difficult situation, had to see much of its premises getting inundated. The submergence level of cars and two-wheelers in parking lot of NMC office indicated how heavy was the rainfall.
By this time, many had started praying to Rain God and getting calls from home asking about their safety. Still, Rain God did not relent. After waiting for long even after conclusion of press conference, as the rain showed no sign of receding, I draped myself in raincoat and set out on through-rain journey to office. First difficulty I faced -- my vehicle refused to start as if indicating disagreement with my decision. When it started, I faced dilemma whether to navigate through knee-deep water in the parking lot or to leave the vehicle there. Finally, taking inspiration from others, I entered the waterlogged portion and tried to come out of it only to see a long pool till NMC’s entrance gate. Of course, my vehicle that had started some seconds back, lost heart and I was left with no other option but to step into knee-deep water feeling my trousers getting wet.

Somehow, I came out of NMC. But then, till reaching my office, I had to navigate through strong currents at Vidhan Bhavan Square, Meetha Neem dargah, Zero Mile. While doing so, I also drove slowly but steadily past many others whose vehicles had gone cold. At some places, even cars had to be parked by roadside as water had gushed into silencers when the car-owners tried to negotiate through waterlogged roads. At some places, some two-wheelers lost grip over the submerged roads due to strong water current. As a result, the riders of these two-wheelers got soaked to the bone despite being draped in raincoats. Obviously, traffic on almost all the roads in all the directions had come to a standstill. As mentioned above, traffic actually trickled on roads. Wherever people got clear road, they did not follow traffic signals or obey traffic cops, and drove past till they had to stop due to another submergence ahead.
At Morris College Square, I decided to take a look at Rani Jhansi Square, Sitabuldi, Panchsheel Square and other areas from above the fly-over. (I had to rush to office also and I needed to save on time). All these prominent areas in the heart of the city were submerged. ‘Marooned’ was the only word that came to one’s mind to describe the situation. Buses, jeeps, cars, motorcycles, scooterettes, auto-rickshaws -- all were trying to make a way out of submerged stretches of roads. In the effort, water invaded into cars and auto-rickshaws. Motorcycles with strong engines managed to take riders out of submergence, but scooterette-riders were not lucky enough all the time. Pedestrians surrendered to the reality and rolled the trousers up to knee to negotiate their way through water.
Even on the Adivasi Gowari Shaheed Flyover, one could see waterlogging at some places. To worsen the situation for those going from Sitabuldi to Maharajbagh, street-lights went off. Submerged road illuminated by dim light from vehicles and blinding rainfall left drivers confused and some of them dashed street-divider. On the flyover, as water flowed down, it eroded tar and metal, increasing problems for the traffic.
By the time I reached office, I was drenched. Raincoat could not protect me from getting wet. Even in front of our office, there was a pool of water.
By 8 pm, downpour weakened to the level of a few stray drops. The situation also changed. Now, water started flowing down the drains and roads got submerged in traffic as vehicles formed dense queues. Everyone started rushing home hoping that there would not be another such day...