Well,
I and my family (my parents) had to go to Chennai because it was requisite to some of my things and
the date fell exactly on the days of flood. My brother who was already at
Chennai informed us it wouldn’t be a good idea as the authorities had given a
warning for heavy rains. Chennai faced heavy rains a week back too, that too
made headlines, so we were kind of thinking anything would be manageable. And
we are from Kerala and rain; small, medium or large is a daily affair for us. But
that time when we started our journey on the first of December we had no idea
what we were going to confront.
We are middle a class family, so when we
think about a Chennai journey it will always be a train journey (this time I’m
happy that we haven’t even think about airlines as people who went to Chennai
by planes rounded above Chennai and went back to their places). This was the
first time we booked for AC births, just because we couldn’t get any sleeper
tickets, but that too turned out to be a blessing, I will tell you later how.
It was a smooth journey till 2nd December morning, if I say exactly
till 7am in the morning. Train was on time and we were expected to reach
Chennai around 10am. But the train stopped at some station (think it is Jollarpet) and
had no intention to move further. Soon my brother called and said he had no
clue what was happening at Chennai but whatever it was not good. He said there
was continuous rain all night, but where he stayed things were okay other than
power and water failures. Soon other passengers started to show pictures of
flooded areas at different places and we heard the aerodrome had been closed.
After 2 hour wait train moved to the next station, and then the process
continued till 2pm (move and stop, rest for hours).
At 2pm we were at Katpadi and the signs
were not at all good. I’m not a control freak but I became restless, I need to
be at Chennai before 9 am in next morning. Some compatriots who were working in
railway assured me the train would easily reach there before that. We got news
that no trains from yesterday night reached the station yet. Again I was
consoled that this train had to reach the station because of some technical
issue and then only it can go back. And another train which came from Bengaluru
stopped at the same station and transferred all the passengers into our train
strengthened that assumption. As time passed everybody became nervous and all of
us knew there was nothing good going to happen. My brother called again and
asked whether it was necessary to come and gave us alternate number in case of
not getting his. He said everything is blocked so he was not sure how we going
to manage there. And he said he was not sure about the hotel rooms booked for
us as they were not attending calls and he was going to the hotel to check
that.
At 4.30pm restlessness turned into
chaos. The station announcement instructed all the passengers to move to
another train which was going to come at another platform. And we picked
everything jumped out of the train and ferociously ran towards the coming
train. We could find seats to just sit as we were booked for AC seats. And our
new train then was carrying passengers of four trains. And fortunately that train
didn’t halt for long compared to the last one even though this was a bit slow.
My brother had been waiting for us there at the station for hours then informed
us that the authorities got no clue when the train would come or at which
platform. And he said the hotel we were chose to stay was under water and there
was no chance of finding new one then. The only one thing that comforted us that if
we would be able to reach Chennai central before 10 pm we could go by local train to my
brother's flat which is a little bit away from Chennai. But if we couldn’t make
to Chennai before 10 then we had to forget that because there was no bus
service and the local train service stops at 10. Time passed. At 9.30 we called
my brother and asked him to go as we were not sure about the train time. We
said we would stay at the station and manage till morning. And at 10pm we
reached some station and got the information that train wouldn’t go to Chennai
central and we had to alight there or go to beach station by that train. We
chose to be at the station and called my brother; he became frantic and told us
to find some hotels to stay. The railway police officer who travelled with us
made all efforts to find a stay for us but all in vain. We were so fortunate
that the staff of the nearest hotel allowed us to sit there till 12 in the
midnight and took the hardship to make hot water for us. And then we somehow
solved the puzzle of that night’s stay.
There was a girl travelled with us
from Kerala to Chennai, a lone traveler whose first ever train adventure turned
into a tragedy then, she always stick with us throughout the delays and train
changing. Her relative and a friend who made efforts for hours succeed in
reaching us finally; they said it was a battle through waters in all the way.
We took another half an hour to finalise an auto rickshaw with a whopping 4
digit fare to take us to the quarters they offered us for a stay at night.
Since the two taking us to the destination knew and met all the hurdles on the
journey to the station had diverted the driver to safer paths whenever it
required. After 1am in the morning we reached at our stay, a rare place in
Chennai where still got electricity and water. We made a plan for morning and
let know my brother all details. We were so lucky that we could find such
people in our journey otherwise our fate would be same as people who wandered
in the waters of Chennai that night.
We were happy to see a clear sky in
the morning and departed for my brother’s place after 7am. It took some time to
make the auto driver agree to take three of us to there as the place is near
fully flooded adayar. Last night during our travel we were able to see only 3
waterlogged areas, so we were like the flood news was a hyped one. But then on wards our perception, especially mine on the flood was clearly changed. After
reaching the apartment my brother convinced my dad that he, his friend and I
would go to the place I need to go and our parents would stay at that place. Then
at 8.20 am, to a place 20 minutes journey from where I stood, we got into an
auto on agreeing on Rs 250which was 5 times of usual fare. Then it was time for
me to see the flood for the first time in my life. Everywhere we went we were
instructed no way forward, and had to go back. And that happened for more than
1 hour and 15 reverse gear actions. Auto driver was almost given up on us and
the fare then stood at 500 Rs. But I think he was sympathetic towards me as I
was looking at the watch and finding the time was elapsing. The driver drove
through full water logged areas and finally we saw the sign board of the place
I intend to reach. When I was hoping into the premise, my brother and his friend
were talking to the driver who charged us 700 Rs then. When I came back after
finishing my job there successfully I got to know that the dispute with driver
settled on Rs 550.
Then we wanted to go to Chennai
central to check on the train availability for us to get back to Kerala. Well,
we had reserved sleeper coach tickets for 3.15pm train on the 3rd.
But as for then we knew there was no chance for that train to go on the
scheduled time. And my brother told me to leave Chennai as soon as possible and
try to reach Kerala somehow. Even though the entry point from Tamilnadu to
Kerala is Palaghat which is northern Kerala, he said we could easily go to
Kollam our native in Sothern Kerala by some other trains. So to enquire about
trains to Kerala at the railway station we took a Broadway bus. The way to
Chennai central was the worst ever seen I have seen in my life. Everywhere, you
see water, train in water, buses in water, vehicles in water, animals in water,
and people in water. God! That was mayhem. And when we reached the station it
was more mayhem; people, people everywhere; with no idea what to do.
We saw the electronic display showed all
trains cancelled. And suddenly at the left hand side there displayed 5 train
names which scheduled to leave from nearest stations of Chennai to different
places and I spotted a “Trivandrum” suddenly. Hurray! we had a train from
Jollarpet to Trivandrum at 6.40pm, and my journey to Chennai easily made me to
calculate it is 3 hour journey from Chennai to Jollarpet. Then, how we were
going to make to Jollarpet? Then suddenly two other train names popped up, two
express trains run as passenger trains, one to Mangalore other to Bengaluru
from beach station at 11.30 and 12.30 respectively. For a moment we were happy,
and then suddenly the reality about time brought us back to the despair state.
We had to spend nearly I hour in the bus which took us to Chennai central
because the bus had to find safe routes for the journey and then the time was
11.15. We had a humongous task to complete there, had to bring my parents to
the beach station before at least 12.30 in the afternoon which is when our last
resort leaves the station. We had two options if we got the Mangalore train
from beach station go straight to Palaghat or just alight at Jollarpet,
otherwise alight Jollarpet after getting the Bangalore train. From Jollarpet we
could catch the 6.40 train. But even in the ‘one touch access everything modern
world’ the nature rules and we got to know that soon.
We were facing serious problems with
time, at that point of time we had a more serious problem, no communication with
my parents. The only calls got connected was between my brother and his friend,
so we decided to split and move to beach station. The plan was like this, the
friend who was Tamil well known with the place than my brother went to adayar
to fetch my parents to beach station and me and my brother just go to beach
station directly. So we moved to local train station, and directly got into the
platform as the train to adayar was coming. Brother’s friend had season ticket,
so no problem in getting into some train. Then I and my brother got some time
to think. We had reached the conclusion that we were going to miss the
Mangalore train (so no need for us to hurry) since friend need to first reach
adayar station then to apartment and then my parents who were unaware of the
developments had to get ready for journey, then back to adayar local station,
then passing through the Chennai station to beach station. A train came and we
chose not to get in and decided to go back to central and get some clear idea
about the train we actually had a reserved ticket. And then when we going back
the guards of local station asked for train tickets or platform tickets, and we
didn’t have both. My brother tried to explain to them the situation and then I
said to him to manage things there as we shouldn’t waste more time and I would
go alone to central and come back. May be that had some effects on the guards,
which I never intend to make, they let us go.
In the mean time I was able to
call the railway official, who was with us in the previous day journey, and he
advised us to get into Jollarpet by any two of those train as our train at 3.30
pm wouldn’t start at least from Chennai. The police men at central reiterated
the same. The only change that happened was that both the passenger train’s
departure time from beach station delayed by an hour (then it was 12.30 and
1.30 instead of 11.30 and 12.30). But it was already 12.20 then. And then I was
in the middle of 1000s of people who were intend to flight from the deadly
flood which created chaos and I was looking at the display of trains cancelled
due to flood under the scorching sun which almost burned my skin. Then after
buying two packets of meals (as we know we wouldn’t get more chances like that
to do that) we again moved to local station. My brother stood in the long
queue, bought tickets, and moved to platform. My brother who got the insight by
seeing a train passed through some time ago took me to the farthest front of
platform which was the less dense area. Our train came and within 15 minutes we
were at beach station.
We could easily found the two
trains both rested in railway tracks farthest from the station and there was no
platform to hire into the train. Since we had a lot of time we walked around
the Mangalore train and found that it still got some place to sit. But the talk
my brother had with my father through friend’s phone suggested that they would
take more time. My brother was devastated as he knows my mother’s health
conditions; he was worried how she is going to get into the train, how she
survives if we don’t get seats to sit and then sleep. And then suddenly his
phone showing ‘low battery’ message created another headache. Then he had to
limit his calls to minimum and just let his friend know that he and my parents
had to come to the friend end of platform. At 12.55 the Mangalore train left
the station very slowly. People were pouring into the beach station like rains,
so another problem we faced was how to identify our people in the middle of
that sea of people with the help of my brother’s almost dead phone. It was
important as most of the people came by the next local train would have an
intention to get into the Bengaluru train and we needed to move fast to get
into the already filled train, especially with my mom. Then again the old way to
communicate came to help us; when left my brother’s friend left his ‘orange’
big umbrella with us. So we decided to open it and held it high so as to notice
by him easily. It worked; in the middle of crowd the umbrella showed him the way.
It was already 1.50, and the train could move at any moment, we hurriedly got
into some compartment against the wish of some passengers. Soon after get into
the train my mom and I could easily get seats. My brother and his friend left
before our train leaves the station as we had no clue about the departure time
and more than that he needed to charge and recharge his phone to pass any
information to us when it needed. When the train moved I was all in tears, I
was never been in such a helpless situation in my life, even though I took some
bold decisions and reached some helping conclusions to get out of the worse at
times, it was painful to the core. I was feeling just like when Toto had to
flee her town because of world war, yeah, I know I was moving to my place, a
safer one, but with a completely lost mind.
The solace of getting into the
train didn’t last long as we were not sure reaching Jollarpet station before
6.40. I had 3 spoons full of meal which was in terrific state in my congested bag,
and rest had by my mom. Then I gave some rest to my eyes. All the way through
we could see places fully flooded and roofs of houses emerged from water. When
I had the last chat with my brother at beach station he told me that he would
sent messages to my phone since there was no call connecting. We passed Arkkonam
station and some more and at 4.45 we were at Katpadi. Then I checked my phone,
there were no messages, and when I looked I had seen a message from IRCTCi in
mother’s phone since we registered her number when we booked tickets. It stated
our train, the one we had reserved tickets would start from Arkkonam station at
4.15 pm. I let my parents knew this, my father got angry why hadn’t I checked
it before, the message had come at 2.35 pm. We could easily alight at Arkkonam
station where we were at around 3.30 if I would have seen the message at the
time it arrived. And then I became frantic and I made some enquiries with some
worker in the railway and he assured me that if there was such a train it would
arrive at Jollarpet only after the one which I was in, so didn’t have to worry.
But I was feeling responsible of that misery, put a suggestion that we could
alight at Katpadi itself and got in our train when it comes. My mother
discarded the suggestion instantly, and said we were going Jollarpet, We would
get either the train start from Jollarpet or the one come from Arkkonam. I was
on my toes all the way after that, it was getting late and our train had stops
at every station, even though it moved fast I felt like it scrawl. And it was
almost 7 we reached Jollarpet, we could see the train that had reported to be
depart at 6.40 at the next platform.
At the station my father, me and
then my mother alighted and then I moved some bit forward to ask a gentleman
who was giving information to people and this time I saw my mother moved
towards my father. The gentleman in blue shirt told me he had no idea about the
train (the one we had tickets) I was talking about and he said the train in the
next platform would leave for Trivandrum. He showed me the station office which
is in 10 meter distance. And then I turned back I saw my mom by my side and I rushed
towards station office in the thinking that my father was with my mom. I showed
the message we had from railway to station master and he said he had no
information till then about such a train and we should immediately get into the
train in the other platform. Then I turned back asked my mother about father
and she said she thought I was running after my father. Dud! I looked
everywhere I couldn’t find my father, I tried to call and the call was not
connected. That’s it, the only train we had, would leave in seconds and we were
wandering in some other platform calling out names. Fortunately most of the
people who alighted from the train that we came from moved out of that platform
which was somewhat deserted then, and two people (I call them angels now) who
were with us in the train came towards us and told us that my father was
searching for us and showed us where he was. My father,clinging to the phone
with one and luggage in other hand shouted at me and was going to scold me. I
quipped I was at station master and we needed to get in the train which was in
the next platform.
We had no time to use the fly over,
had to cross the railway track. I looked down; the tracks were deeper than the
average level. My father almost carried my mother down and I knew I shouldn’t
wait for him to do the same with me. I jumped down, and I was at the tracks
then. The only parts seen above the platform line was my head and neck, I knew
I wouldn’t be able to climb it even with help since I couldn’t lift my knees to
that height. At this time my father was trying to lift my mother out of the
tracks and I couldn’t just watch that. I yelled for help, a man who looked
healthy immediately came for my help, he gave me his hands and I don’t know how
he pulled me up. And when I looked back he was trying to help my father in his
work. I didn’t waste time, picked up my bag, and ran towards some sleeper
compartments since we were near AC coaches. At the door I waited for my
parents, there was a little bit rush at every compartments, I checked whether
all our properties were at right place and got in the train. We all got places
to sit since train was full of people who fled from flood and all were ready to
coexist. All faces had some sort consolation of getting rid of something when
the train moved after 1 or 2 minutes. I was too relieved but had some kind of pain,
a lost kind of feeling. And I knew I had hurt my knees during the jump or climb
at Jollarpet station and it was bleeding, but then I had no time to think about
that. We were moving away from disaster, but we were still devastated by
whatever we had seen there and more than that my brother chose to stay in
Chennai due to his works. We hoped Chennai would get well soon, actually whole
people who were in the train had the same prayer.
When the TTR came to check the
tickets he assured us to find some seats and he told us our actual train was
cancelled. So, why then railway send that message and created some panic, I
don’t know. The train was moving fast and stopped at important stations not for
more than a few minutes. My mother and father got seats to sleep and I chose to
sit at a nearest seat. And at 10.30 I got an upper berth and moved to there.
Both my parents had to change seats in between, later the TTR found a permanent
seat for my mother. I couldn’t inform my brother about our further proceedings and
that worried me (in fact, when we reached home, from the call list in my
father’s phone I got to know that my brother called him at 9pm and he thought
somebody else and explained all the things). The only call I could make to a
relative who called us many times to know that we were okay. At midnight train
entered into Kerala and moving faster than anywhere else. I was never into deep
sleep; I woke up at 5 am and then just stayed at my seat. I was
all set to say good bye to train at 6am.
Then we had noticed something, the train
was not stopping at stations, even at the ones it was supposed to stop. We actually
needed to get at Karunagappally station, but train got no stop there, so we had
our tickets till Kollam. But we decided to alight at Kayamkulam station (just
before Karunagappally) and we packed everything and bid goodbye to some
passengers and moved to the doors. The train slowed, it was almost stopped,
then it got speed and we couldn’t do anything. Some people jumped out of the train
when it slowed, but we expected it would stop and then we had to go to Kollam.
But when we were near Karunagappally station the train started to slow down again
and it almost stopped and father was asking people who were alighting ‘could we
get down’. And then he spotted red light on the poles and decided to get out
there itself. But as father jumped off I felt the train was gaining speed, and
my mother somehow managed to make it into the platform and when it was my turn
I jumped with all my strength, my only intention was not to fall into the
track. The train was really very slow, but I never jumped out from a moving
train like the one I did then, so it was kind of freaking out moment. Again
railway didn’t persuade us to do it, but tempted a lot, why? I had seen a girl
who jumped off from the train, might be from the next coach to us, on her
knees; she wasn’t injured but hurted of course, yet we could see a smile on her
face, she might be marveling her adventure of jumping out of a moving train or
her adventure of facing a flood at Chennai. We were expected to reach Kollam
station after 8 in our reserved train and considering it was a special train we
might have late for hours. But then we reached our house hours before we expected
to reach, all thanks to the torrential rain that wretched Chennai.
At first I felt all energized but
later I succumbed to the trauma. Whatever happened was like a nightmare. The
mental agony and physical pain we were going through was unaccountable. If I
tell you I understood the word meaning ‘suffer’ and going through the meanings
of words is the best lesson one could get in life. How to face uncertainties,
chaos and more than that exploitation is the lesson most of the natural calamities
brings us. And the only answer I found for all the questions is just having
humanity and being human.
I don’t know what caused Chennai
floods. Whether it is global warming or wrong construction methods, it is human
made. There was no place for water to go in most of the water logged areas, and
I found drainage systems in its worst states. When I was there I didn’t see any
rescue works or relief works. Saw some
police and army people who were just standing somewhere. In fact at the starting
there was no organizational work happened at any level. I had seen people whose
face tell us clearly they got nothing left on earth than life and at the same
time I had seen people trying to take selfies in gushing water when vehicles
trying to move hardly. I had seen people crowded around vehicles, might be to
get some foods and others queuing in front of stores to buy some food.
So who had to help Chennai first, I
would say its residents themselves. The hotels, all the stores were utilizing
this chaos to maximum as they were charging even food items many fold. Then it
was a happy time for rickshaw drivers, yes, I understood they were risking
their rickshaw engines, but should they need to stab people who were already
hurt, than a limit? As someone lamented in the train if somebody had to get a
bottle of drinking water at 100 Rs then how people were going to survive the
days to come since it was a flood, not a solar eclipse. My mother said she ate
the food I left in our return journey because she knew people who were sitting
by her side were hungry and could not eat because they didn’t have money to buy
a meal. So she couldn’t waste food in front of them which was charged Rs 100 at
that time.
I was supposed be at Chennai on the
morning of 2nd, 10am but I reached somewhere near Chennai at 10.30
at night. And after 15 hours I somehow bid goodbye to Chennai and managed to get
back at my native place in the same shape I departed from here. I know what we
had gone through was nothing when compare with the people who lives there. Actually
we never faced any serious threats. I have a ton of thanks to Indian railway
for getting us close to Chennai as possible as they could and planned all the
trains back from stations near Chennai in a way that all people reach safe
zones somehow. There were some flaws and they could manage things a little
better way, but in the middle of nothing, that was heaven. And the railway
police people who travelled with us helped us a lot in our to and fro journey,
never forget their advice which helped us to make right decisions. The staff of
hotel aman who let us sits in their premise even at midnight and served us with
hot coffee and water is going to stay in our minds for a long time. And the
kind hearted relative of our compatriot lady who let us live in their quarters deserve
a special thanks from us.
And my brother’s friend was always
there to help us. In fact he had more knowledge than my brother about what
should we do at times. That is not a surprise as he is Tamil. But the thing is
when he was trying to help me to get the place I wanted to go and then again
taking my parents to beach station, his family was also suffering from the
flood. He helped us in a time when he and his family needed help and he used
all his resources for us when he needed that himself most. Mere thanksgiving
means nothing to what he had done. The auto driver who sympathized with us and
took the hardship to take us to Nungampakam fared heavily but for his sympathy
he deserves our gratitude. I don’t know if it is good for thanking somebody for
not doing their duty, but thanks to the guards of local station who let us go
even after we entered the platform without a platform ticket.
A boy who helped to get the heavy bag
from my father at the right time so I could find a safe place for it deserve a
thanks which I couldn’t give it that time. Then the angels who led me and my
mother to my father when we kind of lost each other are life saviors. The man
who pulled me up from railway track is clearly the sole reason that we got the
train. The people I have met throughout the journey; those who were going to
the devastation or returning from it are thanked for their support, their
‘everything will be okay’ motto was always a big positive.
And again thanks for the reason why I had
to go to Chennai because otherwise even though sitting in the comfort zone and
in a safe position at home we would be worrying about my brother as there was
no means to contact him at the time of nature’s win over advanced modern
technology, and even if we could contact that wouldn’t be enough as meeting
him. This disaster, again is a lesson that tells us, nothing is confined to
some people or places, everything affect everybody regardless the geographical
difference, when it needed we should coexist than compete.
