So I am writing this to Everyone.
I
I felt helpless when I stood at that first floor window and saw people getting swept away.
I felt helpless when I saw people on the top of buses far away from me who spent the whole night shivering in the rain.
I felt helpless when I saw people breaking into shops and stealing.
I also felt helpless being stranded in a building that was an island.
The only way I could have left the building was if I had a boat. A boat that would float on, unfettered by the many whirling vortexes of water that surrounded the building.
I am not about to run myself into the ground over misplaced guilt. I did all that I could. And if I could have done more, I would have done it. I know this; else I would never have been able to live with myself.
II
I do not hate the rain. Nor do I hate Bombay.
And while the word that came to your mind when you saw the rain was ‘Fury’, I felt a strange sense of calm.
It felt like the city was tired and it just needed to break down and cry.
Wail…weep… moan…whimper.
All of us need to do it sometimes. It makes us feel ever so much better.
III
But at what cost you say? And you spoke of loss… and you said there were so many lives lost in the storms wake… and so much grain… and destruction…
How about we discuss shoot outs then? The underworld? How about if we discuss girls who have acid thrown on them by angry lovers? Or a woman being raped in the train with people watching? Or two girls sightseeing being slain by a guy in a bad mood? Or a bomb that blows up a bus or a train or a building? Or little children eating glue that will give them a high that will forget their hunger… forget that they have no where to belong to and no one who loves them…? Or animals being ill-treated? Street dogs being poisoned by people who can’t sleep at night because of their own conscience and instead blame a dog?
You want to talk about that too? While we’re at it… Lets…
The city has a heart.
A heart that was born into being from the tempo of a million other heartbeats.
A heart that we who live here created… some of us forged, some of us nurtured.
You must’ve noticed it… the heart that warms up to you and makes you feel at home when you get here...
The heart that makes you say, “I’m from Bombay”… that makes you smile when you hear a mention of it somewhere.
And like all other hearts… when it sees pain… it bleeds…
IV.
You also spoke of ‘Nature’s Revenge.’
Now you’re making me laugh.
Tell me… really…
Isn’t Nature way beyond revenge? Nature is constant, we’re the transient ones.
Nature doesn’t destroy without a purpose. That’s man’s forte really.
We really ought to accept our limited understanding of things and shut up when we don’t know better.
We always tend to perceive things within the limitations of who we are … maybe that’s why we are talking about ‘revenge’.
Well, I don’t know much myself. But I do know that Nature doesn’t take revenge. She balances… she does what is needed to best sustain life… she has the foresight… because she created life… and that is what she nurtures…
I know I am not wrong about this. I could be wrong about everything else. But I am not wrong about this.
And I do know to her all are equal.
V.
‘But aren’t you unhappy…?’
Why should I be unhappy? No really… I don’t understand this question.
I am tired. And I am dazed. But that’s because I was given 15 minutes to grow up and I had to do it real fast. 15 minutes when water gushed and flooded and I had to decide what it was from my home that I needed to save. 15 minutes when I would decide my moral fiber for myself, I didn’t have time to think about what the world would say, I didn’t care then, and I don’t care now…
… like those POP quizzes where they would ask you, “if your house was burning what are the five things you would save?” Well, I always answered… My certificates, money, some photographs, some clothes and jewelry, you know, things that would get me help me get started with my life again and I would still have some of my old life in the photographs.
Lol… Well in real life, I only saved the certificates from this list… and just to cheer you up, coz I think I’ve made quite a task of myself, let me show you some of the other things that came through dry… (more or less...)
Name: Honey a.k.a Hun-munch.
Age: 9 years
Sex: F
Eats: Anything with MSG.
Most peculiar habit: Hides her children in strategic places around the house and then forgets where she has hidden them. Proceeds to complain very loudly to everyone in the household. “Who has been moving my babies around again?? I demand an explanation right now…”
Known for: Ability to wake instantly from REM sleep on the sound of a packet of Lays being opened.
Name: BIG TABBY or Tadee Maadu (which I think is tamil for fat bovine) now more popularly called Storm Babu after his 10 second experience underwater.
Age: 1 year and 6 months.
Sex: M
Eats: Everything…No really, I’m not saying he is not a fussy eater, I’m saying he eats everything.
Most peculiar habit: Can’t swim. Loves beer.
Known for: Being able to preen himself at any given point of the day.
Name: Butter boy (Suffered from some seizure disorder when he was a kitten because of which he now has a very peculiar ‘melting’ gait, like he is going to dissolve into the ground).
Age: 1 year
Sex: M
Eats: Chicken patties... and everything else.
Most peculiar habit: Sleeps most peacefully on ‘Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry, Nelson D.L and Cox M.M; 3rd edition, 2000. Macmillan Worth Publications. 2003 reprint.’
Known for: Questioning eyes. “Are you going to feed me?”, “Are you going to feed me NOW?”
Name: Anisha, the cat a.k.a. The girl cat. (The mothers explanation: Because she is as obnoxious as the real Anisha)Age: 1 year
Sex: F
Eats: Rarely… fish and rice.
Most peculiar habit: Doesn’t walk from one place to another. Only prowls.
Known for: Distrusting everyone instantly.
And then there are the storm babies... COMING SOON... Also, the mother's 'flood humor'
