Sunday Snippets
By Venkatesh Raghavan
Cyclones come and go and leave behind the ravage and mess that the common people are forced to cope with. Artist Satish Kamath narrated how his entire room in Navi Mumbai got flooded and all the software besides hard disk were irreplaceably damaged, forcing him to start all over from scratch, once again.
The low lying areas of the two satellite cities face acute damage, each time they get pounded by heavy rains. I am reminded of how heavy showers stranded us in our Andheri East, office premises located near the Western Express Highway metro station.
It was around 5.30 pm and our bosses sounded the alarm. Either move home fast or stay back for the night. Our accountant Aparna Rane was lucky and able to catch the suburban train that ferried her to Vasai, in the nick of time. However, I and my artist cum photographer friend Suresh Adsul got trapped in the office.
Also read: Sunday Snippets: Lockdown and a lonely ranger
The landline telephone rang. It was the dad of the young marketing lad Naman Kawa who had joined our team a few weeks back. His dad sounded a bit agitated and pleaded – Don’t allow my son to move out of the office.
At that point of time, Naman was nowhere in sight in the office. Suresh however, was sensible and did not create a scare. He replied in the affirmative and placed the receiver down. Nearly a hour later, Naman walked into the office much to the relief of everyone and reported that he had gone for a movie in the theatre opposite to our office building.
It got near dinner time. I was clueless about how to get something to tuck in. Suresh and our digital head Henry managed to queue up outside the Hare Rama Hare Krishna restaurant near by and we were lucky to munch on dal and khichdi by around 10 pm.
Suresh, the most able-bodied among us tried lying down on the floor but gave up on it soon, telling me it’s just not possible. We then decided to watch YouTube videos. I told Suresh to switch to Johnny Lever comedy shoots. Finally, at around 4 am, I and Henry walked into the smoking area. I supported my back against the pillar, smoking three cigarettes at a stretch. We also kept staring gloomily as the downpour continued.
We went back to our cabin and tried to nod into sleep in our sitting positions with limited success. Finally, at around 6.15 am, Michael madam gave us the news that trains in the up direction from Andheri were operational.
All of us trooped to the Metro station and after getting down at Andheri, we waited for Michael madam to buy her train ticket. After reaching the platform, Naman said the arriving train is a Churchgate fast. We both boarded it and I got down at Dadar.
On my way home, my neighbour Guru watching from the balcony yelled -night at office. I nodded and smiled as the adventure ended.
