The tourist season was just about to commence in Mahabalipuram, a fishing village and a UNESCO heritage site, 60 km off Chennai. In preparation for this I decided to do some brochures and posters of my business there and headed to Chennai to meet my printer and graphic designer. It was a hot sunny day, and I spent three hours working with him, and listening to his horrendous experience of how all the utilities in his house got ruined due to the heavy rains a couple of weeks back. He had subsequently moved his family back to his village eight hours away from Chennai, and was heading to bring them back that weekend, after a thorough clean up of his house.
When the skies opened up
As I walked out of his office, to my complete surprise, I stepped out into a pouring, rainy day – all within a matter of three hours! My friend called me to hurry up and make it to her house, as the roads were getting blocked due to heavy traffic and there was prediction of heavy rains in the next 48 hours. I got to her house and decided to stay back in Chennai for another day before I headed back to Mahabs (Mahabalipuram) and my business.
Call it fate or destiny, what my city of Chennai witnessed in the next 48 hours, is nothing in comparison to anything I have seen. The rainfall was scary and went on and on for 14 hours. This was enough to create enough damage and loss of lives to this city. But the residents of Chennai were not prepared for the release of water from the Chembarambakkam Lake close by. Terrorists use guns to kill, and the authorities of Chennai used water for mass destruction. Without a warning, in the middle of the night, people started to scramble for higher elevation to keep themselves safe from the rising gush of water. Not just water, it was water mixed with sewage from the infamous Cooum River that runs through this city. Now, why would a government do this without any prior warning in a city of eight million inhabitants? We will never have the answers, though there are thousands of speculations.
The city had come to a complete stand still without electricity, drinking water, food, or network. I was fortunate to have a working internet and could catch some glimpses of what was happening to my city. When there was a short respite from the rains, my friend and I drove around to see what life was like outside. It was then I met Sunder Ramu, a dear friend, and offered to help him. He wanted SUVs and big vehicles to go into heavily flooded roads for rescue. It was this conversation and the fear in his eyes that made me understand the seriousness of the situation. We decided to drive around for another survey of the city and headed straight to Loyola College. I know and have seen the college open its doors for various emergencies in the city. As I went in to meet the authorities, I was taken aback to see that the commerce department of the college was already home to 800 homeless and rescued people. It was then I took it upon myself to help this unit in the best way I could. I met the priest heading the unit and told him that i would make him my one-point contact to source supplies for him.
I have always spoken about the power of Facebook. I have had several businesses in the past and my only marketing tool has been the Facebook. So I got working for my city, for my people, for humanity. I could always sit back with a book and enjoy the rains and say, this is not my problem. But I knew inside me, that this was my problem. It was my duty towards the people of a city that I had made home 30 years ago. It was just a Facebook post requesting for relief material to be delivered to my friend’s house that started it all. Within three hours I had friends and family getting in touch for lists of things they could supply, and we had a pile of necessities like blankets, mats, sanitary pads, diapers etc.
A city awakens
In the meantime, Sunder called me to check if I could organise torch lights and cotton ropes to continue his rescue work in the night. Some of my friends who had just moved to India from the US, witnessing something like this for the first time, went all over the city in search of these lights and by night time, we dropped it at Sunder’s studio. Into the second day of the floods, I knew that we were witnessing something very, very strange – an outpouring of humanity for humans and animals. Never have I seen or heard of something like this. The youth of Chennai, the hardcore lovers of this city were restless, how could we help? Where do we start? They were willing to do anything for this city.
I had previously participated in a Disaster Response Team (DRT) training by Deutsche Post DHL and had some knowledge of various aspects of disaster management. I had been chosen to be part of this training by my then company, Blue Dart Aviation. What I learnt is that you can be out there physically rescuing people, you could be the psychiatrist, or the doctor, or the person in charge of sourcing and supplies. With little mobility, and nursing a bad sore throat and a fever, I chose to focus on sourcing and supplies.
Beyond Chennai
In between all that work for Chennai, I saw posts of ‘Anbodu Kochi’ (With love from Kochi) floating around. First the name they chose was so endearing. I had been following their posts and was in awe of their wonderful work. After a week in Chennai I got a call from an NGO in Mahabs that a whole segment of Irula community was severely affected by the floods and have been completely abandoned by the authorities. The volunteers had been so overwhelmed by the gravity of the disaster that hit Chennai that they had no time to think beyond it. That is when I moved to Mahabalipuram on December 6 to set base there and help the relief for the Irulas. A friend in Mahabalipuram offered me a space for storage and to my complete surprise, I got a call from Anbodu Kochi, saying they were going to send me approximately 10 tons of relief. This was a big consignment to deal with, but with support from the volunteers in Mahabs which included a few stranded tourists, I managed to deal with it with ease. And then I understood, when many hands come together, no job is too big. We, six of us, offloaded a container of 6 tons in 34 minutes at the break of dawn, 5 am. By 5 pm, 90% of the relief that was offloaded had already been dispatched to Mudichur, (probably the worst hit area in Chennai), the Tamilnadu outreach headed by a social worker from the US, John Curtis Degler, and an independent Spanish lady, who works with a couple of villages on a regular basis.
One thing led to the next and suddenly I find myself today supplying relief and rehabilitation to the Red Cross, Singapore, supported by volunteers from Chennai headed by Mr. Noor. A friend from Kolkota continues to support me on the rehabilitation part 17 days after that terrible and scary night. Her lead, an NGO in Delhi, is helping with another 10 tons of monthly provision kit that would be distributed in the next few weeks. My ex-boss always told me, “If you take up a job, see it through.” And I am going to see it through which will take me a long, long time.
I still have not been able to get in touch with my graphic designer. I wonder what’s his story now. Friends talk about trauma, sleepless nights, fear of water and fear of clouds. PTSD (Post Trauma Stress Disorder) is on the rise. Overnight, many of my friends have gone from being middle class to extremely poor. One friend told me he is ` six lakh in deficit in 14 hours because there is nothing left in his house including his car. The harrowing death of the ex-armyman and his wife, who got on top of the dining table first and then on top of the chairs on the dining table and eventually to drown, is going to haunt me and millions of Chennaites forever. Muslims serving food to the Hindu priests at the Parthasarathy temple in Triplicane is always going to bring a cheer.
We Indians are way too emotional. And when we are faced with situations like this, we have to keep the emotions aside and think practically. But, there were many times in this one month, I couldn’t hold back a tear or two. After all we are still humans and my Chennai is the standing proof Humanity still exists. Sometimes I think we all need levellers like this. To bring us back to earth and remind us to be Humans first. Though harsh, it has brought back my old Chennai of the 80’s. People are kinder, calmer and more friendly.
Everyone today is pointing a finger at the government. But who chose this government? Blame yourself for not standing for your rights, for not fighting for what is right and wrong. We have to stop the blame game and take responsibility for our own actions. Are these people coming out on the streets and protesting today? No. Everyone has gone back to their own jobs. Relief supply has started to slow down. Life is back to normal.
I for one, can very proudly say, I may not be here to correct the world, but given a situation, I did my best in the best way I knew. And there are thousands of unsung heroes today in Chennai, who did exactly what I did. And because of them, I am proud to say, I love Chennai.
