June 02, 2004

Pouring down the drain

Rains in Bangalore had always been pleasant and I have always looked forward to the showers. But for the past three years there comes one day in the year when it pours like nobody's business and leaves behind casualties.. Last Year it was a Wednesday when this happened.. A whole kennel full of dogs died in Koramangala due to the unexpected showers.. a whole car with family drowned in STM layout when it tried taking a deviation through a half built bridge. They did not know where the bridge ended and where the water started.. the water level was so high.... This time it was May 31st !!! And my how it poured.. The Universe has a way with water sometimes and if the drainage is not well maintained.. one can not even imagine what havoc it causes. Traffic was a chaos .. took us more than 2 hours to reach home.. I could see cars at crazy angles the tyres getting stuck in the mud..abandoned omni taxis on the road... Bikes almost managing halfway and then the engine getting stalling.. leaving both the rider and the bike stranded.. in higher than ankle deep water.... In Jeevan Bheema Nagar... One 19 year old guy stepped out of a bus to go home... and by mistake he stepped in an open part of the drain thinking that there was a footpath like he saw ahead of him... and he got washed away inside the drains with no hope of getting out... his body was found later.. We could see shopkeepers... getting buckets In Indiranagar and throwing water back at the roads uselessly since the water kept coming back to their shops.. One can only imagine the loss they made... And today the Mayor says that this never happened last so many years..have they gone blind as well as stupid. Bangalore has the same drainage since so many years but the population has increased manifold. I sure hope that concerned authorities do something about it... The traffic has been to some extent regulated compared to what it was before the existence of flyovers.. Now it is the turn of the drainage system or else it will be a city where most shit water flows... instead of the city where you have gardens and clean air... By the way the little patch next to my house has been dug some 10 odd times.. I guess the workers dont have any other passtime.. .come rain or shine.. they keep digging .. horizontally, vertically, crosswise... you name it.. they have invented new ways of cutting through earth... God knows how many pipes have to be laid in the name of progress...