Tales from India part 3: About that time when my life turned into a disaster movie!

***Click here for part 1 and part 2***

Chennai airport during the floods...It was shut down!
  This week a friend asked me how I've been. That was a interesting question. The answer is a bit complicated.

   See, These are the things they  don't tell you in disaster flicks. You're phone will not be fully charged. No you will not have power. Your kitchen will not be fully stocked with enough non-perishables to last you the whole time. And mother nature is unpredictable!
  
  Those who have been  to Chennai, India know that they basically built a city on a marshland with zero drainage. It started insidiously really. It rained on Monday evening,  and the whole of Tuesday. A cyclone apparently. Then on Tuesday evening they opened 3 dams and shut off the power telling us it would be restored by Wednesday morning . So was I worried with my phone battery at 30%? Nah! The fact that our usual take-out joints wouldn't  deliver food because of the water level was a mild inconvenience. I had cereal for dinner and chatted with friends before going to sleep, confident that things would be back to normal the next day.


  Boy, was I wrong!  On Wednesday we woke up to  2-metre deep water on the ground floor and on the street. Rain water mixed in with swamp water and sewerage into one smelly mess surrounding us on all sides! Don't get  me started on the Water snakes that were having free reign all over the place. We regularly saw them darting from one point to another. We spent 4 nights holed up in an apartment building in Pallikaranai, Chennai with no electricity and limited food and drinking water. At some point, the taps began to run dry. The guys in our group and some of the apartment  maintenance staff gallantly volunteered to go on food runs. Food runs that nevertheless meant one meal a day. ..and maybe some dry cereal when the hunger really got to you. This was the point when prioritization skills were really put to the test!  We went as far as getting relief food from the Indian government on Friday: fried rice and biscuits. I really have done it all!

Outside our apartment...Thursday

Neighbouring buildings

On the roof: Surveying our situation, trying to get cell reception and pass the time
   Most of our phone batteries died, and network became shaky, it came and went when you least expected it. But we managed to get in touch with the Kenyan high commission and our parents back home. Which led to our being evacuated to Bangalore on Saturday morning. Complete with Indian cops overseeing the process and photos and videos of us being taken. Another hotel had to be booked and flights had to be rescheduled on short notice. This became easier once we were in Bangalore because we could now communicate freely with the folks back home and get things done.


   I know this story sounds pretty dramatic.  And it was dramatic. But we got through intact. With high spirits, laughing and making jokes even when things were uncertain, praying. And it became the thing that solidified our camaraderie. The thing that we will endlessly tell our kids about. The thing that took the act of being an adult to a whole new level. So no, i don't regret going to Chennai. And as to the question of how I've been? Pretty darn fantastic!
Ciao...

In Bangalore
                          

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