A day that will forever stay etched in the memory of each and every Mumbaikar (atleast for this rainy season!) was yesterday. A harrowing, and at the same time an incredible experience. A day of revelry for some. A day of tremendous hardship for some. The last day of life for some...

Well, here is some of my story. The day started off as routinely as any other. Five boring lectures later, me and the others were gearing up for the interviews. Some rain...but nothing out of the ordinary. Then news comes of major trouble from Thane onwards. Cool. That's fine with me. Then, more rains. Still more rains. Rajeev proposes that some of us go for a movie. Hey, I am game. Half an hour later, nothing moves, and I decide to head home. Along with a bunch of people from my class, I head for the bus stop. Trudging through water above the ankles but below the knees, we get till the bus stop on the main road. Now the flow is nearly turbulent. You can feel it pushing you. Be careless, and it can pull you down. We wait. We wait. We wait some more. No bus. Half the people have boarded a bus headed to Bandra. 2-3 of us are still headed to Dadar. We board the Bandra bus. To get to Sion atleast. A guy in the bus is nice enough to tell me about a roach on my shirt. It is flicked away before it could get in and create a fair bit of mayhem.

The bus moves incredibly fast (upto 20 kph at times), and we get to Sion. Now the wait is for a bus to Dadar. The winds nearly blow me off. Good for those short women whose entire bodies (well, almost!) are covered by their umbrellas. Thirty minutes in, we board bus no 357. It is impossible for the bus to move faster than about 10 feet per minute. It takes a diversion towards Dharavi. This distance takes more than 20 minutes. An incredibly intelligent chap has a brainwave. He is now selling hot vada-pav's from bus to bus. He taps on the window, has 2-3 vada-pav's in his hand and an umbrella. Sells them for 4 bucks a piece. Gets more, and onto the next bus. Brilliant. The bus driver stops the engine...he has given up. We decide to give it some more time. 20 minutes more. Enough. Can't wait any more. We walk. Me and Niket. Nirav who is with us decides to wait. Sure. Your wish.

Shoving our way through, we unboard. A little water. Child's play. We walk ahead. Oops. Better not go this way. Lets head for the main road. We do. Oh! Hi Omkar, hello Date's! The bus isn't moving. You guys better get down too.

I am hungry. A chemist shop. A packet of hide and seek. Six biscuits in a record 3 minutes. Feels better. No time to wait. Lets keep moving. We reach the main road. Is something wrong? Why is everyone moving the other way? Lets keep going anyway. So we keep going...and now we know why. Seemingly ever-increasing water for as far as the eye can see. We are totally wet now anyway. And after walking so much, I am not giving in. Lets keep going.

Water rises. Ankles. Knees. Thighs. Waist. It stops. Unless you get off the footpath. Then it rises another 4 inches or so. Countless people walking the other way. Drunk guys jeering at wet, desperate, scared, and about-to-cry/crying school girls. Other locals guiding people, helping them, keeping them away from gutters. People!!

Walk on. A man with two women Both of them cribbing. Poor guy. I feel so sorry for him. Ladies, what do you want him to do? Hoist you on his shoulders? Give you an ariconditioned room to rest? Give him a break! The entire divider is now under water.

An old woman of about 60. Two men egging her on. She looks tired. The water rises above her waist. My best guess is she has to walk atleast another kilometre. Just to get out of water. She cant wait. Cant sit or rest. I walk on. Me and Niket. Almost fall over once. But Niket helps. Onward.

Stalled cars...lots of them. People needed to push these cars. Yup, there are a lot of them. 50 bucks per car per person. Yup, thats the Mumbai spirit. Anytime is a good time to make a killing! Keep those feet moving. The flyover is now in sight. We move closer to see a truck placed incredibly absurdly on the flyover. Pretty obviously, traffic is not moving. But strangely enough it is pointing the wrong way around!

We are now out of water. My jeans are soaked, but it is easy to walk. Get off the flyover, headed for Ruia. No water. So far, so good! A chap from my school calls out my name, guy called Vikram V. The world is a small place. And Mumbai on a rainy day is much smaller.

The water is rising. A girl and her mom ask us how much water lies ahead. News, however bad, has to be delivered. So, we do. Another man. But the same question. The same answer too. More than 90% of all people are moving the other way, creating a wake in the water. Its a struggle to take each step, but it has to be done. I am almost done.

I hand over Niket's cell to him. It's in my shirt pocket, because he doesnt have one. It would have never survived in his pant pocket, considering the depth of the water. Still dont know if it did. We part ways. The same money minting continues at Dadar, but trouble is, there is no place to push the cars here! I am almost home by now. There isnt much water. I hope there wont be. I smell pav-bhaji. The mice in my stomach perform a jig. Just a little more.

I enter my lane. More disappointment. The highest water I have been through till now. Its chest deep at the entrance. Both of our two wheelers are under water. Sigh! I enter the building. Climb 3 floors. Ring the doorbell. Enter the house.