By Madhullika Agarwal
Mumbai resident for more than 5 years
“Every year, at around this time, photos and stories about Mumbai’s unity and the spirit of community amid a chaotic monsoon floods (ha!) the media. Heart-warming images of human generosity and kindness are romanticised by the media, portraying the time as one when the city’s heartbeat is the most alive.
But how can the city be most alive at a time when dozens of its people are dying from the calamity?
Houses are knee-deep with dirty water, infested with insects and filth from the streets, and the city comes to a standstill with people having to walk in grimy water ridden with disease.
Everytime I wake up, I pray that no one in my family falls ill and has to brave the waters for a medical emergency. My area is supposed to be one of the ‘best planned’ and widest in the city, but I look outside and I feel trapped; all I see is a vast lake every monsoon.
The government promises us every year that they will do something, installing water pumps usually, to make it easier the next year — they never do. Old bridges, never strengthened and renovated, fall each year killing hundreds. This time, the government simply closed down these bridges and diverted heavy traffic onto limited, narrow roadways, to absolve themselves of this responsibility.
Yes, my city is united and kind, but it’s out of necessity and the inability of the government that we are forced to look out for each other. These rains come every year and, time and again, simply two days of floods are enough to choke this city into a standstill. The government’s empty promises repeat year after year with little change, they watch their own citizens die while they sit comfortable in the luxury of their homes, showing face only when the flood abates. No more.”
— As told to Arundhati Srinath/Intern with Gulf News
