Vardah Diaries

I came back to chennai from kochi on Sunday, 11th December 2016. I was very very tired and half sleepy. Upon reaching my flat, I just went to bed. My eyes had just closed and phone started ringing, it was a friend alerting me about the massive cyclone which was supposed to hit Chennai the next day. I had no second thoughts, after having experienced the floods last year, I just knew I had to stock up food, charge my phone, check for cash. I immediately ordered some snacks, vegetables and fruits from big basket . It delivered on time and I felt contented and I went back to my sleep.

Every morning I wake up with the rays of the sun peaking in through my balcony. But that day it was a bit dark with heavy rains and wind. I couldn't stop myself but keep looking outside. I have no idea what to do. I checked my webmail, hoping for a mail. There wasn't any. Seeing the weather I decided to take a leave, because hey! safety first. But one of my roommates decided to go to office.

It was around 9 am and water started flowing into our room through the balcony, in spite of it having an outlet , I and another roommate of mine immediately started clearly out the water, but the water wont stop. We were thinking of ways on how to block the water, or even how to redirect the water to the washroom -- All efforts in vain!. We decided to wait for a while and every half an hour one of us, in turns, would clear the water.

I was laying on my bed and reading a book, It was about 1 pm and the wind was roaring and the rain was hitting the glass door of our balcony, All the doors and windows were rattling. Suddenly our glass door cracked and a big glass piece just flew over the bed of my roomie who had gone to office. 

We screamed and ran out of the room carrying everything that came in our hand and we shut the door. We waited in the living room, trying to contact someone. But we knew no one could come as heavy winds were blowing. The wind had definitely started blowing the mattresses, curtains, and the glass pieces everywhere in the room. The rain was flooding the room. The sounds in the room were horrifying! It was as if a wild animal was trapped inside and was making full attempts to break the door and come out. In all this hurry, my phone fell into the water and got switched off... Now no one could contact me! The winds were getting more and more destructive. 

Our flat has three balconies in total. From the second balcony we could just see everything in white, it was like the color wheel experiment we did in our childhood days. The banners were falling off, we could hear sooo much of noise of things breaking. We tried to stay calm and stay together. We were ready to face whatever comes. 

Sitting idle, a number of thoughts passed in my mind.

If this is my condition, what would be the condition of people in the low lying areas. What would be the condition of people who does not have a roof? What about the animals, the birds ? Why did I have to come just one day before? Why didn't I see the weather forecast? Why did people go to office? Why did my roomie go to office? The weather was sooo bad! why did she go?. I realized everything happens for a reason!. If she hadn't gone, she might have got a severe injury when the glass door broke. I also realized that for mother nature we are one. There is no rich, no poor, no religion, no caste, no creed, no animal, no bird, no human. All are one and all need to stay together and live in harmony! At this point I was just praying for so many volunteers who were brave enough to help the needy. The storm didn't stop them. A big salute! 

The storm settled and we were safe.We searched for rooms to sleep and as always our flatmates were together with us. We pulled together few cots and all of shared the little space we had and tried sleeping. But the glass door was still breaking in my head!.

Though I have seen two bad Decembers' in Chennai. Chennai floods and Cyclone has given me best of the friends and best of the memories in life. Troubles are just temporary. Give it sometime, it will fade away.