Leaflets From My Life - 26th July 2005 Mumbai Floods 2 Poem by Geeta Radhakrishna Menon

That night, we could not sleep at all.
We were in our neighbour's house upstairs,
Who accommodated us so kindly.
The neighbours were tensed too,
As the water kept rising up the stairs,
Not attempting to recede or go down.
Every now and then, they kept peeping
Down to see the level of water.

All of us remained awake,
Watching the floods from the balcony!
The Mumbai flats are built so close to each other.
That there is hardly a space for a garden or a playground.
Our area had a main road between two rows
Of buildings on either side of the roads.
From the window we could see the road
Flooded with rising and gushing water.

A Gulmohar flowering tree in our front compound
Fell with a big thud across the road like a huge block.
But the water was much more powerful,
It rushed, gushed and rolled over the tree,
Like a wrester holding his enemy captive under him.
I never imagined that the waters could be so cruel.
Our blue car which was parked down
Was fully enveloped and engulfed by water!

The night sky with its dark clouds
Looked down in utter bewilderment!
The stars had disappeared into a distant space.
The rain water, sea water and drain water
Mingled together to perform a dance of destruction!
A thought trickled through my mind,
Isn't this a revenge taken by Almighty to teach man
A lesson for utter disregard and disrespect to Nature?

A Autobiographical Poem