Rains brought us new faces together, a new experience!
A fight for survival!
One week of relief work, to stand for Chennai!
- Harikrishnan Subramanian
1st December, 12 Noon, I receive a call from my father, saying heavy rains have started. My house is hardly two kilometres from my work place. I called up my cousin to know if I could come to his place, which is in between my house and work place. He said okay. By the time my office declared immediate holiday, it was 2PM, and I figured out that i couldn't connect to my house as water level would have risen, having a personal experience from the rains that hit Chennai ten days before this.
I rushed with my colleague Suresh, who was back after a surgery. I wanted to drop him in some bus stop so that he can reach his place. Half way through, the bike had a tough time, having to wade through water level more than that of the silencer. Somehow managed to drop him and turned back to my cousins place. First thing we did, covered the silencers there with two layers of plastic cover so that in case we need to take the bike, something would be possible.
By the time I go up, power was shut off. To our luck, there was full inverter charge left. Me and my cousin took tasks of connecting on Fb/ Whatsapp. The moment we log in, we are tagged by people from outside Chennai, wanting to know the situations. This brought a sense of the need to help. Since it was the first rainy day, many were accessible online, spending all their inverter charge for tagging information. I started my work of posting information.
First information to get tagged was that of a pregnant woman, who was in labour pain. We kept sharing, tagging as many people as possible, hoping that some doctor would be able to wade through neck or even more level water and reach the woman. Half an hour later, a doctor posts " I'm with this pregnant woman now and shall take care of the situation". What a sense of feel!
Sometime later, a post says, the lady delivered and both the woman and the child are doing fine. Similar would have been the emotions amongst fellow friends, who were staying connected amidst the state of crisis. Many in my Fb friend list continuously kept in touch with us and we also took the task of sharing/ posting vital information. Fellow friends abroad/ out of Chennai played the major role in networking this.
The next morning, me and my cousin (Dilip) decided to venture out and have a look at the situation. His brother, a doctor wasn't here but his resources were left behind. A few bottles of glucose, few injections, insulin needles, dettol bottles and a few hand sanitizers along with a small bottle of fire extinguisher. With all this put in one bag and my Cbz xtreme to accompany, we started to roll out. Fuelling this was a big task initially since we could not push it outside till the bunks. We got from this kit, an old needle with a metre long tube and used it as a siphon to get fuel from the fellow friend's bikes and yeah, it solved the purpose for us to yield a litre of fuel. And the mission started!
From Dilip's house till Loco works, roughly three kilometres distant, three feet water to wade, we set out to roll. First we reached the BP Petrol bunk, filled for a few bucks and left. Till loco works, we were shouting, so as to keep both of us in an encouragement and a strength to cross this, without letting the bike's engine go off. I'm a mechanical engineer, the engine was kept not less than 6000 RPM, which would reduce the engine's life, if continued for a while. We had to withstand the water pressure arising from other vehicles coming in the opposite direction on a faster pace, causing heavy water pressure to oppose us. Ooooffffh, at last!! We reached Loco works bridge.
We connected to Divya's house (Dilip's friend) in ICF, fully drenched in rain water and discussed as to what can be done. She volunteered to spare a portion of her house, which had free space, for any relief work to be done. We set out with this good news in mind, purchased few jersey material dresses, so that we won't be drenched the whole while. We went till Padi bridge and returned. Next phase, we set out on paper mills road, connected till Koyambedu. Half way through, we took a diversion and went to Villivakkam, where Dilip wanted to meet his friend Raghav (All these friends and myself were a gang after a day, not to forget this). The moment we reached Raghav's place, I was astonished seeing the preparations for relief happening at his house. His mother was ready with 25 food packets, while preparing few more in the kitchen. Raghav's father seemed an inspiration to me on the first sight, wearing a shirt and shorts, hopping onto his son's bike and the two of them set out to the nearby areas, to distribute what was prepared till then. Raghav also mentioned about false information arriving, where he took relief to a nearby hospital and returned disappointed when it was told that they did not seek any relief. Someone had spread a hoax on this. Me and Dilip started our trip to Koyambedu, to see which points of Chennai were accessible. Buses were plying from TVK Nagar till Koyambedu. The first thing to do in such state of emergency is to look for possible routes and transport modes. We reached Koyambedu, parked the bike in Metro station and went up. We contacted a police constable in charge, as to what can be carried in the train. A few conversations after, we told about our intention to help people with the relief and what we received in return was a motivating hand shake with a reply "Come sir, we'll see! After all you are doing relief work right. We will see what can be done to help you move relief things". A great appreciation indeed. With this we left back and reached home via Ayanavaram. On the way we bought few packets of candles, whose stocks were drying up and a few batteries for my dad's radio. He wanted this. I parked the bike mid way my house and waded through the 3 feet of water and gave these to dad and started my way back to relief work. Dilip was a part of a group which was established a few days ago, during the initial rains. We got to know about a guy Ram kashyap, who is in Koyambedu with relief materials from Bangalore! A sense of happy emotion indeed, to know people are helping! We set out on our next mission, search Ram!
Dilip found out on the way that Ram had reached the K-10 Police station in Koyambedu and he couldn't be reached as there were hardly any network towers. What we saw was things which should have been enough to cover 8 cars. The kind police officer confirmed he had come. Ram had gone to a nearby school which had been converted into a shelter. Myself and Dilip went there. People were crowding and gruelling around to collect the relief. The people there told that Ram had returned on his way back to the police station. We went back and were discussing with the police while a black Maruti swift registered in Karnataka entered the station premises. Ram and a girl Shwetha (we became thick friends)came out of the car and we started our conversation and they were happy to meet us. Shwetha was so excited to be a part of this and volunteered to stay back with us and team up for further social work. Ram had a DSLR and we shot few photographs while parting ways. Raghav, along with his friend Karthik (I forgot to mention him earlier, who was also part of us) set out to find out nearby areas needing SOS help. Meanwhile, I took the turn to drop Shwetha, whose father was sick that morning and this cheerful girl forgot even to go to her house to see her dad. A unique character indeed. Shwetha hopped onto my bike, and we set out to reach her place, which was hardly 2 kms away. Near her house, there was three feet of water and we had to climb up her house soon or else the bike would turn off. There was no current there and I went to her house and was welcomed by her mother, who gave me a cup of strong coffee, which gave me a good relief from the cold rains( I forgot to mention my Orange jacket which partnered me all the time). I set out again to reach the police station. Meanwhile, the inspector had come and was discussing with Dilip on what our plan was. The inspector, a nice gentleman was happy to see us with full energy volunteering to do something needful. We had to transport the relief to some place before dawn as it is a vulnerable place, in the middle of Koyambedu. The Police team arranged for two share autos which we loaded and kept ready. Meanwhile, another fellow through this group, wanted some urgent relief for support in Sidco nagar which was badly submerged. We gave him a portion of this relief. Divya's house was decided to be the shelter for the relief and we started to move the things. By the time we finished, both the auto drivers started on their way back without accepting any token of appreciation. They just said "you guys are doing a fantastic job, let this be our contribution". It was heart touching, how these guys were willing to let go of their daily bread and butter.
Things then started to roll off from our first base- Divya's house. I took the roles in arranging and segregating the things in order so as to avoid confusion and save time. Myself, Divya, Mallika(Divya's cousin), Divya's mom, Sivi(Dilip's neighbour) and Dilip, took this responsibility. By then, we had finished the first task. Surrounding poor people who had been affected started pouring in here, thinking we were distributing relief. We gave a portion to them and had to send them off as we had to distribute it all over the city.
The next day, Thursday, we were co-ordinating online with fellow well wishers who were arriving in Chennai with tons of relief. I picked up Shweta from her house and we analysed the situations in the surroundings en route back to our base. Waseem Ahmed, a friend in my Fb, posted saying he was in Villivakkam with some blankets and stuff. I responded immediately saying I was also there and co-ordinated with him and he came to our base. People from his neighbourhood in Chennai had been pouring things for distribution. He and his bunch of four friends came with a Toyota etios loaded with blankets, sarees and other things. It was a great feel. Once he left, we got a call through Waseem's network. Waseem had posted on Fb about our team, marking me in the photograph. With this, a lady Ahalya called up saying she was on her way to our base with her car loaded with stuff. One Fb conversation changed the situation completely. Now Fb was a part of our team. Ahalya and her husband came in an i10 with many stuffs, including water bottles(we called it diamonds as there was acute shortage for drinking water). My cousin Shyam (from Bangalore) tagged me on Fb saying he was driving to Chennai that day and volunteered to get something. I sent him our location via WhatsApp and he came that evening in an i20 along with his friend Subramanya Bharadwaj. Two nice gentleman, were actually in Chennai to take back Shyam's mother who was in Nanganallur. They came with 3 large bags of drinking water and some other relief materials. It was indeed a great feel, when someone known does this great help. We suggested them to stay with us for the night as there was no light in the city. By 11pm or so, Dilip took the turn of dropping Shweta back home and I took the two friends back to Dilip's house (that was my house too, for this week). To our dismay, there was no current. Lalitha Chithi and Chandran Chitappa (Dilip's parents and my relation too) helped us with dinner, cooking Upma and it was a great feel to have home food after a long gap. We called it a day and went to bed. I and Shyam, being Mechanical engineers, were busy discussing on automobiles while dozing off.
The next morning, Friday, I took Shyam and Subba to my house. Shyam wanted to say hello to my parents before setting off to see him mother. We came home, had a good chat(water had drained that day, which helped us walk home). I had a quick bath while there was no current here. We set out again, on our way back to the base while Shyam and Subba departed. The two volunteered to network on Fb in case we needed something from the base. Since we were informed about many more vehicles coming in, the need to look for an alternate location to store things came into place. Meanwhile, Mrs. Chandra, a volunteer came to our base. She and her friend were providing relief in Anna nagar and we shared some relief materials to her. By now, our team had expanded with more volunteers getting ropped in. Saravanan, Barath, Karthik(Raghav's buddy), Bala, etc. ( I forgot a few friends to include here). My colleague in Simpsons, Gopi, called me saying he was sending few loads of Water packets, Medicines, Mosquito coils and four sacks of Tapioca through the state transport bus. So, that day, I and Vignesh(Dilip's neighbour) set out to roll, in Dilip's Skoda Fabia. On reaching Koyambedu, I reached the driver Mr. Sekar's phone and he helped me unload the goods onto the ground. Nice gentleman, the driver and the conductor were of great help. The four sacks of Tapioca alone weighed around 600 Kg. Dilip arranged for a Tata ace to take the big sacks while the other bags were loaded onto our Fabia. By now, Anand Vaidyanathan (our group member, who did the base work from Bangalore) had come to join us, along with Deepthi (She concentrated Adayar). We decided on the core things to be done. It was a great discussion followed by lunch which Mallika and Sivi(Dilip's neighbour) managed to get from a nearby hotel. Tapioca sacks were sent to Mandaveli, to some central kitchens who provided cooking support, in a Tata ace driven by Karthik(the driver from Divya's neighbourhood).
I forgot to mention this before. During the initial rains, while networking through Fb, my sister Gayathri, her friend Lakshmi, Arun anna were all ready on Fb, so as to network any information. My college mate Raksha had posted about her uncle who was stranded in Manapakkam, where the rains have caused water level more than over 1st floor level. I connected with her father, was somehow able to talk to him despite the poor network towers. All I could do sitting at home was to tag known people in the surrounding areas and pass the information. Later, she confirmed that he was fine. Similar was the situation during the initial days. The initial information we got through the network was that, Manapakkam, Jafferkhanpet, Ekkaduthangal, DLF were badly hit and nobody knew the status. Hospitals were running short of oxygen cylinders and their generators were soon getting submerged in water, making it tough even for the life saving equipments to function. Many hospitals had also closed down citing heavy water levels and corresponding damage in their primary functions.
Now, back to where we were before. That evening, Myself, Shweta, Dilip, Divya, Vignesh and Chandru (Shweta's friend) tried venturing out in search of alternate godowns. The relief centre in ICF North colony, which we managed to get that day, upon reaching the concerned officer Mr. Jayakumar. To our dismay, the next day being an auspicious day for Muhurtham, we had to let go of it, due to continuous pressure from the officials. Shwetha decided to go back to Bangalore, as she had a tough time at work, which she needed to manage. I dropped her home for that day, in Dilip's activa. She was my inspiration this time, throwing energy all the time, not worrying about anything, so were the others who I worked along all this time.
The next day, someone in our loop had arranged a location of 6000 feet in Ambattur, which was big enough to handle our logistics, since many more trucks were on the way. Location was also central, near the OT bus terminus. We started re-locating things from Divya's place to the new location in Ambattur. I was so hungry, hence asked Divya, if we could get something. Cooking at home option was to be left out, since we were a large count. Hence, both of us took the Fabia and drive to Dominos and got few pizzas. These fast food fellows like Dominos, KFC,etc. are known to have good machineries which can handle a large cooking count. But, these guys didn't do anything to support the relief nor showed a concern in reducing the price, only to find the price had increased. It is a shame to see what these guys do, similar was the price increase case with Saravana Bhavan and other places. The real players this time, for food were the Gurudwara in T.Nagar, GRT Group, Leela group (on the first few days of rains) and many small hotels. Amrita aunty (our family friend) had reached me and I asked her to come along with a vehicle so as to take things which she wanted. That evening, she along with Mr. Gopi came to our place in Ambattur and took few biscuit cartons and other things along. We then sat for a group discussion on the further plan. Myself, Mallika, Karthik were assigned the next day's duty of going to Shanthi colony in Anna nagar with some relief. Bala had conveyed the need. And the next day we left in Karthik's mini ace, with relief stored in 70 bags. I reduced the count from 120 to 70 so as to keep us safe from crowd banging on us. And as planned we left, with heavy rains on the way. This place, we had to give to the surrounding slums, whom we presumed would be decent. Upon reaching here, people were anxious to get the relief and we were almost cornered. A police officer was taken along to control the situation. And started the distribution. Mallika took the photographing tasks and I was distributing. There were some pulling my jerkin, people standing for the second grabbing chance. One lady threw a dress back at me , she wanted something else. I could understand their situation but couldn't do anything in return. The saddest thing was the fact that the gents were fully drunk. And controlling them turned difficult. Thanks to the less count of relief, we managed to escape unhurt. I had also taken a walking stick for security. And that afternoon, I wanted to meet my friend Kameshwari, who stays in Royapettah. I took Dilip's car with Anand and Ashwin joining me, to get dropped on the way, in our Fabia. Till Ashok nagar, we came without any issue. On reaching here, the coolant temperature shot up, asking for a warning. To our luck there was a nearby mechanic who helped us. Meanwhile Anand had called Sai to pick him and the two left in Sai's Pulsar 220. Ashwin got dropped in the nearby Metro station. I managed to drive till CIT Nagar, just peeping into my close pal Niranjan's house on the way. I met his parents who were busy in the cleaning work and I left on my way to CIT Nagar. The whole way was stinking full of garbage which was fully piled up. I contacted Ashif (my best pal) and took the car to his place. His black Swift was free and hence I took it out to reach Kameshwari's house, taking Ashif along. TTK Road was broken down and we took a diversion to connect which was flooded with 3 feet of water through which we waded off at a high RPM, Ashif's Swift being a petrol version. I reached my friend's house finally. Her brother Venky was just getting off the car and upon meeting and telling him what we were doing, he offered me five bags of assorted clothes, blankets, etc and I put it inside the car and went to meet my friend. She gave me a portion of lemon rice to fill my tummy till the next mission. And on the way, we went to Ashif's friend Chitra aunty's house in Luz. There was completely no water. Ashif needed a torch, since power had not been restored in his locality. I offered to arrange one for him, through our team. I dropped Ashif back in his place and took the car to Amrita aunty's house to drop these five bags. We had a good discussion on the activities along with a strong coffee and I started to drive back to Ambattur. It was a long drive for me , that day, covering most places in Chennai from Marina to Tambaram. On reaching there, I took two torches and some candles for Ashif, since he is a nurse and would need this. I dropped Mallika at her house, had some maggi, taking some nice rest. Myself and Dilip decided to go back to CIT Nagar, drop the black swift and bring back our Fabia and we started off. OOOffffhhh! I gave back the car to Ashif and Dilip started to Fabia only to discover that the clutch had failed. We just pushed it to a nearby parking place, locked and booked a Ola cab to reach home. The cab's driver, a nice man, gave us a good chatting company all through the way back home. He had offered free rides on the rainy days, did relief work in his surrounding locality, on the whole a kind hearted man. He refused to accept our ride's cost, saying this is nothing to what we were doing. On the whole, these days gave me new experiences, thousands of fresh faces whom I've never come across so far.
And then, from the next day, usual work routine started. I got to know the stories from friends in CIT Nagar, Saidapet, etc. and I wanted to go and see what really happened. The overflowing water from Chembarambakkam lake which flowed through the Adayar river caused water flow in all possible ways, few being through the banks, the Maraimalai adigalar bridge, etc. This turned out to be a disaster in all the surrounding neighbourhoods. Mohan(my school mate) had come from USA, he called me home. On reaching his place, in T.Nagar, walking into his house revealed what this rains had done. His Ice manufacturing factory was completely damaged, his ground floor house totally ransacked, with water rising to over feet. We went to CIT Nagar to understand the situation there. Similar was the case, water had risen to over 7 feet, submerged all the cars, broke the heavy walls. It was a complete knockdown. Another friend of mine, Kavitha, had told about how she managed to escape from her. She and her sister left the house while water was over 5 feet. They couldn't find any boat to their rescue and had to walk across this water with things kept over their head. All these frightening experiences, upon hearing, I felt like breaking down into tears. The whole of my childhood was spent there, and there was no such experience so far. I also paid a visit to my school best friend Enid Paul, whose house is in Saidapet, not far from Adayar river. His father was explaining step by step about the rising water level. They managed to pull out as many important things from home and take to the first floor. The computer table was used to hold the fridge on top of it. When water level increased, the table had broken, causing the fridge to fall and create a ruckus there. Luckily, none of them were injured and they managed to go to a relative's house in Ambattur. There was 5 feet water inside his house. I could barely imagine how these fellow friends managed to survive. Myself and my team couldn't reach here at all, as all the connecting points were closed due to heavy water levels. Enid was telling me, there was over 15 feet of water in his neighbourhood. The bridge behind his house was covered with water which overflowed on top of it, this should tell us what was the water level.
And then, Raksha had seen my Fb post for "Karinjali herbs" requirement, a pinch of which is to be put in boiling water, making it medicinal to drink. Niyathi, her classmate and a friend known to me too had given me Ashvin's number. Ashvin, being a Malayalee, had already connected through his friends and made arrangements and he had got me a bag full. We met one night, around 9PM at Ashvin's residence in Chetpet, along with Dilip. We started a conversation which went on till 12.30AM. Ashvin had connected with the Blue cross team through his contacts and was involved in relief work near Ayyapanthagal and other areas which were badly affected. That team was lead by Mr. Dawn Williams, the General manager of Blue cross. I've met the latter earlier, and he is an inspiration on the first sight. A great gentleman.
By now, Chennai slowly started to get back to normal. People had started returning back to their bread and butter. The outskirts were still in need of relief. Dilip, Anand and Prakash were working from our team on this behalf. After this, I couldn't write, and hence decided to leave it as it is, like those old Kings who left many monuments in half state without fully construction it, the funny part :-P
