From cautiously and slowly wading in the water against the flowing current, apprehensive of stepping over an open pit or drainage in the Nov-Dec 2015 deluge to buy milk that sold for Rs 100 or even more for half-a-litre sachet and candles that became scarce in the first week of December and with little precious water to drink albeit our house being marooned thrice in November-December 2015 floods; to the agonising wait in long queues for hours to withdraw my salary from my own account due to the year-end financial deluge called demonetisation, the situation now is wee better. The prelude to this December has been sunny!

Living in the southern suburbs (Nila Mangai Nagar in Adambakkam) has never been a struggle for existence as it had been last year. The November rains flooded our place twice. It was a big struggle reaching our offices wading through the reservoir of hip high water on the concrete road that was laid in our area in spite of our protests.

As usual, I reached home late on Nov.30 in the heavy downpour and the next day turned out to be a disaster waiting to happen. As water began to gush inside our house on Nov. 30 night, we had little option but to move upstairs. “Will they come in a boat and rescue us if our house is completely submerged. Oh! It is just like in films,” my son expressed concern. Shifting my parents to the first floor of our building (building a three-bedroom tenement was my father’s idea), trying to save, in vain, the newspaper clipping collection of over two decades was my priorities. With the telephone not working I could hardly make a call to enquire about the plight of my sisters or their families.

Amidst strong protests from the people at home, my efforts to reach the office on the Dec. 1 was a trip up to St Thomas Mount station only to see the subway submerged. Next day could reach up to Thamarai tech park after covering the distance on foot via MRC, Kathipara junction, where hundreds of vehicles were held up in all directions. I was even asked by one of the auto drivers if I was mad to cross the lake of water between Olympia tech park and Kasi theatre to reach my office. So, my second attempt on Day 2 failed. When I succeeded in reaching my office on Dec. 3 evening, security personnel informed me that our office has been closed for the last two days and the printing presses and the generator rooms were inundated.

The water in our house drained only after the water in the entire neighbourhood water flowed out – and that was in February 2016! The books, wooden shelves, newspaper clippings, sofas, fridge, mixer grinder, all went down the drain. The paint got peeled, the wooden cot and furniture could not be used and the electricity connection got snapped. After the phone connections were restored, we got a call from my uncle in Kurnool – the first voice to enquire about us! And life began again.