Thursday, October 18, 2012

Beggining of Mumbai life

I finished my graduation and decided that I will move to Mumbai to do my MBA. The excitement of moving to a new city, staying in a hostel, getting all the freedom thrilled me so much. I went for extensive shopping spree and bought almost everything new. My mom decided to drop me off to the hostel. I packed 50 kgs of newly collected clothes, shoes, bags as that was the maximum limit set by airlines for two people. I felt nostalgic while leaving home so I picked my albums from my nappy days to graduation farewell and put them in my hand bag.

I arrived at Mumbai and took a train from Dadar station to Neral. it took my 2 long hours in the train as my college was at outskirts of Mumbai, surrounded by scenic view, water falls and river. It was a breath taking view. I was allotted room number 8 at ground floor. My mother helped me set up my room and she left for Delhi.

I was enjoying every second of my stay at this breathtaking picturesque campus. First month was super exciting as we all were busy making friends,  planning for freshers fashion show,  co coordinating dance performance and so many other things.Time was flying.

it was raining heavily throughout July and on 24th July, I caught up with Malaria. suddenly that scenic campaus looked haunted to me as there was no good medical facility around. closest was a mediocre doctor on the other side of the river who would shut his clinic at 5 pm. while I was lying in my room under the influence of painkillers, my room mate arrived and informed me that water has entered the hostel and I should move to first floor. I was shifted to level 1 but my condition wasnt improving. At 9 pm, I couldn't bear the pain anymore so my friends suggested that I should go and see the doctor. by then ground floor was filled with 4ft high water. My batch mates decided to carry me up till the campus which was at slightly higher altitude. I was then taken to the doctor's clinic. I was totally wet so my friends (except one) returned back to campaus to get money, clothes and my phone.

Doctor left after putting the glucose drip and told my friend that he will return after 3 hours. at 2 am doctor arrived and changed the drip bottle. it was 3 am now and our friends didnt come back. we were getting worried. we had no phone and to make things worst, there was no toilet and no door at the doctor's clinic.the entrance was covered by a curtain.

At 6 am doctor arrived and informed us that the bridge connecting our college has broken and there is no electricity and phone connection in the whole area. Finally at 11 am college authorities arrived and took us back to college.

when we reached campus, I was told that I cannot go to hostel building as water reached till level one and all students were rescued by navy last night. Though the water has left the building, there is a chick layer of mud and some snakes so it is not safe to enter the building. I forgot about my malaria and all i was thinking about was my stuff that vanished with floods. I was thinking of the dresses I didn't wear even once.

College was shut for a month and we were asked to return to out homes. Now all the flights and trains were cancelled so I stayed at my friends place in Mumbai for 5 days. Then I heard in news that trains are operational from Pune to Delhi now so I took a bus from Mumbai to Pune and then took a train from there. Train took 39 hours to reach Delhi. I was feeling so sad and low thinking what had happened in last 10 days.

But there are always two sides of the coins. My family was happy that I reachedhome safely and bought me so many presents, gifts and a laptop. Looking at my laptop, i was thinking that I am so glad I didn't get it before 26 July.