Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Rain, rain on my face ...

Rain, rain on my face
It hasnt stopped raining for days
My world is a flood
Slowly I become one with the mud
-- Jars of Clay
Well, Bombay is under water. The rains continue. Not like July 22, 2005, for sure. But exposing the rotting, crumbling pathetic excuse that passes for infrastructure and municipal government. India's new 24/7 TV channels are on prowl constantly, letting the common man vent his frustration. One line of the ubiquitous multiple news-tickers that shrink TV and makes multi-taskers out of ancient aunties, is devoted to SMS (i.e. text messages) messages calling for the heads of everyone from the Prime Minister down, and reporting on the worst affected areas. Citizen journalism. The ordinary citizen stepping up when the state shows its true colors -- that it exists almost exclusively to exploit its citizens, rather than to serve them.

Getting out of Bombay on Monday was painless. Yesterday trains were cancelled, flights diverted, and the damily a nightmarish hell for millions (or, more nightmarish and hellish than it ordinarily is).

Well, the rains have come north too. It's been raining heavily in Baroda since last night, with a short break in the afternoon. The lawn this morning was a shallow, muddy pool. The main street outside the subdivision is under a foot of water at least. A vegetable vendor showed up this morning, pushing his laari (push-cart), so there's some produce lying around. And the shop around the corner is still open. Otherwise, unless one risks the car getting stuck in the muck, we're homebound till the rains let off.

The death toll nationwide is at 32, and will, almost certainly, mount.
But if I cant swim after forty days
And my mind is crushed by the thrashing waves
Lift me up so high that I cannot fall
Lift me up

1 comment:

Napoleon said...

I'm lovin the Jars of Clay refernece