July 26, 2005, was the day when Mumbai, the financial capital of India, came to a standstill due to a cloudburst that resulted in 994mm rainfall in 24 hours.
It is estimated that nearly 3,000 people died that night due to very-heavy rain. Thousands more were stranded at the train stations, bus depots and the airport as entire Mumbai was submerged in water.
Saluja Bhatlekar, then an employee of a private cooperative bank, remembers the night clearly. She had left her office at 5.30 in the evening and was hoping to reach her home in Thane in an hour. As usual, she boarded the bus that took her to Kurla railway station, the nearest to her office. Half-an-hour later, her bus stopped due to heavy traffic and waterlogging. Little did Saluja know that she will have to spend the entire night atop the bus.
It continued to rain and, slowly, the flood water entered the bus. Around 9 that night, the bus in which Saluja was travelling was half-submerged and had not moved an inch from the spot where it came to a halt three hours earlier. None of her family members could reach her as cellular networks were down.
With the bus half-submerged, the driver urged all passengers, especially the women, to climb atop the bus roof using the ladder. Saluja and her coworkers did that and spent the next seven-eight hours on the roof of the bus, braving the rains. Saluja finally reached home on the afternoon of July 27.
Sameer Jayawant, a CA, had travelled to the Fort area in South Mumbai for some work on July 26. He had to spend the night at his friend's office as train services had completely stopped. Jayawant too reached his home in Thane on the evening of July 27 after having walked nearly 15km.
Mumbai finally returned to normal life after four-five days when trains became operational and the water had totally receded.
Since that day, very-heavy rainfall in Mumbai always brings alive memories of July 26, 2005.
