Last year, Suraj R. Raman’s birthday — November 29 — fell on a Sunday. He lives in Kotturpuram, one of Chennai’s upscale neighbourhoods, but he decided to host the celebrations at a relative’s beach house in Palavakkam — his last birthday when the first digit of his age would still remain ‘3’.
Who is Suraj? That’s not so relevant here. What’s relevant is what happened after the party, described by him:
“On Monday morning, my wife and I drove through a steady downpour to get back to our Kotturpuram home, only to find there was no electricity. Our phones died by the evening, but we hoped that the rains would stop soon and power supply would resume. But it rained the whole of Tuesday as well and we remained without power. We had no idea what was going on in the outside world.
“Late on Tuesday night, rather in the early hours of Wednesday, around two in the morning, I got a call on the landline from my neighbour who lives in the flat upstairs. He had tried calling us on our mobile phones. He had also knocked at the door of the room where my mother-in-law slept. But my mother-in-law, wondering who could be knocking at the door so late on a rainy night, had kept quiet.
“When I answered his call, he said, ‘Just get out of your house and come up. There is a major issue.’ When I asked him what the matter was, he told me that he had just got back home after picking up his sister-in-law from the railway station, and that the moment he entered our street, he found his car — he drives an SUV — swaying because of the force of the water.
“I stepped out to take a look. Our flat is built about three feet above the ground level, and the water was already on the same level as the verandah. I sent my son, who was 10 then, and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law to the neighbour’s home upstairs.
“With the help of my wife, I managed to carry up one TV, one amplifier and two speakers. I also managed to rescue my collection of watches. Suddenly my wife remembered she too had something to be rescued: her jewellery. She went down to find the water already knee-deep, and with the help of the LED light of a power bank, began putting her jewellery into a silver cup. Suddenly she felt something touch her feet — perhaps a snake? — and in the panic, the cup got turned upside down. Several lakhs down the drain in just one moment.
“It took her a while to tell me about the loss. I told her, ‘Let’s go down and search together.’ By then, the water had risen to the ceiling. We lost everything , including precious memories, such as pictures and videos of my son growing up. We were glad to be alive.
“We spent almost the whole of Wednesday at our neighbour’s place, either napping or waiting to be rescued. A Coast Guard boat finally showed up around 4 p.m.: it evacuated the women and children first, before returning to rescue the men. I remember a cobra — a huge cobra — frantically trying to swim against the current as we got onto the rescue boat. The cobra, like us, had been flushed out of its home.
“A week later, my wife and I returned to take a look at what used to be our home. It stank. Nothing could be salvaged. Even my two cars had been rendered useless: one was perched atop the other. The only thing that remained unaffected by the floods was my son’s bicycle. It continued to lean against the wall and had not moved even an inch. I often wonder why.”
