Swimming against the tide

Three techies recount their encounter with the flood

August 23, 2018 05:00 pm | Updated 05:00 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

 A view of the flooded Chengannur area

A view of the flooded Chengannur area

When the rain and the raging rivers inundated many places in Kerala, employees of Technopark were galvanised into action. While some of them went on to create a database and to help at collection points as volunteers, there were many who were directly or indirectly affected by the deluge. Some of them are back at work after a close encounter with the fury of nature, many are staying back to clear the slush and debris the flood has left behind.

Sreejith Sivan and Manish Muralidharan Pillai, working in the same team at Finastra and hailing from Alappuzha, never thought that they would be trapped by the flood. If Sreejith was trapped on the terrace of his house at Malakkara in Aranmula, Manish had to take it upon himself to rescue his parents from his house at Edanad near Chengannur, with the help of Sreejith.

 Sreejith Sivan

Sreejith Sivan

Sreejith sounds calm and collected over the phone while recounting the ordeal inspite of having lost all his possessions. He reached home on August 14 since it was a public holiday on August 15. “My mother is recuperating after an operation and has a help at home. At 2.30 am, I was woken up by a call from my neighbour saying that the water level was rising in the Pamba river, which flows a few metres away from my house. Within an hour or so the road was flooded and by 4 am water had entered our compound. We managed to go to the first floor and shift a few things like a gas stove, cylinder, mattresses, two chairs and my Aadhar card. But soon we had to move to the half-covered terrace as the first floor too got flooded. Snakes came slithering, of which I killed some; my certificates were washed away... and it was raining non-stop..,” he says.

Wait continues

There was no food except for some rice that they ate in small portions and they drank rain water. Although his friends had passed on information to a rescue team, no help came. By then, his phone was dead. “After a point, I lost track of the days… Nothing happened for two days until a few residents came in a boat and rescued us… Water had started entering the terrace by then,” says the 30-year-old, who had lost his father last year.

Sreejith adds that when it rains, the low-lying areas near his house usually get flooded and he has often gone out to help people with his friends. “But we weren’t prepared for this.....”

After spending a few hours at a relief camp, they were taken to his sister’s house. It was there that he heard about Manish’s parents and, as luck would have it, they met each other there. Then they set out to rescue Manish’s parents, Usha M. Pillai and Muralidharan Pillai, both in their late 50s. “My single-storied house is located away from the main road and there aren’t any neighbours around. On August 15, amma had called me to say that the area was getting flooded. They managed to take our gas stove, cylinder, some rice and onions to our semi-covered terrace. Although my friends and I shared Google coordinates for the rescue team, that was of little use. I was in touch with my parents till Friday (August 17) morning after which I lost all contact with them. That got me worried and on seeing my situation my manager asked me to go home,” he recalls.

 Manish Muralidharan Pillai

Manish Muralidharan Pillai

It was a harrowing ride as he had to travel by bike and then take a car before hitching a ride in an Ape auto to reach the starting point of the rescue boats. “The rescue personnel told me that it was impossible for them to go near my house because of strong water currents. Although a rubber dingy managed to navigate through the water, it got punctured along the route. When someone told me that both of them had been rescued, I rushed to the relief camps. But they weren’t at any of the six camps in the area. People advised me against wading through the water because that was extremely dangerous,” he recalls.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t wait for long and on Sunday (August 19) afternoon, he decided to risk the trip with Sreejith and his relative joining him on that journey. “We couldn’t stand properly in the water, let alone walk. We took baby steps, all the time holding our hands and finally managed to reach home. By that time, the water had receded from my house and my parents had come down from the terrace, but there was still chest-high water outside our home. They had spent nearly five days on the terrace and so they didn’t want to wait for any boat to take them out. They walked through the water to safety. I feel terrible that the boats didn’t go near my house when the situation got better,” Manish says.

Meanwhile, Aswin Kumar A.K., an employee of Tata Elxsi, tries to play down his plight saying, “It was nothing when you see what others went through.” He, along with his parents, relatives and a neighbour, had to spend five days on the first floor of his house at Perissery in Chengannur. “My house is not even in the vicinity of the river. So we never expected this situation. The good thing was that my phone had enough charge and I kept getting updates. Also, there was enough food with us and we were also getting relief supplies,” he says.

 Aswin Kumar A.K.

Aswin Kumar A.K.

He got out of his house on a Taurus truck, which was the only mode of transport that could reach the area. “There was helplessness everywhere. A neighbour had a heart attack, diabetic patients were in bad shape. Water is still there in the area, houses are in shambles. Yet we all are relieved that we are safe...,” says Aswin who is back at work.

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