hifting to one of the swanky high-rises in upper-middle-class
Indirapuram about eight months back made my family realise settling down
in a posh home is not easy.
Summers on my 13th floor airy flat went well — breezy evenings and refreshing mornings with a cup of soothing kehwa (Kashmiri green tea) on the sun-tinged balcony. Indirapuram News
But today was different. It started early with the sound of the
rain. The entire world outside my glass window looked beautiful — a
cloudy sky, birds hiding in my balcony from the rains, green plants
swaying to the rhythm of rains.
As I admired the scene, my mother jerked me back to the real world.
It was 6.30 am: time to drop mom off to her workplace - a primary school
in Delhi. She's a schoolteacher.
Both of us soon left our flat chatting about the beautiful morning,
but it didn't take long for us to come face to face with the ugly side
of the rains — waterlogging.
And we hadn’t even reached the road yet. We were just at the lower basement parking.
A sense of panic engulfed us. Now, our next mission was to reach the car
without soiling our clothes and shoes. But there was no escape — soon,
both of us started moving towards the car in the ankle-length water,
looking like ducks.
The next thing that struck me — lifts! If water seeped into the lift
pockets, it would be impossible for my mom to climb up 13 floors after
she will be back from school. I immediately informed the resident
body on our WhatsApp group and as usual emails got exchanged.
After this bad start to the day, the roads greeted me with
waterlogging, traffic snarls and malfunctioning red lights. The usual 45
minutes I take to drive to Noida from Ahinsa Khand II, Indirapuram, was
replaced by two hours!
Throughout the day I remained glued to my WhatsApp to get some word
that things had swung back into place at the apartment and that the
waterlogging in the basement had been sorted out - or were at least
being discussed. But I didn't get a single message. And it's now almost
12 hours since I notified them of the problem.
Will the lift be working when I get back home or will the water have
reached it by now? I have no clue. Is everyone just waiting for a time
things get intolerable for taking any action? Will the mosquito larvae
have already started breeding in the basement by the time I get back
home?
Alas! Rains are not always beautiful.
