My topics under "Hallowed by deed" is increasing in count. I am in fact feeling good that i am getting to write about many good things and good people around. Especially with so much of negative things happening around, such small incidents bring a ray of hope. Some people have helped me in situations which could otherwise have turned into a disaster. Some brought a smile on my face. Some made me forget my worries at least for few moments.
This incident happened during the fateful flood in Chennai. Fate sometimes does play around with your mind making you wonder if in deed you have done something wrong. My marriage was to happen on December 6th. I was supposed to leave to Kerala on December 3rd. My marriage saree blouses were with the tailor and i was supposed to take delivery of them on November 30th. Unfortunately i could not pick my blouses on 30th and decided it take it on the next day.
The next day - December 1st i woke to the sound of steady rain. Rain is supposed to make you cool and lazy. But it actually made my adrenaline rush up. There were predictions of rain over the week end which as usual had not come true and we had all started to relax thinking that we had escaped the heavy showers. We were not ready for another onslaught as the attack of rains few days back had left the city in a frenzy of knee deep water and inundation in few parts. But seeing it rain again on that morning a slight tension started building up in my heart.
I called up my office and we decided to work from home. It was impossible to move out in the rain which by then had started pouring heavily. Sometimes you wonder why you make some blunders for which there are no explanations. I found that i had left the charger of my Laptop in my office the previous day. I had to wind up some work before going on my marital holidays. Anyways i could not go and get it. So i worked till my laptop took its last breath. 1st of December passed with me and mom sitting in front of the TV following and consuming as much news as possible about the situation outside. There was constant discussion among neighbors on what would happen. The flooding had started. By the end of the day most of my friends had lost power connection at their place. We were getting a feeling that the trains would get suspended and hence booked flight tickets for the next day evening. We went to sleep with a feeling that things were going from bad to worse. But we had to wait it out.
This incident happened during the fateful flood in Chennai. Fate sometimes does play around with your mind making you wonder if in deed you have done something wrong. My marriage was to happen on December 6th. I was supposed to leave to Kerala on December 3rd. My marriage saree blouses were with the tailor and i was supposed to take delivery of them on November 30th. Unfortunately i could not pick my blouses on 30th and decided it take it on the next day.
The next day - December 1st i woke to the sound of steady rain. Rain is supposed to make you cool and lazy. But it actually made my adrenaline rush up. There were predictions of rain over the week end which as usual had not come true and we had all started to relax thinking that we had escaped the heavy showers. We were not ready for another onslaught as the attack of rains few days back had left the city in a frenzy of knee deep water and inundation in few parts. But seeing it rain again on that morning a slight tension started building up in my heart.
I called up my office and we decided to work from home. It was impossible to move out in the rain which by then had started pouring heavily. Sometimes you wonder why you make some blunders for which there are no explanations. I found that i had left the charger of my Laptop in my office the previous day. I had to wind up some work before going on my marital holidays. Anyways i could not go and get it. So i worked till my laptop took its last breath. 1st of December passed with me and mom sitting in front of the TV following and consuming as much news as possible about the situation outside. There was constant discussion among neighbors on what would happen. The flooding had started. By the end of the day most of my friends had lost power connection at their place. We were getting a feeling that the trains would get suspended and hence booked flight tickets for the next day evening. We went to sleep with a feeling that things were going from bad to worse. But we had to wait it out.
2nd of December, we rose to a darker day. We lost power. Luckily both our mobiles were fully charged. We kept only one mobile on, in order to save power. News started coming in about trains getting suspended as the tracks were inundated. Water started seeping into out street. We started panicking. I waded through knee deep water to buy some groceries as we were not sure about the travel. By after noon news came in that all flights were suspended. I lost hope and decided to give up, even the tension. My fiance and would-be in laws called me to console me and we almost reached a point where we thought that the marriage would have to be postponed. They helped me approach this whole incident with the least emotional stress. The met department had forecast heavy rains till 6 Dec and airport would stay closed till then. In the night my fiance called me up to tell me that i should be expecting a call from his brother in law's friend who might be able to help us.
At night 11 o clock i got a call from my Samaritan - the hero of this article - Sathish. He assured me that he would arrange some mode of transport via road and get us out of Chennai next day as the Bangalore highway was open. From Bangalore we could take a bus/train/flight to Kerala. He asked us to be ready by early morning and to wait for his call. On the morning of 3rd December we were packed and ready by 6 o clock. Our mobiles were loosing charge and our neighbors were kind enough to let us use their cautiously used inverter saved power for charging. When i tried calling him, his phone was switched off. I became desperate. At around 7 o clock we happened to discuss the scenario with our neighbor who on hearing that the Bangalore highway was open, talked to a travel agency to arrange a taxi for us. By then Sathish called me and said that he could not arrange a taxi. When i told him that an agency had agreed to take us to Bangalore he was much elated than us. But he did not want us - 2 ladies to travel on our own. Hence he said he would accompany us till Bangalore and come back in the same taxi. This was a surprise to us since we had not expected him to be so nice. We felt relieved that we wouldn't have to take this uncertain drive alone.
And thus we started our journey to Bangalore at 9 AM on the 3rd of December. Sathish joined us on the way. He had taken a great risk in driving his bike from home till a point where he could not drive any further in water, parked it in front of a shut store and walked around 1 kilometer in water and then piggybacked on a strangers bike to reach his place of pickup. Our journey was filled with tension and fake news of a dam breach in Krishnagiri. Once we crossed Krishnagiri we started to relax as we knew situation was cool from that point on. I slept deeply after Krishnagiri forgetting all my tension and compensating my sleepless nights. We reached our destination at 3 o clock. Dropping us off, Sathish did not even take a minute's break as he wanted to be back in Chennai by midnight. He had plans to join a group of volunteers the next day for undertaking relief activities in the affected areas.
What could i say about this Good Samaritan - i was emotionally overwhelmed to have met a person like him. Why are some people so good? why are some so helpful? My neighbors helped me a lot, whom i could not thank enough. Best of all, this situation helped shatter my tensions about life after marriage, as i had seen how pragmatic and supportive my to be husband and in-laws are.
I had forgotten the fact that i did not have a blouse to wear along with my marriage Saree. Well, buying a ready made blouse or rather wearing anything for the marriage was not even a matter of worry compared to postponing a marriage.
A marriage is a great affair in itself but mine has a backstory worth being shared.
At night 11 o clock i got a call from my Samaritan - the hero of this article - Sathish. He assured me that he would arrange some mode of transport via road and get us out of Chennai next day as the Bangalore highway was open. From Bangalore we could take a bus/train/flight to Kerala. He asked us to be ready by early morning and to wait for his call. On the morning of 3rd December we were packed and ready by 6 o clock. Our mobiles were loosing charge and our neighbors were kind enough to let us use their cautiously used inverter saved power for charging. When i tried calling him, his phone was switched off. I became desperate. At around 7 o clock we happened to discuss the scenario with our neighbor who on hearing that the Bangalore highway was open, talked to a travel agency to arrange a taxi for us. By then Sathish called me and said that he could not arrange a taxi. When i told him that an agency had agreed to take us to Bangalore he was much elated than us. But he did not want us - 2 ladies to travel on our own. Hence he said he would accompany us till Bangalore and come back in the same taxi. This was a surprise to us since we had not expected him to be so nice. We felt relieved that we wouldn't have to take this uncertain drive alone.
And thus we started our journey to Bangalore at 9 AM on the 3rd of December. Sathish joined us on the way. He had taken a great risk in driving his bike from home till a point where he could not drive any further in water, parked it in front of a shut store and walked around 1 kilometer in water and then piggybacked on a strangers bike to reach his place of pickup. Our journey was filled with tension and fake news of a dam breach in Krishnagiri. Once we crossed Krishnagiri we started to relax as we knew situation was cool from that point on. I slept deeply after Krishnagiri forgetting all my tension and compensating my sleepless nights. We reached our destination at 3 o clock. Dropping us off, Sathish did not even take a minute's break as he wanted to be back in Chennai by midnight. He had plans to join a group of volunteers the next day for undertaking relief activities in the affected areas.
What could i say about this Good Samaritan - i was emotionally overwhelmed to have met a person like him. Why are some people so good? why are some so helpful? My neighbors helped me a lot, whom i could not thank enough. Best of all, this situation helped shatter my tensions about life after marriage, as i had seen how pragmatic and supportive my to be husband and in-laws are.
I had forgotten the fact that i did not have a blouse to wear along with my marriage Saree. Well, buying a ready made blouse or rather wearing anything for the marriage was not even a matter of worry compared to postponing a marriage.
A marriage is a great affair in itself but mine has a backstory worth being shared.
