Tide in the affairs of men

 

There is a tide in the affairs of men.

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat,

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.

-      Brutus and Cassius, in conference.

Although this is fiction from a completely different era, context and geography, the lines, especially the first two, always remind me of 26 July 2005. A day which the good folks of Mumbai will never forget. I certainly will not.

Today, 19 years later, the day continues to evoke vivid memories.

The tide and flood which rendered the city afloat on a full sea (‘twas high tide after all) was one of those freak weather phenomena which are increasingly getting normalised. 944 mm of rainfall – about 50% of the annual rainfall – fell on the city in less than 24 hours. “Unprecedented” is too weak a word for this catastrophic weather event.

Many stayed put where they were, hoping to ride out the situation to the best of their resources. But a vast majority of people (this author included) tried to return to home and hearth for various reasons. The inevitable roadblocks, traffic jams, flooding of railway tracks and closure of the airport compounded a situation for which there was no playbook. Long lines of people trudging through waist-high water, cars abandoned on the road, trees on the roads, and destruction of homes and infrastructure painted a picture in darkest tenebrism. Bleaker than Dante’s Seven Hells. Noah’s flood was a mere bucketful in comparison.

Many people have asked why this happened and continue to ask even today. While there may be no straight or easy answers, suffice to say that nature’s obiter dicta cannot be tossed aside like a broken umbrella. Just like karma, nature too can be a bitch, of frightening proportions. Mankind’s blithe ignorance of the laws of nature and the disdain for the need to co-habit with nature, and not try to master it, will continue to produce such mind-bending calamities.

And the overriding question - did we take the current when it serves - to ensure that such events do not recur? No. We are seeing more of these natural disasters created by man’s intrinsic ability to shoot himself in the foot where nature is concerned. This must stop. We must go back to building harmony with nature. Or lose our ventures.

As for myself, how did I spend the day nineteen years ago? I was headed back home in a colleague’s car, with an old monk as co-passenger. Though I was on the road for over twenty-four hours, the monk’s sage counsel to “be wet inside and dry outside” guided me to my destination.