I’ve had some rather nasty journeys travelling from Kharagpur to Bangalore, which I do quite so often, but the last one was the worst. The whole of kolkata and Kharagpur, (entire east india actually) was flooded. I had to spend an entire day surviving on only coffee (which I do quite often, but now I didn’t have a choice)
The events that led to me coming back are (*yawn*) as follows:
1. I’m stuck inside with nearly three days of continuous torrential rain.
2. Parents book flight tickets, but I can’t get to the nearest airport due to the rain.
3. I have to rely on the backup train tickets I had booked a few weeks earlier.
4. Braving knee deep water, and carrying heavy suitcases all around(thank god for the earlier gym sessions), I wait at the railway station for nearly five hours, with no electricity or idea of when the train is coming.
5. The train reaches bangalore, and takes all of 43 hours to reach. I’m nice and relaxed by the end of it.
![[image]](http://mowser.com/img?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hindu.com%2F2007%2F07%2F04%2Fimages%2F2007070451201501.jpg)
Rains in kolkata. Image from The Hindu
The point of this post is simple: to bring to notice the poor disaster management capabilities of an indian Metropolis like Calcutta. I read later that the flooding was caused by sewage pipe blockage, and no more on that topic.
Read more on the rains here
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