8. 26/07/2005

26th July, 2005 is an unforgettable day for each and every Mumbaikar. Mumbai was under deluge due to high tide coinciding with heavy rainfall.

We, friends/ colleagues, at office did not know the intensity of the situation. As such, it was generally a regular practice during the rainy season, for one of us to start a rumour that trains have come to a stand still due to rains and it would give us, especially the female employees an opportunity to leave office early.  We would then go to the station and comfortably reach home early.  This time around, we assumed the situation would be same and this was just another opportunity to leave office early. 

But alas, when we reached CST station at around 4.30 pm, there were no indicators to show that trains were running. The trains that were at station was packed with people and the station platforms were full of people, without an inch of space to spare.  We were about 10-12 women standing together in one corner for more than 2 hours. Atlast we decided to go back to our office as night was approaching and we could no longer stand in the cramped wet station premises. 

We waded through the knee-deep water at Azad Maidan and covered the 10 minutes walking distance between CST station and our office at Churchgate,  in about 50 minutes.  

To our utter surprise, our office canteen with the help of our union members, had prepared a sumptuous meal of hot dal, rice, papad and pickle and invited the famished and tired ladies first to have dinner.  In the meantime, the third floor of our office, which accommodated the top brass officers, was vacated  to be exclusively used by the women staff members.

We had to remain in our office for two days, till the return of normalcy.  Our basic toileteries were provided by our Office Stores and food by our canteen for those two days.  

Later on, we learnt that, that night every Mumbaikar had a story to tell and every Mumbaikar who could help, did their bit. Some even did great deeds beyond their capacity to save lives.   Till date no untoward behaviour of any person has been heard about.  

Salute to the spirit of Mumbai. 

Salute to our Office canteen staff. 

7. Language

The other day, I received an sms 'ttyl'.  I asked my daughter what it meant.  She said it meant 'talk to you later' and told me to reply as 'ttysdl'- talk to you some day later.  I also happened to come across the language i.e. abbreviations used by my children to communicate among themselves.  I recollected my own early young days.  

Mumtaz and I, both of us joined work before we completed our graduation-i.e. by age 20, on the same day.  Mumtaz used to commute from Mulund to VT (now CST) [Central Railway] and walk over Azad Maidan to reach our office at Churchgate. I used to travel between Borivali and Churchgate (Western Railway).  We were new recruits, young and we had lots to speak about our colleagues.  We too needed a code language.  I knew 'P' language and Mumtaz knew 'NT' language.  

In 'P' language, one needs to add P after every syllable of a word.  For example - Geeta would be Gee/pee/ta/paa  while in 'NT' language, the word needs to be broken in two halves - N to be added to end of first half of the word and T to be added to beginning of second half of the word.  For example - Geeta would be Gee/in/te/ta.

Both of us became so fluent with both the languages that we could speak either in English or even in Hindi or interchange midway -English and Hindi.  

We had to speak more and time we got was less. So Mumtaz started using Dadar Interchange ( change trains from Central Railway to Western Railway).  We did not have cell phones those days, so we used to decide train timings and meet exactly in those trains, stand on the foot board of the trains and chat to our hearts' content.  

Later on, Mumtaz shifted to Andheri (Western Suburb). So it became even more convenient for us to meet and speak. Little did we know that co-travellers, colleagues, people from trains in opposite tracks etc. were keeping track of us.   On one such evening, when we continued to stand at the footboard of a fast train talking loudly in our code language, a middle aged woman got furiously irritated.  She shouted at us to stop talking and within minutes she had other supporters in the compartment.  Much to our surprise, when Mumtaz got down at Andheri, a male colleague  from adjacent compartment also commented on our talk.  

We soon realised that we were getting famous for our language in office too. Slowly we reduced and later on we stopped completely as we didnt meet regularly.

This year 14th  of July, put a full stop to all our communication.  Mumtaz left for her heavenly abode and I pray for her soul to rest in peace.