The Announcement

“Since the roads of Calcutta are flooded due to heavy rain, the Bus Service has been withdrawn from the streets of Calcutta. The inconvenience caused is regretted.”


I still remember the official announcement by Calcutta State Transport Corporation. It was the 27th of September 1978. Such memories of the great rain of 1978 came back to my mind while traveling through the waterlogged streets to reach my office yesterday.


In those days my office hours were from 1.00 pm to 8.00 pm. The location of the office was in a posh area of South Calcutta called New Alipore. Since it was the evening branch of a bank, the rush of customers was generally heavy during the evening hours. On the evening of the 26th, it was raining outside and there was not a single customer in the bank. We, the men behind the counter were very happy. We started a big Bengali ‘ADDA’ over a cup of tea. But, we were unaware about the misery waiting outside for us.


As usual, we came out of the office a little after 8.00pm.We had no idea about the situation outside. There was knee-deep water in the street. The rain was pouring down heavily and the road was totally empty. Hardly any traffic was seen. We felt a little scared. We couldn’t understand how to reach home. Myself and two other colleagues started walking. My house was far away from the place of work. Luckily we got a bus to the central point of the city, called Esplanade Generally, we used to board our homebound buses from this place. But the place was empty. People with umbrellas and folded pants were wading through the knee-deep water to their place of destination. The three of us used to reside in three different places of the city. So, this was the point of departure for us. I started walking alone. I was totally drenched by that time. As .I was moving further, the level of water was rising. I was feeling nervous because I am a short man and might get drowned. I started gathering strength within myself and also prayed to God to help me. I thought to myself that I must reach home. My prayers were answered. Suddenly a bus to Howrah (the location of my then residence) appeared. I could manage to get in.


I received a warm welcome inside from the few unknown passengers traveling by that bus. There were friendly hands helping me to settle down from the miserable condition in which I had entered the bus. These are the moments in our life when we feel that there are hidden treasures in the form of good human beings who are carrying the world forward. I looked outside. I felt that the vehicle by which we were traveling was not a bus, but a big steamer going through the river. At last the bus reached its destination. My house was more than a kilometer away from this place. The water level at this place was also at a higher side. But it was a known place. I started walking like a victorious soldier, who had won, braving all attacks. I was thinking about the other two heroes whom I had left in the great water pool sometime back.


It was well past midnight when I reached my locality. There was waist deep water in the area. I was shocked to find people carrying their valuables and coming out of their houses out of terror to search a safer place to spend the night. I rushed to my house where my anxious parents were waiting for me in a horrible condition. There was water everywhere. But we decided to stay back in the house. The rain slowed down in the morning. But we had no idea of the horror that had taken place in our city that night, because we were cut off from the rest of the world. I could understand the situation when I reached the bus stand the next day and heard the announcement, which I have mentioned at the beginning of this post. It was like a pronouncement of the end of the world. It was like an announcement of the “Deathly Hallows.”