Apprehending
floods, I rushed to the house of my in-laws, where my wife with our two sons –
one aged three years and the other aged one month – were held up. Rains were
pouring incessantly and some of the areas had submerged already. I wanted to shift them to some other place
but I was assured of the safety of that place and there was no need to panic. Rains
did not stop for an unusually long time. We were told that the water had seeped
into some low lying areas and was well below the previous flood levels. The
rains would stop soon, we assured ourselves. But they did not. Then I saw that
water collected around the house in which we stayed and as time passed by, the
courtyard morphed into a pool of water, a pond.
We kept gazing at water, precisely
watching its march, its rising till it appeared to me that we were in a big
lake and our house existed within its precincts. The shrubs, ornamental plants
were disappearing gradually and finally disappeared from the view, covered by a
seamless entity. We lost the count of
time, as if eternity had begun. There were no dreams, no plans and no ideas.
Simply an unknown fear that made us to keep looking on that vast ocean that had
engulfed us. And we unconsciously began counting the disappearing bricks of the
boundary wall. 1, 2, 3…. We could not
escape the reality; the water had already entered our rooms and in the next
moment we were shifting our valuable goods upwards and we too, wading through
the water went upstairs. Throughout the night we were observing the rise of
water and the speed of its rising so that we can make necessary plans and
arrangements, should the need arise. Soon we lost another hope: the
connectivity with the outside world as the phones lost their signals.
Morning relieved us to some extent
when we saw that water had receded by a few inches or by a foot. “It is okay now, it does not matter how many
hours it takes to recede fully, as it has begun receding” we said to each
other, as if it was a rule that it couldn’t rise again after having started to
recede. But it seemed to have been just a false consolation, a false hope.
There was no let up in the rains and was pouring down with more intensity.
Water was rising again and then at one point we saw it crossing the level it
had previously started receding from. We heard a crackling sound: some trees
were getting uprooted or their branches were falling off. Our house was
surrounded by a few big trees and we realised what it meant. Danger of trees
falling on our house and ……terrible thoughts.
We called out for help and soon a
few youth appeared on makeshift rafts. They had joined about three logs of wood
and had fastened them with flat planks but there were gaps in between those
planks. There were about 5 to 10 people onboard it was anchored to our veranda
and asked us to board it. We came down from our upper story, wading through
water carrying the younger one and the elder one in the lap of his mother, we
managed to board onto that raft and as it detached from our house, fear gripped
my heart. My elder one was crying out loudly and was making uneasy movements.
The worst part was that the gaps between the flanks were wide and it is not
possible to describe my fears. I could see many such makeshifts rafts making
rounds and searching for marooned villagers. I asked the pilot to leave us
there. He tried to console me that I need not fear, but I could not tell him
that I had no fears for my person, if I had I would have left with him, leaving
my children behind. Without wasting further time, he stopped and allowed us to
get off.
Evening descended more dreadfully: rains were
more intense and water level was rising at a greater pace and the bricks of the
boundary wall were disappearing more quickly. We all decided to leave now.
Destruction was imminent and there was some hope of saving ourselves if we
moved on to a more secure place. Who knows that too might come under the floods,
but we wanted to take that much precaution as we could. We decided that all the family members would
move out and we started packing important things that might stand by us in the
hour of need. A person oaring a small makeshift raft came in response to our
calling and we told him to send us some bigger raft that could carry all of us.
He assured us and went on.
After about twenty minutes, a big
raft appeared below and called us to come down. We started to leave, but my
elder son held onto my leg, grasping his small hands around it, said “Baba! We
shall stay. We are not going. I am afraid of the Jah’ze (airplane)”. {He
thought that it was an airplane}. That was ultimate for me, perhaps it was what
Allah wanted me to do. I took a firm decision, “I am not leaving”. I do not
know whether it was a good decision or not, but I found myself helpless driven
to that decision involuntarily. I did not care what others were going to do and
I entered and sat in a room. Others followed me and their decision too was same
as mine. They asked the person who had come to evacuate us to leave, but he
tried to persuade us to leave but we did not. When the rescuer was leaving
someone among us told him to come to our rescue if he heard some noise from us,
which we would be making in case of emergency. We needed not to fear, he would
come of his own if the matter turns more ghastly, he assured us and left.
These were the real heroes. We wear
engrossed with the fear of our lives and he and many other like him had
forgotten their own lives and families and were busy in saving the lives of
others. These things have great reward with Allah. I realised my own
insignificance and burdening-self, puffed up with arrogance and conceit, but
for what? Simply a misconception about myself and my superiority. In an instant
whole of my haughtiness, pride and arrogance melted before those real human
beings. I realised the greatness of those young men. They were simple
unpretentious and humble. These are the people who really contribute something
to the world. Later on I learned that
some of the renowned orators and Moulvis had got marooned, but were saved by
them.
Coming back to my story, we were
looking desperately that we observed some let up in the rain. We felt somewhat
relieved and I slept silently and as I woke up in the morning, water had
started to recede and then recede slowly. I thanked God for giving us another
chance to live and to repent.
