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I’ll Be Back: A post-flood word from Ashok

Hi there.

As most of you know by now, the torrential rains in Mumbai on 26 July and thereafter disrupted infrastructure and caused immense damage to the city.

My family and I were luckier than most. Except for a harrowing few hours swimming (I do not exaggerate) through six-feet deep filthy floodwaters, we escaped the worst of it.

However, electricity has been spotty in most places, totally absent in many.

My internet service provider, Sify, worked doggedly (I’m told) to bring lines back online. But for various reasons – mostly to do with cable replacements and lack of supplies – my internet connections still haven’t been restored (I have three).

A couple of my phone lines are also down, but our mobiles are working again. In fact, it’s through one of the latter that I’m connected right now but obviously I can’t do so for long, since I need the line for other things.

Things are more or less back to normal otherwise.

I lost a few files in a hard disk crash, due to the constant on-off power.

And have been working hard to replace them while the pages are still fresh in my mind.

And once I’ve done that, I’m going to have to catch up with my missed deadline for one book, and the looming deadline for the next.

So, regretfully, even when my ISP gets back on track (in my area, Sify seems to be working fine in many other areas now) I won’t be posting as frequently to this blog as I used to, and would like to.

It’s galling because I’ve read a ton of books during the floods, and watched a ton of DVDs, but hopefully, once I’ve caught up with work, I’ll be able to share my thoughts on those with you.

As for stories about the flood and the city, well, you’ll find many more blogs and websites out there that will tell you all you need to know, and then some.

I’ll try and stick to the premise of this blog, which is to talk about books, movies and music, and not much else.

At least, I’ll try.

Meanwhile, thanks for all the emails – I haven’t even been able to read most of them, let alone reply – in all my accounts. I appreciate the concern and the offers of help. But don’t worry. We’re all fine here. I’m at work, which is where we all should be.

See you when I see you.

Or as my daughter says it in SMS-speak, cu wen i cu.

:~)

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 6th, 2005 at 11:08 am. It is filed under Ashok. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.