It was raining since previous night,
pouring water from sky-shower,
dense black clouds
overcast all through the day,
storage of millions of tons of water.
The city known to record highest rainfall
among all cities of the world every year,
it was definitely different that day,
sea though by the side of the city
water-logging made all roads rivers.
Students trapped in schools and colleges,
empty offices since staff came out early,
the water levels in streets rose
by leaps and bounds,
hardly any vehicle could move.
Drains’ manholes were opened,
volunteers were guiding people
to wade through the water
lest they fall inside the drains,
all cell-phone network failed.
Low-lying areas were inundated,
ground floors were under water,
navy boats were out to take people
to safer places,
slum-dwellers lost their homes.
After two days, when rain stopped,
water receded in tortoise pace;
counts of deaths started pouring in
many were washed away, some electrocuted,
some other died being suffocated inside cars.
-Sandip Saha
Sandip Saha is a chemical engineer and doctorate (PhD) in metallurgical engineering from India. He has got three awards for his scientific work and 33 publications on his scientific research work including three patents. He is a winner of Poetry Matters Project Lit Prize-2018. He has published one collection of poems (anthology), “Quest for freedom” available in amazon.com. He is published in many poetry journals including Better Than Starbucks Poetry Magazine, Pif Magazine, The Cape Rock: Poetry, Las Positas Anthology-Havik, Pasadena City College Inscape Magazine, Shot Glass Journal, The Ghazal Page all USA, in VerbalArt, Phenomenal Literature, India and in The Pangolin Review, Mauritius. North Dakota Quarterly and The Wayne Literary Review, both USA have accepted his poems for publication in upcoming issues.