WHEN NATURE GOES WILD

I am so used to flooding at Thalavady
And Kuttanad as a whole
And had battled it several times,
I measure floods
From those standards.

When I see people walking on the flooded roads
Evading
The unexpected under the water everywhere
My memories take me back to the number of times
I have done it.
Those were the days floods were confined to us alone.
No one ever thought of our hardships.
We had suffered in silence.
It had been a way of life for us.
It still is.

Now people of Kerala as a whole
Understand
What it is to be on
The epicenter of floods

I remember once when Papa was driving
We got into a flooded road after Neriamangalam
When we were on our way to Aluva and Ernakuam.
Papa somehow had managed to drive to safety
Though the car had flood water in it.

Landslips were a common feature
When we were in Munnar.
Merciless rain battered us.
The cold would bite into the bones.
We shivered.

The place had remained isolated for days together
With essential articles in short supply.
Nobody had ever given a hoot
For what we had been braving.
When I saw the  rivers in spate with water gushing wildly
And fear, the angry roar and the foam,  had aroused
I could see that the images  are already
Etched in my mind
Forever.