Isthumus

Yesterday in the middle of the afternoon, our windows shook. Doors too. May be the walls, a little bit. Assuming it was an earthquake was the safe bet. As we were planning to run downstairs, there was a loud bang. Like a collision between celestial objects. Or may be a supersonic jet. Or a very loud thunder; but the skies were bright. We were stupified, not knowing whether to stay in or run out. Suddenly the clouds covered the sun and added to the gloom and chaos. In a few minutes, many people started making calls and the telephone network gave up. This clueless lull stayed for about an hour. Then towards evening the power went out. 

I rescued some candles that had been buried deep in the kitchen cabinets and we sat on the floor, close to each other. Our car wasn't in the best of shape. What if, we had to escape and the thing just gave up. The only thing that kept it running, more than petrol, was faith. Nobody was hungry but we all ate leftovers for dinner. Around midnight, there was a knock on the door. 

A neighbour who I had never met introduced himself and asked if we were doing fine. I said we needed water, there was no water to drink. He said nobody had water to drink and that by morning a water tanker would come by and cater to the neighborhood. After shutting the door I wondered if he really was a neighbour. 

Towards dawn, only a while after I had managed to doze off, there was another loud bang. This was twice as loud as the one during the afternoon. I clutched the bags I had packed with some supplies, woke everyone up, made them empty their bladders for the road and headed for the car. I couldn't remember if someone had locked the house but seeing the exodus on the road, we didn't head back. 

We drove constantly for a couple of hours and nothing felt different or new except for the traffic. People in stopped cars, lowered windows and exchanged rumors. There were folks on foot too, on cycles and bikes, who were faster than those of us who were stuck in cars.

When the sun rose to the top of the sky, things got moving, like really fast. Like they had diverted the traffic or found an alternative road or something. The road ahead emptied out. No one knew where we were headed. There was no destination. The idea was to get as far as possible before the third time the loud bang happened. But would we? 

The city ended and we hit the highway. We drove really fast without even bothering about filling up the tank. We took turns and drove. When it was my time to drive, we switched seats and I lowered the window to see water everywhere except the road ahead. The road looked a shiny grey vis-a-vis the brown grey of the water all around. And there was nowhere to go except ahead.

I asked aloud if anyone knew where we were. There was no answer.

They had bombed the dams. The nearest dam was a few hundred kilometres away. The one after that was a thousand kilometres away. The one after that, it didn't matter. There was water everywhere. The city must have been under water by now. Who knew? 

The road we were driving on, felt like an isthumus that had suddenly showed up. Connecting two landmasses, the one we had abandoned and the one that lay ahead. Something definitely look lay ahead. It had too. 

A few minutes into driving, it dawned on me that the road we were on, wasn't a road it all. It was a flyover. And sooner or later, it would plunge into the water.