Water World

Water World

So, I'm house sitting in Gurgaon this week - keeping an eye on a friends adorable dog. So, I headed to bed a few nights back with a wicked storm going outside. A good old fashioned summer thunderstorm. I made a few phone calls to friends, then shut down the computer, tv & turned off the lights. I started to drift away to the sound of the loud rain outside.

After a few minutes, I realized that something wasn't quite right. The rain noise kept getting louder & louder - until it literally sounded like I was in the shower. At this point, I realized something must be wrong - maybe I left a window open? So I stepped outside the bedroom & headed into the open two story atrium of the house.

I don't know what hit me first, maybe it was the cool water being absorbed into my socks, or the water hitting me atop my head. But suddenly, I realized I was standing in the dark... inside... in the middle of a rainstorm.

As fast as I could, I turned all the lights on and surveyed the scene. I realized that water was flowing over a 10 foot expanse of the interior balcony, and falling the 15 feet to the foyer below. Already a large pool of water had formed & so I quickly moved the furniture out of the way, and ran upstairs.

At the top of the stairs, I identified the source of all this water. It was coming from the terrace. I opened the door & a flood of water entered. You see, the entire terrace was full of 4 inches of water and the rain was still coming down. I quickly ran inside & grabbed the bedsheets off two beds and made a bit of an impromptu dam in the doorway.

Unable to fix the situation, I started calling for help - a call to the landlord summoned the houseboy & Alin (the landlord) to help me find a clogged drain. A few minutes later, it was over. The water quickly receded leaving a flooded home to fix. Thankfully, I'm in India - the houseboy quickly located a squeegee & showed me a drain I had no idea existed. Within 15 minutes, he'd dried the bulk of the water & I was off to bed. A little wetter, more tired - but with a story to tell.