April 15, 2024

 The ides of April it shall forever be known as. I am using the Shakespearean allusion to describe a deluge so harsh and utterly implacable that beset the city of Dubai, and the wider region of the UAE and Oman, that I ended up not posting a blog entry until today- a whole week after the proverbial flood. We had been forewarned on the Monday that there would be a thunderstorm so that we should stay prepared. But when this storm started on the evening of Monday and continued into Tuesday and Wednesday, we were left completely helpless. In our community, the lake was overflowing which made it much worse for our streets that were somewhat in the vicinity of the lake. There were only rivers flowing everywhere- but if only it were just that. On Tuesday morning, around 9 am, the water stopped running in our taps. We called maintenance, who showed up late in the evening after being hounded by us all day on the phone. Clearly they were being hounded by everyone else as well. The water -pump was defective, it was tripping within 30 seconds of running. They did something that made it run longer. They waited 10 minutes and it kept running. We thought all was well and we let them go. Within 5 minutes the water stopped again. And to my utter dismay it was not a case of the circuit breaker tripping. It was a case of the motor just completely conking out- which means I could not get it on again even for a 30 second interval. Before I was doing this repeatedly and it was atleast filling up the water in the toilets.  Now that was a no-go.  I did have access to a swimming pool- a captive source of a fluid - which although could not be used for washing, could most certainly be used to fill up toilets. So buckets of pool water started inhabiting a couple of toilet sinks. Note that only two of the 5 loos had the old style bowl wherein you could simply lift the lid and fill the flush tank. The others, were renovated bathrooms where all of these appurtenances were delightfully concealed and hence completely inaccessible in a crisis situation such as this. The neighbor on the right was known to us-a young Indian family- and the lady of the house had very kindly offered the use of her shower as well as her laundry for our use. Both my wife and our help used it on the Wednesday at a time when we were truly out of water. I sent each of my boys to a friend house- different house for each of them. They could cycle on side walks which had much shallower water. They showered at their friends-and the younger did a sleep-over as well. I wish I could have done so as well. But I could not even get myself to use the neighbors shower and so I ended up not showering for around 60 hours or so. It was hard but not unheard of. Back in college, this was par for the course. We used to have chaps who did not shower for months together. But that was different age - and we were a different age as well.  I could not really focus during these few days- between tryin to contact the maintenance company to replace the pump and also balancing the situation at the workplace virtually. Decidedly, I was in a foul mood the entire time. Normally I exhibit more equanimity than any member of my household, including my two dogs. But during this period, everyone else , although inconvenienced, was able to maintain good humour- but not me. I was petulant- and could not change my attitude until I saw water coming through from the taps. Which eventually happened on Thursday evening, as the maintenance company managed to procure a pump- having duly over-charged me for the obvious opportunity I presented them with.  I could not be bothered to negotiate the price of the pump. I asked once. They declined to budge on the price. And why should they not?  This was a familiar feeling for me, as I had often been in negotiations at work wherein I had had no leverage. Most of these times, one bites the bullet- and tries to make fundamental changes to the situation as as to ensure more leverage the next time around. The shower I had on Thursday evening was a long one and while in the shower, I reflected fervently on how nice life was with running water. I mean who in the world needed anything else? I am sure the boys realized the too- it was a bit of unknown hardship for them- probably did them a world of good given their cushy and heavily cocooned lives in Dubai. Now that water was back in the taps, I turned my attention to outside the house. The rivers outside did not seem to subside at all- days had passed but no movement in water levels. It was astounding, as when flooding had occurred before, the water would reduce everyday and then pretty much disappear in a few days. This was a novel situation. Moreover, most of the community was beginning to return to normalcy but not our street- and a few streets adajacent.  It was most annoying because I did not want to risk driving lest the car gets stranded. We saw pictures of stranded cars in almost every major thoroughfare already. By this time, and it was now the weekend, we began to hear horror stories from around town wherein some folks had lost both water and electricity. Some had water ingress in their living areas in their homes. To the point they had to jettison  their home and decamp to a hotel. One family that was known to us had to vacate their brand nee purchased home and move to a hotel where it was anticipated they would stay for at least 2 months, given the extent of water ingress in their homes. Trucks with pumps were coming to flooded streets the city over and sucking out the water form the roads. We got a few to come around out street - but only on Saturday and Sunday.  Prior to that, the trucks were deployed elsewhere-places more important than our boring street I guess. By the Monday, I could drive to work although I had to make a detour which added 10-15 minutes to my travel as several major roads were still closed due to flooding.  It would be a while before we retuned to the version of Dubai prior to the Ides of April.  There will be a lot speculation on the cause of such a storm, and also criticism of the government in both their unpreparedness and also the relative tardiness of their reactive management. However, all things considered, I think we got out fairly light. The massive positive of this episode for me, if there was any, was that my fixed asset ( home) was now environmentally stress tested and somehow survived the test. I had reason now to bcabelieve  that no matter the strength of the storm, it would take a lot to get water to enter into my house. On the other hand, I placed some tarpaulin sheets over the external cabinet that housed my water pump.  To beef up the protection for the next imminent out pouring. But honestly- I hope it never happens again. If this is somewhat attributable to Climate Change, then I think we will benefit overall with more pleasant temperatures for most of the years. All that needs to happen is that the UAE needs to invest some cash to improve the urban drainage system, The next thing you know, the Arabian Desert, as we know it will cease to exist and be replaced  by a network of Green Meadows.