July 24, 2009

The tide of a lifetime !

Today is special! Mumbai saw what the highest tide of the century looks like.

And in my apartment close to the raging sea, I actually felt it. With each ginormous wave that crashed against a suddenly puny-looking wall, a strong vibration thudded through the table where I was resting my arms . My questioning (or was it terrified?) look was answered by my son who was lying down on his bed. He had felt it too.

The sea had become a gigantic hammer!

I ran to my balcony, camera in hand. Down on the road, throngs of people had the same idea. There was a carnival atmosphere and everyone was looking at the super spectacle put up by the sea.
Huge waves crashed against retaining walls and threw spray high into the air, sometimes 5-storeys high, and the eager wind carried it inland to rain on all the laughing people. I didn't see fear in anyone's face. Instead there was a jubilant mood, shouting in approval with each super-high plume of spray. Trying to match the sea roar for roar.

Very soon, the road was flooded knee-high with water. Not because it was raining but because there wasn't enough time for the water from each giant wave to drain away before the next one hit. But the ever-growing crowd couldn't care less. All they wanted to do was to join in this momentous natural phenomenon taking place in their backyard!

Not satisfied with the view from my balcony, I went up to the terrace of our building for a better view. And this is what I saw in a neighbouring compound!

What can I say?
The fence had been ripped up and thrown aside like a flimsy piece of tissue paper.
And guess what else I saw? The sea was belching up all the plastic bags so carelessly tossed into it by the citizens of Mumbai !
Revenge of the Sea? Definitely! And a powerful warning not to take its placid appearance lightly.

(Incidentally, these photos were taken at mid-day but it was so cloudy that I didnt get any colour into the photos. Somehow, I think it looks better this way)

23 comments:

  1. OH WOW! Sunita! Please tell us what you thought about the eclipse too!

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  2. I drove past the sea near Mahalaksmi yesterday and you are right, it was a great sight! And totaly agree re the plastic bags- i saw those too!

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  3. Lisa, I'm so ashamed to admit this ... I totally missed the eclipse. I just totally forgot about it inspite of telling myself over and over again the previous night to remember it. I'm just not a morning person! By the time I remembered, the longest total solar eclipse was long over :P

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  4. Aditi, wasn't it awesome! The sea is at it again as I write but the tide is not as high as it was yesterday.
    See that first photo? Normally the beach is a good 10-15 feet below that low wall that you see the wave crashing against. Yesterday, the sea-level was keeping up with the height of that wall.

    All those plastic bags! I cant help feeling disgusted that we're so careless with our environment.

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  5. Your photos gave a better view than those in newspapers. Thanks for sharing. :-)

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  6. Aren't you guys a little worried?

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  7. High tides are supposed to be a usual phenomenon during full moons and I am not sure maybe during new moons too. Why is this one different and called the tide of the century? How could it be predicted so accurately?

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  8. Anonymous, I was more than worried.Each time I could feel the tremors in my building as the waves crashed against the shore, I was sure that the whole thing would come crumbling down. Ultimately, however, the exhiliration of the seeing the sea in such wild form won out and I was too busy enjoying that.

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  9. Nebu, every year the BMC (the local municipal corporation body) publishes a list of days when the tide is expected to be higher than normal. I dont know how they were able to predict that this one was going to be the highest one in 100 years.
    The Survey of India contradicted this by saying that January ,'09 saw a marginally higher tide but believe me, I never saw the sea slamming the earth like this in January and the spray rising as tall as coconut trees almost 5-6 storeys high. In fact I've never seen it happen before.

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  10. You may not have 'got' colour in the pictures, but you got the drama alright.

    A roiling sea makes for rivetting watching.

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  11. Anil, there was drama aplenty here! You just have to see those coconut leaves whipping around to notice that.
    But seriously, watching those waves fling spray almost sky-high was one of the most exhilirating moments of my life.

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  12. Sunita the sea is and its moods, fascinating and sometimes deadly yet we are drawn to it. It is like a magnet that pulls us closer and closer. I love to see the the waves break on the rocks and feel the spray on my face. A refreshing feeling that many have tried to bottle and sell, yet no one has managed to truly capture. It is a shame that people prefer to litter such a pristine body of water. Every year divers and locals form groups to clean up the beaches that others litter indiscriminately. We say in Barbados that the sea has no back door so respect it.

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  13. Helen, I totally agree! Sea-watching has become a very pleasurable past-time for my husband and me. (Though I do prefer to be on firm ground while enjoying the power of the sea and waves)
    It really saddens me to see people treat the ocean as a dumping-ground. We have people cleaning up our beaches too in many places but it is just not enough. In this instance it looked like the sea was giving back as good as it had got!

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  14. What a dramatic experience. The pictures show the angry sea well in monochrome. We get here King tides, but we live in the hills a fair bit, about 10 km from the sea.
    I hate it to, when all the rubbish is tossed in to the oceans.

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  15. I can only say: WOW! Loved the part about the sea belching the plastic bags - serves us right!

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  16. Trudi, King Tides sound very intimidating. I've never heard the term before... I really must check up on it.It sounds very interesting.

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  17. Kamini, it's almost hilarious, isn't it? As if the Sea were saying "you can keep your filthy rubbish!"

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  18. I was not present but yes, I cant even say - great pictures though it is.

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  19. Lovely images,must say.nice that i found them..
    lakshmi

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  20. Thank you, Hobo... I think?

    Glad you liked them, Lakshmi. I wish I was a better photographer, though.

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