Reporter’s Diary: When I Saw My Flooded Ancestral Home in Kerala

I came to Kerala to cover the floods, I did not know I will end up writing a story about my own loss.

(Photo: Rahul Nair/The Quint)

When I was sent to Kerala to cover the misery caused due to floods, little did I know I will end up writing a story about my own loss.

A flight from Ahmedabad to Hyderabad and then another one to Coimbatore, and a cab first to Palakad and then to Thrissur – it took me 36 hours, thanks to the deluge that has hit the state after 94 years, to reach my ancestral home.

It used to be a vacation destination for a typical Malayalee middle class family living in Mumbai. But today, when I returned home after almost four years, all I could see was my house in 3-4 feet of water.

Built in 1991, the house was named ‘Krishnagatha’ by my grandmother, because she said she could see Lord Krishna sitting on the third window of the living room. Maybe it was her faith that saved our house from caving in during the time of misery.

Around 48 hours ago, when my tenants packed and left the house, the water level had touched almost 6 feet.

With the death toll in the devastating floods rising to 324 in Kerala, and more than one lakh people living in relief camps across the state, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted more rains in the state for the next 48 hours.

So when the office asked me to cover the floods in Kerala, I just had to know what had happened to our home in Preningavu, Thrissur.

But as I walked through the flooded bylanes of the city seeking survivors to understand their plight under duress, the only thing on my mind was how helpless humanity is in the face of nature’s wrath.

Video Editor: Mohd Ibrahim