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Title: after the Floods

AUTHOR: The Chennai Bloggers Club

PRICE: Rs.150

Publisher: Sixthsense Publications

It seems like we are at the onset of a climatic change which calls for a revision of our history and geography textbooks that still quote Chirapunji as the place with the highest rainfall in India. According to statistics Mawsynram in Meghalaya, 16 km to the west of Chirapunji, has recorded a considerably higher rainfall in the last 20 years. Another 20 years down the lane we will be narrating the folklore of the Chennai floods to our kids. But it’s high time we put things on paper, document it without waiting for the textbooks or leave it in the hands of Wikipedia.


I still remember vividly, it was the same time of the year in 2015 when I was a part of the event organised by ‘The Chennai Bloggers Club’ to launch the online portal of a famous jewellery brand. Despite incessant rains, many had turned up for the event. The winners of the Twitterati, short story contest were given gift hampers. I was happy to get a consolation prize for just participating. We all shook hands, exchanged numbers, took selfies and bid adieu.

What started off as a monsoon rain early in November sustained all through December. By the time the State understood the enormity of the situation, it was too late for any help from outside to reach it and the city was totally cut-off from any means of communication or transportation. The world was watching us waiting to shower loads of love and attention, but the rain wouldn’t recede.

We have heard the survivors of the Independence struggle narrate the episodes of how they stood together against the British. The nation witnessed the rise of the youth at that time. The same bloggers who blogged and tweeted to promote a brand came together with double the vigour to stand for the cause which gave me goose bumps. The anger, resentment and tech-savyness were transformed into positive energy. Any engineer or a Management graduate who plunged himself into the rescue operations will never in life witness a better example of demand and supply. In fact, I remember one of the news channels stating that there were more volunteers on the streets than victims.

When we think of rains— gone are those days that nature alerts us with a thunderstorm, followed by a slight drizzle. But we are not yet accustomed to these highly localised rains which more often than not catch us off-guard as if a giant showers nozzle has been fully turned on accidentally. It is something so beyond rationale that people fear what if history repeats itself in less than a decade’s time.

After the Floods is an anthology of the short stories written by some of the city’s busiest bloggers (21 of them from diverse professions, locality and writing style) in a way of narrating their encounter with the ordeal.