24th july, 2026 will not be forgotten from my mind ever. Little did I know, I came back from remote mountain life to ahmedabad back in may 2026. The irony is I left mountain life due to fear of monsoon and i faced the worst monsoon of my life in ahmedabad. I am going to share the bitter realization of city life with you. 

Let me take you back to what happened: 

On 23rd july - from 8am the rain started in whole ahmedabad - by 10am it was very clear that ahmedabad was gonna take a major hit due to monsoon. We live in 14 story building - on fourth floor. We took out our car from basement and parked on ground floor. By evening 5pm - society basement started flooding with water. By night 10pm - whole basement of 14 story building was flooded - 10 ft water. Due to this, The lift, normal usage water, drinking water stopped working as society decided to close all due to risk in basement. The wifi stopped already at 12pm and we were only relying on unstable network of airtel. Coming back to basement situation, starting from 23rd july, 2026 to as I write this on 25th july - 12:35 PM - basement is still flooded. Water is still not back.

Let me also walk you through routine of residents: 

1. They wake up - ask “has water came”
2. “When the lift will start”
3. We are running out of drinkign water - when mineral water will come
4. We are running out of groceries when the road water will reduce so we can go out and buy things
5. We live on 12th floor - how are we expected to take normal water from tank to 12th floor - just to wash the face or basic usage. 
6. Its gonna be 48 hours and there is still no lift, water, drinking water resolved. 
7. For residents to travel - they can sit in tractor along with kids and go out. 
8. For elders - no facility - they are in lockdown cause lift is not working 
9. For children - they are stuck in home and lobby cause they cant go out or in ground floor cause the whole society is filled with sewage water smell
10. There has been mobile van setup for toilet for society which has only 5 toilets for men and 5 for women. Let me remind you that its society of 850 houses. And the mobile van came at 24th july at night after 8pm.
11. Usually when such situation occurs the first point of contact is - society committe members. To our surprise, they are more busy in hiding the fact from news channels that we are struggling, and less occupied in figuring out solution.
12. To push them to take action - Capital news channel had to come and make noise. Post that they started calling private pump services for help
13. The conclusion on 24th july at 8pm - 3 pumps has been put by society committee to evacuate water as rain stooped and road got emptied. 
14. Its 25th july and half the basement has not been evacuated yet.  
15. I and my husband have reached out to 14 government officials and no help has been sent. 
16. The only committed help we have received is from capital news - who came within 1 hour to cover news and also published digital written version of the issue. Kudos to team and the leaders of capital news. 
17. Children of two fathers - who earns more than 7 figures are going with baltis to get water for their home 

Lets say for a minute that its natural disaster and whole gujarat has faced this. But lets think also for a minute that if you practically think through all the points here are my questions we should ask: 

1. Who is responsible for this? - society committe? Society builder? Government? Panchayat? Civil engineer? Town planner? Or citizen themselves cause they chose to buy property here?
2. Why Government help was not sent? 
3. Why we were told that if you keep pushing buttons of government - they will intentionally not send help
4. Why we were denied fire department help although we saw fire department working at karanvati club at ashoka farm at 10:35PM to evacuate the water?
5. Why society committe who takes every pro active approach when it comes to celebrating all kind of festivals but keeping silence when the emergency arises
6. Why society committe invites all political officials in festivals and cant get help when needed?
7. Why society committe dont let news outlets come to cover the news saying - the price of society flats will drop and no will buy
8. Where is the power of residents gone to raise voice for this and get solution
9. Why people have forgotten common decency to help each other? 
10. Why people hide to show their face when Capital news came to cover news?

I dont think anyone is ready to answer this. But i got my answer for sure - City life only comes with those shiny lights - no real power, no real strength, no real responsibility. 

If you want to live in india - Digest below facts: 

1. Government does not work for you - they work for themselves  - they need to earn their share of money
2. Your tax money goes only in the pocket of “government servants”
3. None of the helpline departments will be given to you unless you have power, money and position. 
4. Being common man is the curse that you need to accept if you live in india. 
5. You are on your own. 
6. Be aware of the dreams city life shows you - it takes more than it gives you. 

I am not even motivated to write Jai Hind to end this article. 

• Darsh.