The Hindu Business Line : Kurla shopowners bear the brunt of floods

THE ghost of last Tuesday's deluge was still alive on Pipe Road at Kurla, one of the lowest-lying suburbs of the city. Three-fourths of the narrow street was in ankle-deep dirty water on Tuesday.Rotting garbage lay outside shops; a wet patch up to five feet from the ground on the walls, indicating the erstwhile level of floodwaters.

Lala Ram Sharma, a grocery store owner, fought for words. "I must have lost a truckload of goods," he said, while tapping the hard side of two sacks of wet maida that had dried into a plaster of Paris sculpture. Several sacks of sugar and grain got soaked and he had reported it to the authorities for removal. None came. Forced by neighbours who complained of the stench, Sharma disposed the stuff himself. "They certified it!" he said of the officials who stayed away.

Being in a communal hotspot, Sharma had insured his shop against riots and fire. He never thought of floods. As did Deepak Dhawan, who runs a stationary shop at the entrance to Pipe Road. His serenity contrasted his loss, up to 40 per cent of stocks.

"There was no sign of impending floods when I left for lunch. It was all so fast, there was nothing we could do to protect our stocks." Dhawan's shop gets waterlogged regularly during the rains and he keeps his shelves slightly raised from the ground level. But he had not planned for last week's deluge.

The area does not have a shopkeepers' association. "We are on our own. I doubt if any of us would turn to the Government for help to rebuild business," he said. If the folly of Dhawan and Sharma was that they never thought of floods, religious compulsion kept most of Pipe Road's Muslimowned shops away from insurance cover. "Our religion does not permit us to take insurance cover," said Ms Fatima, owner of Kohinoor Soaps. Much of her merchandise had gone under water. "Mehnat karega abhi (We will work hard now)," she quipped.

Across the road, Liberty Tea Stores had lost 70 kg of sugar and 20 kg of tea. At nearby Smart Tailors, Usman Ghani's calm face reminded one of Dhawan, even the latter's philosophical quip of life in Kurla, "a good Hindu is a good Muslim." Ghani was worried; he had lost customers' clothes to the floodwaters - now a mild version of the original demon-and the waters were still lapping at his doorstep. It was a worry shared by Venkatesh of Sai Baba Photo Studio, where cameras could be saved but not customers' photos.

Noor Alam who dealt in Unani medicines, was the only man prepared to think different. His assistants were discarding wet bottles and herb packets. Unlike some of the others, he was a mere three years into business at Kurla and the damage hurt.

"We take insurance cover for vehicles. So why not for business?" Some distance away a flourmill hummed to life.

Pipe Road had its priorities right. Golden Dairy's Mohammed Kalim was a lively person, telling the story with his whole being.

He had moved to Mumbai in 1952 from Jhansi.

"Every heavy rain brings some water to our restaurant but that day it rose so fast, we got worried. We sat on piled up furniture to wait for the waters to recede but that didn't happen. Finally, we moved through six feet of water to higher levels."

His kitchen survived; the loss being the day's food stock alone. But the little hotel's plywood seats were beginning to peel. This phenomenon was visible on a larger scale near the muck-ridden Mithi River, whose waters poured into Kurla and adjacent Kalina.

Several shops selling plywood border the road leading to the river.

"We have lost stocks worth nearly Rs 20 lakh," Akbar Ali of Lucky Plywoods said. Inside the shop, stacks of plywood from Assam and Haryana had peeled into separate layers, courtesy 8-10 feet of water.

In Monday's rains, a foot of water had again entered the shop, which also had no insurance. From Sharma to Dhawan and to Alam and Ghani, none wanted to leave Kurla.

"Did you know such a flood was coming?" Ali asked angrily, dismissing the prospect. "It is all in God's hands. He can save or kill you, doesn't matter where," Kalim said.

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