Mumbai's rains are back. Intermittent heavy rain all through Thursday coupled with a high tide soon after midnight meant that on Friday morning, Mumbai woke up once again to flooded roads and clogged railway lines, leaving thousands with no way to retrace their commute. The Central and Harbour lines are shut while at the last report, trains on the Western line were running an hour behind schedule. All municipal schools have been asked to stay closed and the BMC has asked the city to remain at home unless absolutely necessary.

The worst is still to come. A high tide of 4.6 metres is expected at around 2 pm on Friday and weather forecasters have predicted more downpours through the day. Expect a renewed crippling of public transport, new rivers on Mumbai's roads and even more being stranded.

Over the years, Mumbaikars have come to accept waterlogging, damage and death as normal for the city. After the devastating floods of 2005, caused by a combination of a freak cloudburst at high tide, paralysed the city for almost a week, there was some hope that it might finally look into its drainage. Instead, while the situation is nowhere near as bad as it was in 2005, floods are an annual occurence, to be borne with resignation, while poor development choices might exacerbate the situation.




As rains continued, people turned to social media for hyperlocal alerts.



 



Meanwhile, newcomers were perplexed...

... and attempted potentially unsound comparisons.

Mumbai being a city of opportunists, there were also plugs.

And as always, there were the jokers.