Rain horror for Farah Khan, in Midday

Farah Khan spent five hours on the terrace of her 11-floor building, trying to empty a water tank in the pouring rain; when called, the fire brigade refused to help!

Saturday’s heavy downpour proved to be a nightmare for director Farah Khan and husband Shirish Kunder. A water tank on the terrace of their 11th floor apartment at Embassy Towers (Seven Bungalows) filled to the brim with rainwater and threatened to collapse. When the director called the fire brigade for help, they flatly refused to help!Water woesSays Farah, “My apartment extends over the 10th and 11th floor of the building, which also has a public terrace with an empty tank. It’s as big as a swimming pool, about 4 ft by 12 ft. The pipe letting out water from the tank was clogged with debris since the building had undergone construction work, and during Saturday’s rains the entire tank filled up with water. I panicked as I thought the tank filled with tons of water would cave into my bedroom below. There was also a fear that the electricity cables would touch the pipes, resulting in a short circuit or fire.”The next few hours proved to be some of the most exhausting of Farah’s life. “For nearly five hours, five families from my building got soaking in the rain trying to find the clogged pipe. When we failed to find it, we used buckets to bail out the water in the tank. During the entire process, we kept calling the fire department to get a drainage pump attached to their hose and release the water pressure,” she says.
No help at handAccording to Farah and her neighbour Dr Ravi Doctor, nobody picked up the phone at the Fire station for two hours. Says Dr Ravi, “Forget the fire brigade, we didn’t get any response from the disaster management cell of the BMC (101) either. They kept saying help is on the way but nobody came. Finally, we saw a police van and asked the cops for help. They too informed the control room from their walkie-talkie sets, but it was of no use. At one point, the fire department officials snarled at the cops, saying, ‘Why are you calling us so many times?’ and disconnected the line! However, the cops were very helpful. They even helped us drain out the water.”Farah adds that she even called Zayed Khan’s home as he has a swimming pool, and asked his mother Zarine for their drainage pump. “She sent it over but we couldn’t use the pump as it required a different electrical connection. Finally, my poor architect-designer waded in all the way from Mahim, located the pipe and drained the water onto my balcony!” They had to break up parts of her 10th floor terrace balcony and now she has to bear the brunt of repairing it. “We pay so much tax and get nothing in return. The BMC just doesn’t care. The terrace looked like a scene straight out of a Priyadarshan film, with more and more people joining us to throw the water out.”Laments Dr Ravi, “If they ignore a celebrity like Farah Khan, where will the common man go?”
Courtesy: Midday