July 26. A date Mumbai will never forget.
Until that afternoon, most Mumbaikars believed floods were something that affected rural India alone.
Until that afternoon, the flooding of houses and a feeling of being cut off from the rest of the country was something only the states of Bihar, Assam or Orissa experienced.
July 26 changed that perception forever.
The city that was supposedly unstoppable was, suddenly, brought to its knees for four days! Houses in posh suburbs like Bandra and Santacruz were swamped, in knee-deep water.
The city was cut off, many lost their lives, and there was a massive loss of property.
A month has passed. Rediff.com photographer Jewella C Miranda compares what she shot then, to the situation now.
In the photograph: A ground-floor flat at a middle-class residential complex in Borivali, near the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which was covered by 5-6 feet water. The furniture was washed away, the floor covered with sludge. Today, though the sludge has been cleaned, the walls are still damp. The house is still a mess.