Real Life Miracles

As KALA RAMESH and her family surrendered to God unconditionally in the face of unexpected torrential rains that crippled Chennai in December 2015, real life miracles played out in their lives

A proverb is a short, well-known pithy saying, stating a general truth or piece of advice. We all hear of many proverbs, but few are lucky enough to experience the truth of proverbs in real life. I was lucky to see two proverbs play out in my life. The first was “Faith can move mountains” and the second, “Expect the unexpected.” However, these two proverbs did not play out on their own, but rather in conjunction with my belief that one should “Surrender unconditionally to God.”

In the year 2015, in the month of June, my daughter got engaged. We had set the wedding date in December the same year. A month before her engagement, my mother-in-law had been diagnosed with cancer. So we needed time to devote to her immediate medical needs and also give the young ones at least a few months of courtship.

The wedding plans went smoothly and my mother-in-law was also stable. We live in Chennai and we have moderate monsoon rains from September to mid-November.  But that year we experienced heavy rains in October. We were thanking our stars for the rain in the hope that because of the plentiful rains, we would be spared of water scarcity for a couple of years. All through November that year it was raining heavily. It used to rain for a few hours, then stop and the city would swing back to normalcy.

On December 1, 2015, my son left for his office 50 km away from home at 6 in the morning. Suddenly, the skies opened up wide and there was a torrential downpour of a magnitude never experienced before. Around noon my son called to say that he was leaving for home, as his office had closed down early, owing to the unprecedented onslaught of rains.

Meanwhile, the rains had become heavier and the city was flooded due to the opening up of lakes, which were on the verge of overflowing. My son got stranded due to flooding just a few km from his office. Power had broken down in the city. He decided to go to his aunt’s house close to where he was stranded.

He got into an auto but when he was a mere 200 metres from his aunt’s home, the auto stopped as it got waterlogged. We had become very desperate, not being able to reach him. He somehow got shelter in a kiosk and called to inform us, and then his mobile phone got switched off.

The city came to a standstill. There was fear and panic in the air. We were hearing stories of how snakes were being washed out from their underground homes and appearing in the swirling waters and cars were drowning in the floods. We called out for help on Facebook and other sources, but the reply we got was that no search operation could be done in the dark and we would have to wait till the morning.

The whole night we prayed and chanted. Many friends offered to help, but we knew nobody could venture into the dangerous waters. At 5.30 in the morning, my son made a brief call that he was safe and within 30 minutes he was at his aunt’s place.

Now in their home, the groom’s family was marooned. The place where the marriage was to take place was also flooded. There is a belief here that to stop incessant, threatening rains, if we throw up a coconut with husk and shell, while praying to God, then the rains stop. Luckily, I had one such coconut and I prayed standing in the rain and threw up the coconut, with the rains splashing on my face, washing my tears away.

To my great surprise and delight, slowly the rains eased, and the pumping of water from the lakes stopped. On the morning of December 4, the street was without water. Soon power was restored and we swung back into action. But there was still no word from the groom’s family.

We surrendered to God, as I stood in my puja room, praying fervently. We got a call that the groom’s family had crossed the danger zones in the city and were on the way to the wedding hall.

After having settled the groom’s people comfortably, we received a call from the wedding caterers that everything was in place. We heaved a sigh of relief.

Surprisingly, many halls in the same area where my daughter’s wedding was held were closed. This hall alone was functioning with all facilities.

Indeed, the two proverbs “Faith can move mountains”, “Expect the unexpected”, and more importantly, my belief  “Surrender unconditionally to God” had played out. Two days of wedding celebrations went off very well. When my daughter left for her married home, the next day after the wedding, the sun was shining brightly. 

It was all our faith in the Supreme Power that he will not let us down, which made us go about our wedding plans, despite the fact the city was struck by a major deluge. The monsoons in Chennai end in the second week of November, but that year they continued well into December, teaching us the lesson to expect the unexpected; and never to take things for granted.  

We can never thank God enough for being with us  when we are in danger. God might impose hardships, but He never lets us down. God has his own plans, which are always for the good of us human beings. What we experienced is two real life miracles. Miracle one:  my son returning to safety despite being lost in the heavy rains. Miracle two: my daughter’s wedding happening as scheduled in torrential rains, while other weddings in the area were stalled. Thank you, God.

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Kala Ramesh has worked with children who have learning difficulties; she also counsels parents on handling challenges faced by such children. Kala has great interest in Carnatic music and likes reading. She is a homemaker and lives in Chennai.