Monsoons in Mumbai is synonymous with ‘garam chai and pakode’ – if you are privileged enough to live in a house that will not crash down on you owing to the rain. As Cyclone Tauktae made landfall on the Gujarat coast, leaving 13 dead in its wake, the neighbouring state of Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, also witnessed the effects of the cyclone. Dramatic visuals posted on social media showed the Gateway of India flooding and a sewer in Mumbai overflowing and disposing of the human-generated trash back onto the streets. But not everybody seems to have kept in mind the intensity of the destruction, even in their own city.
TV Actress, Deepika Singh Goyal, known for her role in ‘Diya Aur Baati Hum‘ posted what can only be considered an oblivious to the world, tone-deaf photoshoot amid broken trees in Mumbai. Yep, she posed in trees which were knocked down by Cyclone TaukTae.
Captioning the photoshoot, she wrote, “You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself, embrace the nature and it’s gloomy moods because the storm will pass.” She then added a second post, a video, captioning it, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s learning to dance in the rain.”
It didn’t end there. Her third post, said “into the woods. #havingfun #rains #love”
A tag on the first photo explains why she thought her photoshoot with an uprooted tree was justified. “Ps: This tree fell right outside my house nobody got hurt, but while putting it away from my door, Rohit and I managed to take few pictures to remember the #cyclonetauktae!”
Her post was not well received – with several people calling her out in the comments of her photos on the tone-deafness of the situation where a cyclone had caused destruction.
Screenshots of her photoshoot also made their way to Twitter, where she was on the receiving end of flak too.
While rains in Mumbai may inspire ‘petrichor’ and social media has visuals from high-rises taking photos of the sky, it is a luxury only for the privileged. If you live in informal housing or the slum areas of Mumbai, rains are not romanticized: They’re a sign of ruin: Your roof may fall down on you, or get blown away. Dirty water may seep into your house, bringing with it water-borne diseases. This time around during monsoons, a scene from the South Korean movie which swept the Oscars last year, Parasite, has been used to depict the difference between privilege and lack of it during monsoons in Mumbai.
The cyclone will enter Rajasthan by late Tuesday night, and will weaken by May 20, said Radhey Shyam Sharma, regional director of the meteorological department. The seven districts affected by the storm are Jalore, Sirohi, Udaipur, Pali, Dungarpur, Chittorgarh, and Rajsamand in the southern part of the state.
