A Mumbai professional’s account of travelling for an hour through heavy rain just to spend three minutes in her office has reignited discussions about the city’s recurring monsoon disruptions and the challenges faced by commuters every year.
The incident occurred after Mumbai was placed under a red alert due to intense rainfall, prompting widespread waterlogging and traffic disruptions. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) urged residents to step out only if necessary, while the Maharashtra government advised private companies to allow employees to work from home wherever feasible.
Marketing professional and IIM Raipur graduate Ihina D shared her experience on LinkedIn, explaining that although her employer had announced work from home because of the weather, she realised she had left her laptop at the office.
“Mumbai declared a red alert yesterday so WFH today. However, I had left my laptop in office,” she wrote.
Describing the unexpected commute, she added, “So while the rest of the city was cancelling plans and pulling out raincoats, I was in a car to office like a fool.” After reaching the workplace, she collected her laptop and returned immediately. “Picked up my laptop. Was back in the car in 3 minutes. One hour of travel. Three minutes in office,” she wrote.
Her post also reflected on Mumbai’s recurring struggle with the monsoon. “It’s not just rain. It’s a full annual shutdown that the entire city has collectively agreed to pretend isn’t coming,” she wrote, referring to the yearly cycle of flooding, traffic congestion and last-minute work-from-home announcements.
She further observed, “We know it’s coming in June. We know July will be worse. And yet somehow every year it still catches us off guard.”
Acknowledging that many workers do not have the flexibility to work remotely, Ihina concluded, “I have WFH today, I got lucky… But this reminded me that for millions of Mumbaikars, there’s no WFH option. They showed up anyway. In the rain. On the locals. On bikes. That’s not hustle culture. That’s just Mumbai.”
Source: News18
