Bengaluru lake flood: Wedding plans washed out overnight

BENGALURU: Puttaswami K was distraught on Thursday mornings. A month ahead of one of the biggest days of his life, his son’s wedding, his house in Bhavani Layout was flooded by water from Doddabidarakallu Lake.
“The wedding invitations and new clothes are ruined,” Puttaswami said, tears rolling down his face. “My wife told me that water gushed into our house in the middle of the night and damaged most of our possessions.It has wrecked all our plans for the wedding of my younger son, Rahul.”
Puttaswami K and his older son were away overnight — they had gone to distribute wedding invitations to relatives — and were shocked when they returned home in the morning.
“We simply broke down,” Puttaswami said.
Puttaswami’s wife Saakamma was sleeping at home when she heard a neighbor scream to her, telling her to get out of the house.
“It was around 11.30pm when my neighbor alerted me,” she said. “I found that water had entered the house and almost reached the level of my bed.”
“I have been never been so scared my life,” Saakamma said. “To make matters worse my mobile phone fell into the water and the main door was jammed.”
She stood on a chair near the window and screamed for help. Neighbours kicked open the door from outside and carried her to the terrace.
“Our son’s wedding’s invitation cards and all the clothes that we had purchased for our son’s wedding, including the bride’s saree, have been damaged,” Saakamma said.
Puttaswami said the fridge, beds, sofa, and television set had all been destroyed. “We will probably have to spend more than `3 lakh to fix the house” he said.
(Some names changed on request)