As Rains Pound Mumbai, Memes Flood Social Media: Mother Nature Is 'Directing Her Own Yash Chopra Film’

Mumbai woke up to another wet morning on Tuesday, Aug. 19. The downpour left several localities submerged, disrupted rail traffic and forced nine flights to abort landing. Schools and colleges were also ordered shut by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Within three days, Mumbai has already exceeded its average monthly rainfall.

While much of the city struggled with waterlogging, Mumbaikars have turned to humour to cope with the helplessness and hardships.

Social media platforms are filled with memes, parody videos and witty observations about the relentless rain.

On X (formerly Twitter), a user wrote, “It’s pouring in Mumbai. Feels like Mother Nature is directing her own Yash Chopra film. Trains are late, roads are flooded, and somewhere a heart is humming ‘Rimjhim gire saawan.’ Red alert issued. Stay safe, stay filmy.”

Another social media user joked about the weather department’s accuracy. “For the first time in living memory, the weather department’s red alert turned out to be correct. In short, history has been made. The weather department predicted rain, and rain came. Somewhere in the distance, climate laughed.”

Drawing on cinema again, another user referenced the Korean film Parasite. “Whenever Mumbai rains take over the timeline, this Parasite scene hits different. One person’s ‘fresh skies, no pollution’ is another person’s ‘home underwater, life turned upside down.’ Rains don’t fall equally on everyone.”

One clip showed a car going underwater only to emerge after being transformed into a submarine. The post was captioned, “New service launched in Mumbai.”

A photo shows a man soaked to the bone wading through chest-deep floodwater, clutching his umbrella. The caption reads, “Accha hua ghar se chhata lekar nikla tha, warna bheeng jaata.” (Good thing I carried my umbrella, or else I would’ve been drenched.)

Some compared the scenes to other cities altogether. “Travelled 2+ hrs for internals…Gave exam in Venice,” one student wrote, sharing a couple of images of their journey.

The meme fest wasn’t confined to X. On Instagram, a video of a man paddling an inflatable boat through a flooded street with a cricket bat was captioned, “Corporate employees in Mumbai going to work.”

For a city used to heavy rains, humour has once again proved to be a coping mechanism, with residents turning waterlogged chaos into online creativity.