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Mumbai founder recalls spending sleepless monsoon nights in flooded chawl: 'Beautiful rain was not for people like me'
The entrepreneur shared how heavy rainfall would routinely flood his family's home during Mumbai's monsoon season.
A Mumbai-based entrepreneur has recalled spending countless monsoon nights bailing rainwater out of his chawl home, saying he "hated rains" for 7 years because flooding regularly left his family unable to sleep.
Taking to LinkedIn, Shubham Gune, founder and CEO of advertising and marketing agency Hinglish, shared how heavy rainfall would routinely flood his family's home during Mumbai's monsoon season. "I've lived in chawls in Bombay where rainwater would come inside the house. If it rained hard at night, nobody could even dream of sleeping," he wrote.
Gune recalled that the water would first enter through the window, then seep under the door before slowly spreading across the floor. "We would lift the mattress, the clothes, the books, the shoes onto a small table and almirah's top shelf, and then start emptying the house with buckets, fill and throw, fill and throw, till the rain slowed down or the sun came up," he wrote.
He also reflected on how Mumbai's monsoon is often romanticised in films and popular culture. "Mumbai loves to make rain look beautiful. The cutting chai, Marine Drive, wet windows, old film songs. For years, that beautiful rain was not for people like me," he said.
But Gune said that 10 years later, the same rain feels different. "Ten years in this city, and today the same rain falls on a home it cannot enter. The floor stays dry, the night sleep isn't disrupted, and I stand at my window watching the rain slide down the glass, with a thank you in my heart that only the boy who once threw water out of his own house at 2 am would understand," he wrote.
Reflecting on his journey, he added, "The same rain falls differently on different roofs. I have lived under both."
He concluded the post by expressing gratitude for how life had changed. "So when it rains now, I still fold my hands. Only the prayer has changed. Thank you God and all my well wishers for turning my life around. I am eternally grateful," he wrote.
Social media reactions
The post resonated with many LinkedIn users, who shared similar memories of growing up in flood-prone homes.
One user wrote, "This is such a powerful way of understanding what prosperity actually changes, Shubham. We often measure progress by what a person acquires... But sometimes the deeper change is in what a person no longer has to fear. The rain didn't change. Your relationship with it did. Perhaps that is one of the most meaningful forms of progress: when something that once kept you awake at night becomes something you can finally stand by the window and enjoy."
"Youve come a long way! Reminds of my time in Ranchi and how every time it rained - the world outside looked beautiful and green and everything 'life' while the following days went using pocha and balti to empty the water that flooded our home even making the furniture float," commented another.
"That really touched me, man. I felt every line. It brought back a childhood memory I had completely forgotten. If it rained overnight and continued through the day, we'd already know what was coming. We'd get the buckets ready because sooner or later we'd be throwing water out of the house. I've hated the rains for the longest time, and if I'm being honest, a part of me still does. But I'm grateful for the way life has turned out," wrote a third user.
"Beautifully articulated! Mumbai is not just a city, it's a teacher that imparts life's greatest lessons in resilience, gratitude, and hope. The same rain may fall on every roof, but it reveals a different story in every life," said one user.
