GURGAON: For parents, the most frightening part of Monday’s sudden spell of heavy rain was not the waterlogged roads or submerged cars outside their homes.It was knowing that their children were sitting inside school buses and vans, unable to move, while they themselves could not reach them.A series of messages exchanged among parents captured the anxiety as school transport got stuck at severely waterlogged stretches, particularly around Subhash Chowk.Some children were reportedly on their way home for hours, with one bus remaining stuck at the same spot for more than two hours.“Have the kids reached back home?” one anxious parent asked in the group.The replies offered little reassurance. Parents said several buses had reportedly broken down amid heavy waterlogging, further slowing the movement of school transport.Some children had been inside buses since around 12.30pm, with parents reporting that they remained stuck at the same location for hours. Others were stranded in vans on different routes.The anxiety grew as water levels rose and vehicles were seen getting submerged.“Subhash Chowk had been blocked by police because of waterlogging, leaving them unable to drive down to pick up their children,” said a parent.The disruption was not limited to Subhash Chowk.Heavy rain left several of Gurgaon’s key corridors and residential areas, including Golf Course Road, Sohna Road, South City-1, DLF Phase 3, Ardee City, Sector 45, Sector 52A, MG Road and roads around Club Palms, waterlogged, making it difficult for school transport and other commuters to move.Waterlogging was also reported around Sikanderpur, Rail Vihar and the Dwarka-Gurgaon route. On Golf Course Road, even the stretch outside DLF Magnolias was inundated, highlighting the scale of the disruption.For parents, the concern was not merely about a delayed journey.They were worried about whether the children were hungry, needed to use the washroom, were comfortable or had been exposed to rain and cold conditions.One child who reached home earlier was reportedly completely wet, prompting parents to worry about the condition of children who were still trapped in buses and vans.The suddenness of the rain added to the helplessness. “The weather had changed quickly, leaving school transport caught in deteriorating road conditions. With key stretches becoming impassable, even parents willing to go and bring their children home were unable to do so,” said another parent.For commuters, the waterlogging turned routine journeys into prolonged ordeals, with vehicles breaking down and traffic crawling through stagnant water. Residents said the recurring crisis was no longer an exceptional event but an annual feature of life in Gurgaon.The episode once again exposed the vulnerability of school transport during intense rain in Gurgaon.For children, a journey that normally takes a fraction of an hour turned into a prolonged wait inside a bus or van. For parents, every passing minute brought another question: Where is my child, and when will he or she finally get home?
