Life returns to normal in Mumbai on Thursday. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, July 6: Rain-drenched Mumbai today got back to its feet with a vengeance.

Television channels still showed visuals of flooded streets and railway tracks, and the weatherman warned of more rain, but bright sunshine after five days of downpour lifted the spirits of the city that never sleeps.

Milk bottles and newspapers arrived on time at doorsteps. Trains and buses took travellers to their destinations. Resurfaced runways of the airport functioned. And though potholed, main roads were clear of water.

Mothers sent children to school, while students, anxious to get through with admissions, crowded city colleges. And Bollywood’s dreamers were back in business.

“The spirit of the city takes everything in its stride, even anger,” says Vijay Mahajan, chief executive officer of Bombay First, an NGO campaigning for the autonomy and development of Mumbai.

Mahajan was fuming on Tuesday when the watchman of his Borivli apartment told him his car was almost floating in the rainwater. He rolled up his pyjamas, waded through knee-deep water, and re-parked the car.

“The rains literally washed away the promises and claims made by the government that it is ready to deal with a deluge-like situation,” he says. “It’s crazy. We are not living in a primitive age.”

Mahajan says the problem is not the rain, but the “criminal neglect” of vital infrastructure and “absence” of governance.

Adman Prahlad Kakkar says Mumbaikars were never scared of the monsoon. “It was a time to get drenched on Marine Drive’s splashing waves, eat bhuttas and pakoras. It was incredibly romantic. After July 26, 2005, paranoia has replaced it.

He blames plastic clogging storm water drains, vanishing natural run-offs, proliferation of slums and the uncontrolled construction boom for the flooding.

Shayla Ninan, a stock analyst who travels daily from Borivli to her firm in south Mumbai, recalls the deluge last July when she and her husband were stuck in their offices while their nine-year-old daughter was alone at home.

“Now I look at the weather forecast before sending my daughter to school. We are still better off compared with the slum dwellers,” she says. “I support the demand for the municipal chief’s removal.”

Yesterday, after two days of persistent criticism, commissioner Johny Joseph, who had promised that Mumbai won’t sink during this monsoon, said: “I am not a superman. Only rain gods have to be blamed for the flooding, not the BMC.”