The flash floods in Himachal Pradesh caused fear among everyone in the state and musician Samar Puri, who is part of the band Sanam, was stuck in Manali with his wife.

“My wife Amisha and I had travelled to Himachal (on July 6) for a wedding. It was raining heavily in Manali, and when we woke up the next morning, we saw the water level of river in front of our hotel rise in a matter of minutes. We saw trees falling, cars getting sucked into the river, shops and houses getting destroyed and washed away by the flash floods. We just wanted to get back home. At every point, we knew there was a possibility for anything to happen to us,” recalls Puri, who was supposed to return to Mumbai a day after the floods hit the state.

Not being able to contact their kin left them stressed. “We couldn’t get in touch with anyone. The hotel staff advised us to not leave the property until things got better. But by the looks of things around us, no place looked safe enough. One morning, I woke up early, went out to check if we could leave the hotel. We wanted to reach a higher ground, away from the river, so we started our climb up. We walked up the mountain for hours and finally reached a road where we got one car to take us to Kullu,” he shares.

They were airlifted and dropped in Kolkata, where he joined his band for a performance on July 15. “I figured it was sensible to keep my phone off to save on battery in case I got a chance to use it. When I finally got network, I immediately called my family and bandmates to let them know that we were alive and safe. My brother, Sanam Puri, and bandmates immediately started looking for options to get us airlifted. When we landed in Kolkata, I was disoriented. But when I got on stage, the adrenaline kicked in and we ended up having an incredible show,” he ends.