Leaking roofs, bamboo props for support, erratic power supply, and crumbling structures — that is what tenants of Mumbai’s century-old pagadi houses are left grappling with today. For them, the monsoon is not just about waterlogged streets and delayed trains, but a fight for survival inside homes that threaten to collapse with every heavy spell of rain.

Rainwater dripping down the walls of a pagadi house

With incessant downpour since August 14, these houses — once the pride of old Mumbai’s unique rental system — have turned into traps of fear and misery. “We kept draining out water the entire night. It gushed inside our house, everything got wet, and we didn’t even have a mattress to lie on. Our neighbours had to give us tea and breakfast the next morning,” said a resident of Wakdi Chawl in Parel.