rohithbrtimesgroupcom bangalore i feel i have got a second life its the first thing h amrithlal tells you and then he adds i also realized there is only face of humanity sitting in his textile shop in majestic area the 58yearold recalls how his annual visit to vaishnodevi shrine in jammu with a group of 10 friends ended in a watery nightmare among the first batch of tourists from bangalore to return from floodravaged jammu kashmir on tuesday amrithlal says he also learnt some valuable life lessons like surviving on a bottle of water with his 10 friends or sharing space with some 300 people in a muslim community hall last thursday september 4 when the textile merchant and his friends reached the temple town of katra from jammu about 45km away things didnt seem so bad after they returned to the foothills the next day after their trek to the shrine the situation had changed it was pouring on september 5 the local administration told us to return to jammu as there were landslides due to heavy rains we returned to jammu but learnt that all routes to the airport had been flooded and no vehicle would take us two bridges were also damaged carrying the luggage we returned to the hotel it was a long trek amid muddy waters he recalls they finally reached jammu airport on september 7and took a flight to srinagar we had to pay rs 3000 more for it in srinagar things got worse we couldnt get a flight out of srinagar then we made the mistake of entering the flooded city there were no hotel rooms and we got shelter in a muslim community hall soon it was packed with over 300 tourists we spent two unforgettable days our team shared biscuits with others and 10 of us survived on a bottle of drinking water for a whole day it was like a mini india with tourists from andhra pradesh maharashtra new delhi and other states he added as they were in wet clothes some of his friends caught fever but there was no medical facility nor food all we managed to get was a kilo of apples we survived on that till we reached the airport on monday evening he added they took a flight to amritsar then to mumbai and finally to bangalore amrithlals son sunil told toi he was happy that his father was back safe and sound when i spoke to him on monday he was not in a position to speak much due to dehydration he added amrithlal has just one worry they lost contact with one team member in srinagar and hope he returns soon