"When I held her in my arms, I forgot about the long distance I had just covered," said the 32-year-old marathon runner from Sangli, who, undeterred by floods, ran about 20 km to meet his newborn daughter. On the morning of August 12, Sagar Patil was at Ulwe in Navi Mumbai, where he works as a senior data analyst with Morningstar India, when he received a phone call from his home at Islampur village, Sangli. His wife had delivered a baby girl.

Elated, he decided to find a way to reach Islampur to meet his newborn daughter. The only hurdle in his journey was the flood in Sangli. However, he still packed his bag, left his Ulwe home at 5 am and boarded a train, then took a bus and reached Pune. From Pune, he left for Karad and reached the city around 2.30 pm, and realised that the journey ahead was not going to be an easy one. There was no means of transport available for Sangli, but Patil had made up his mind and wasn't going to be deterred by the rain and flooding.