Imagine the predicament of 52 passengers of a stranded State Transport bus spending 24 hours without a morsel of food or a drop of drinking water and taking turns to sleep on the seats. Or think of over a dozen women and children crammed in a truck, going to Mumbai from Hyderabad, waiting for a brief respite from the downpour so that they would be able to step out and stretch their legs. They were stranded for nearly 28 hours.

There were many more in miserable condition. Thousands of vehicles had queued up from Khandala to Dehu Road. And almost each of the stranded vehicle was crammed with passengers.

``I've found myself trapped in many snarls on the highway during my 20-year long career as a taxi driver. But this time it was the worst,'' says Yashvant Kakade who was stranded for nearly 12 hours while returning to Pune after taking some passengers to Mumbai.

And there was this group of Pune youths accompanying their buddy Raju Shelar to the Sahar air port from where he was to take a flight for Gulf to join his new job. They were stranded near Kamshet for 18 hours. Shelar missed his flight and most probably the job too.

Yashvant Chavan left his native Shirala village for Mumbai along with his wife and two-month-old daughter around 7 p.m. on Thursday. Their bus was stranded at a secluded spot near Wadgaon Maval for nearly 25 hours. The passengers had to do it without any food. The baby cried throughout the night but did not get any milk. The passengers had to take turns to lay on the seats.

Sixty-three-year-old Gangu Saravate, who was also travelling in the same bus, suffers from arthritis. ``I've not stretched my legs ever since we left Shirala. My arthritis has worsened,'' she complained.

There were some good Samaritans who tried to help their co-passengers. Like their bus conductor who left his seat to provide a comfortable seat for Chavan's daughter or like Gangu herself who distributed the sweets she was carrying for her grandchildren among the hungry children travelling in the bus.

But there were also some of the fruit vendors who tried to take advantage of the situation and make money. ``A banana at Rs 7. If you can not afford it, just forget it!''