By the time most people opened their phones on Saturday, the Mandakini had already crossed a mark it had not touched in 23 years.

Ramghat and the areas around it went under, and a town everyone associates with calm suddenly needed rescuing.

The response did not wait. On CM Yogi Adityanath's directive, four NDRF teams, four SDRF teams and two PAC teams were deployed, with additional teams kept ready for the worst case.

The instruction was simple and correct, reach the stranded first.

That is the kind of clarity you want from a government that keeps saying life comes before everything else.