Whenever Gmail is down, you can access your mails in your gmail account via igoogle interface.
Here is how you can access your gmail mails with igoogle web interface
1. Open igoogle.com
2. Click the link on the right top corner of the page saying Add Stuff
3. Search gmail and add the official gmail gadget to igoogle home page and that’s it done. Now you will see and can read gmail mails on igoogle homepage ( as shown in the snapshots below )
and a opened mail in igoogle
Note: Some times igoogle may also give error while trying to read mails in your gmail account, but keep trying as it will get loaded on repeated trying. I hope this tip may help some people out there who need immediate access to mails in their gmail account.