The majority of people that live in my apartment are extremely silly. Here’s why:
Our apartment has been having water problems in the past couple of months. We haven’t been getting water in our taps at all because there’s no water from the bore well. Instead, if we want to survive, we have to wake up at around 3:00 a.m. every alternate day, wait for the municipal water supply and store sufficient water for 2 days in our respective apartments. After everyone has filled all they can fill, if there is any remaining water in the sump, they pump it up to the overhead tank. But only one pipe downstairs has its valve open. So anyone who wants to fill extra water during the day has to fill what water comes out of this pipe. (Hope you’re still with me…)
But what happens more often than not is that in spite of having filled pot loads all night long, the same people line up early in the morning in front of the pipe with all the pots, buckets and cans they can find (where they find so many or have the place to store them, and what they do with the water they had filled just a few hours before I don’t know!) – so much so that those who come even a little later never get any water at all. In short, every neighbor of mine is nothing but pure selfish.
I struggled the past 2 months, lost the little weight I had put on, and have finally grown sick and tired of this ordeal – literally. I was more than grateful for the rains when they began, but that didn’t change my situation.
Finally I called the care taker and asked him why he wasn’t supplying water in our houses despite the rain, and this is what he had to say, “Actually, there is no water problem any more, but the others still want to go downstairs and fill water from the pipe. So when they do that, water from the overhead tank goes directly to the pipe and doesn’t come to the houses.”
!!! I was both dumbfounded and frustrated beyond words! I could not understand this senselessness that had overcome my neighbors! They would much rather climb up and down 2-3 flights of stairs, carrying heavy pots and cans of water some 10 times a day, and waste all their time and energy filling water from the pipe downstairs than simply having the water come right into their homes!
Hullo… Am I the only one that thinks this is stupidity?!?!? Why is it so hard for them to simply fill water from their own taps??? That way everyone will have enough and no one has to struggle to do it. It’s only fair! What’s so appealing about filling water from the pipe downstairs anyway??? Does it somehow give them the sense that they have filled more? Or do they simply enjoy the physical exercise it gives them? Or what?!?!? How thoughtless and selfish could one possibly get? Neighbors, fellow-humans, apartment-mates, why can’t you fill water from your own tap???
When I thought about this, I was strangely reminded of a verse from the Bible… “Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.” – Proverbs 5:15. The context? Being faithful to your spouse and not being tempted into adultery. One mmight wonder, what’s the connection, but I’m not going to elaborate on that. I’ll leave it for those who read this to study the passage themselves and ponder over it (it’s Proverbs 5:15-23). All I have to say is this: Don’t be selfish and thoughtless like my neighbors. Please fill water from your own tap!
The Well Watered Tree 