My new home has several oddities. There is this 1 man in particular, who I find very annoying. He seems to use the stairs a lot, and every time he does, the whole world knows it, simply because his noisy Hawaii chappals go ‘thap, thap, thap, thap” and disturb the quiet tranquil of our abode!!!
But number 1 on the list is the odd timing of water supply. Bore well water is supplied every alternate day at any time the apartment owner, Mr. Narasimhan, finds convenient. So if I’m out on work or shopping during that time, I’ve missed my quota of 2 days water supply and will have to endure the hardship of carrying water from the sump downstairs all the way up those unnecessarily steep steps to my apartment – this torture is supposed to last the months of summer only.
Drinking water supply is worse still, thanks to the weird Hyderabad Municipality! It’s supplied regularly every alternate day – or should I say night – because that’s when it comes, anytime after 12:00 p.m.!!!
How in the world people figure out when it’s water time, I don’t know! One day I requested my neighbors who lived downstairs to let me know when water came and they did. But not wanting to inconvenience them, I decided to work out an alternative plan.
But as it happened, I ended up surviving an entire week on 1 can of drinking water and was left with very little other water too, because but Mr. Narasimhan chose to open the tank only during the 4 hours I was away from home on Sunday. (Not funny!)
So last night was drinking water night, and determined to figure out when water came for myself, I barely slept a wink. At every little creak or bang I would get up and listen, hoping to hear some telling sounds. “God, please wake me up when drinking water comes!” For a long while nothing of worth seemed to be happening and I had almost convinced myself to just go to sleep and buy water the next day. And then at 3:30 a.m. I heard something… the familiar “thap, thap, thap, thap…” down the steps. Groan!!! Not at this hour!!! A few minutes passed and there was the ‘thap, thap, thap, thap” again… this time up the stairs. Realization dawned on me. It was water time! And this was the sign! Aah! The noise of those Hawaii chappals sounded like music in my ear!
Up I got and rushed down, quickly filling up my cans and storing away all the water I could. That done, I finally heaved a satisfied sigh and crashed on my bed. Phew! What a relief! Albeit late (or early???), I could now sleep sound the last few watches of the night, secure in the knowledge that I had enough drinking water to last me the week. “Thank you God, for giving me ample drinking water – and yes, bless those noisy Hawaii chappals!” J
The Well Watered Tree 