Prologue
Dont know where to start on this one, as we have had an event less couple of weeks, where everything settled to normalcy. My work schedule has gotton into a nice little routine, and Kids have found themselves friends in the complex and Diwali was a grand success, with kids and adults alike having a blast. Geetha's parents and Sister/BIL were also in town and that made it even more memorable as I had the opportunity to meet Sri Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma Garu because of Madhavi's acqauintance with him. Perks of moving to India, I would say.
If it aint broke - you are not working hard enough
Anything can be repaired in India, including broken iPhones. I finally got someone to fix my broken iPhone screen and gave that to Geetha (Not so romantic, I agree, but she didn't want me to spend more on her phone) during Dasara. She was really enjoying it, and even had an exchange offer from her BIL with a very good Nokia model. One thing of note is that because of the small number of iPhones, the popular e-commerce and e-mall apps are not available on iPhones in India. There are some really great apps like ngPay etc which will let you purchase anything from rail/movie/bus tickets, banking/commerce apps, but they are limited to other smart and not so smart phones. This is a clear case of Discrimination against iPhones and I want to propose to the Congress that they should create a special reservation category for us "e-commerce app Deprived iPhone Users". That's a nice little de-tour, but lets get back to the main topic, shall we?
Geetha's mother left for Kasi along with my parents and I have decided to do Nattalu (fasting everyday for the entire month of Karthika masam) and really getting into it. It had been a week or so into the month of Karthika Masam. My routine is to perform the Puja in the morning and leave for work, come back in the evening, take shower and do puja in the evening and then have my meal of the day. I do not know if it is the fasting or Geetha has gotten even better at cooking, but every meal was so sumptuous that I used to over-eat everyday, and follow that up by a solid sleep till the morning.
Wake up call - sort of
One of those days, Geetha's dad came upstairs around 3 AM in the morning, complaining that the first floor got flooded. I was not sure if I was having a nightmare or it is really happening. Then again, my doubts have been washed off as I walked downstairs along with Geetha to see that the entire ground floor (kitche, hall, bedroom, dining room) is flooded with water. Not much, but about less than an inch of water in the whole house. We saw water dropping of the ceiling in the Kitchen and my throat went dry (amidst all the water around). We soon noticed a jet of water splashing in the sink and my first thought is that there is a broken pipeline somewhere.
So I picked up the phone and was calling the building maintenance. I was talking to them, about the leak and asking them to come over as this comes close to the definition of Emergency (at least in my dictionary) and Geetha asked me to cut the call and come take a look. She discovered the source, and it is not a broken line, and I had to cut call with the maintenance saying "Never mind.." and turned my attention to Geetha.
At this point, Her father is a little confused, perturbed and worried to say the least. Dont' know if it is the way we are, or we got toughened by the events that culminated to date, neither Geetha nor I did flinch and behaved as if it were a regular event during the course of the day. It did not matter that, it was in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning, or that there is water all over the house.
Where the rubber meets the road
The problem turned out to be a water inlet for our Water filter in the kitchen. Somehow, the inlet pipe came loose and water started gushing out (it is only a 5 mm pipe, but the pressure is high, with us being in the ground floor) into the sink. There was a plate covering the sink drain, so the water was splashing upwards giving us the impression that there was a leak in the ceiling. Now we were in much worse shape, as the problem was not someone else's but just our doing.
For starters, we shut down the inlet valve to avoid further amplification of the problem, then surveyed the scenario a little. There is water all over and we have two outlets one in to the balcony (closer to the source) and another into the bathroom attached to the bedroom (farthest from the problem source). With water being everywhere, Geetha and I decided to roll-up our sleeves and get to work. Thank the Mighty british empire for endowing us with the greatest of strategies, we decided to "Divide and Conquer". Geetha chose the balcony outlet and I chose the bathroom outlet, and armed with sponge mops we started sweeping the water away.
Nick-nacks and few other toys and sundry kept aside, Geetha and I were busy brushing/pushing the water out of the house into the outlets. Water under the beds, under the sofas, and water in the kitchen. Slowly but steadily Getha made her way out of the kitchen in to the hall and I met her my clearing my way out of the bedroom. We are breathing a sigh of relief when we saw ......
Back to the point I mentioned earlier, regarding the iPhone, there it is, totally drenched in the water on the kitchen counter. It was so strategically placed on the kitchen counter that all the water splashing (instead of over-pouring) was landing on or near the phone and I read somewhere that electronic equipment and water do not mix well. There is truth to that piece of wisdom and now I could see the iPhone trying to do its best. One could clearly see the struggle its going through as the screen is flashing, flinching and even made attempts to make and answer phone calls. I attribute it to the brave soul that Steve jobs had designed, that despite its agonizingly pathetic physical condition, it was making feeble attempts to assure us that "all izz well". But we know in our heart of hearts that that poor soul is destined to be silenced and we would not see his bright face anymore.
We said a few little prayers for the brave soul and marched on the task in hand. Sure enough, in about an hour we were able to clear the house of the water, and we looked at each other, and heaved a sigh of relief. It was in the middle of the night, and we were sweating from the exhaustive physical work and said good night to Geetha's dad and went back to sleep as if nothing had happened.
A Matter of Faith
What befuddled us and put us in a state of sheer amazement was the fact that, there is not a drop of water in the Pooja Room which is adjacent to the Kitchen, hall and dining room. I dont claim it to be a divine intervention or a miracle, but a key aspect of our Vasthu system or Engineering which made that part of the house slightly inclined and the basi characteristic of water to follow the downward slope. If you see this an omen to renew your faith, I would be a happier person for it.
When we woke up the next morning, the only remnants of the last night's event were the wet floor mats and the dying iPhone. If not for these hard evidences, I would have chalked out this as a decent nightmare and slept if off..
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