Some serious shit

 We are undertaking some house construction work. Because of it the entire year was on standby for us since the builders were not committing on a date. Finally it started on the last week of October.

There was much glee in our family when they put the scaffoldings up and started work. We noticed the day's progress with the curiosity of kids. I went to pick the girls up from school in the evening wondering how they would respond to the changes. We parked near our house and I saw some muddy water coming down our driveway. I though the builders had cleaned something with cement and left the water on. We carefully came in and then once we were near the back yard of our house, we saw the manhole was bursting open. We immediately called the builders. They said it was nothing to do with the work they had done during the day but anyways came to inspect. 

We learnt a lot about the way the sewerage system works that day! It so happens that all the toilets across the street join up and flush down through common pipes. Our house happens to be on the top of a hill. There seemed to be some sort of blockage which was causing the water to hold up. And somehow it had chosen our manhole to burst open. So all the fecal matter that was pent up on the drainage was bursting out from the manhole in our backyard. Also any time anyone flushed, the drains were being impacted and and there was an  outburst of poo and everything people were flushing. It was going through like rivers around the house and flowing onto the street forming poo ponds where ever it could find the crevices. 

The stench was horrible especially once we realised that it was poo. We needed to call the central company that deals with such issues. We were constantly on their customer service. Our case was registered but we were informed that it could take upto 3 days for it to get sorted. K and I were quite nervous about the whole scenario. We initially refrained from using the toilets etc. But then we were advised that it would be OK. We somehow manage to go through the river of poo and drop the kids at school the next day. We had a lot of options thank God like going to my sisters house or taking a room in a hotel. But we decided it would be OK to just live it out. 

K and I wore some water proof boots and plastic bags in our hands and approached the manhole. Since the lid of the manhole was being pushed open everytime anyone was flushing the sewerage was coming out every single time. We decided to brave it, make it to the middle of the pool of poo, close the lid and put something heavy on it. First we had to clean the area the best we could so that we could put our four feet. The sludge of shit was dangerous to stand on. After that we dragged the lid and closed the manhole. Last year in one of the storms a portion of our wall had broken. We had kept all the heavy slabs from the broken wall. We dragged 2 of them and put it on top of the lid of the manhole. That prevented any further flushes from pushing the lid open.

The next day was a super rainy one and we did not have much hope of the issue getting sorted. We rang up customer service again to highlight the severity of the issue. Thankfully we had some people come over around 9:28. I know the exact precise time because that is how keenly I was following the events 😅 They had the expression on the face of shit having actually hit the fan. They started investigating from the house  next to ours. There were people staring at what was happening. It was a proper scene! Then they came to our back yard and started their clean up..gawd the stench. They then went over to the manholes in the street and cleaned up and found a big mass of clog. People had been flushing wet wipes down the toilets which had caused such a massacre. 

K was supremely humbled the entire experience. He went and got boxes of biscuits for all of them. We had to get some new hose pipes and the weekend there was a round of super deep cleaning. 

The words that sum up beautifully what I want to write

This song is my all time favorite! One of the rare occassions where I prefer the movie version than Eric Segal's Man Woman and Child.

The lyrics loosely translate like this

I am not angry with you life, I am just surprised

Your innocent questions distress me

I never thought that to live, I would have to take care of sorrows

I never thought that everytime I smile, I would have to repay the favour of the smiling

Now everytime there is a smile on my lips, I feel as if there is a debt on my lips

Life, your sorrows have taught me new relationships

Sometimes I have got the respite of shade under scorching sun

If today the eyes well up, the tears will flow through

Tomorrow, maybe I will not even have the tears to shed

I had kept one tear, but am not sure where did I let it flow

(The translation is to the best of my auditory perception and Hindi knowledge. Any mistakes may please be pointed out :)  )

The doldrums do not seem to end, hoping God gives me strength and the patience to go through this. For.... this too shall pass :)

Mera time kuch kharab chal raha hai :(

Yesterday was a very long day for me. Yesterday I was pick pocketed. Yes - you guys heard it right, and I am bad at keeping suspense and revealing at the very end as to why yesterday was a very long day for me - I was robbed of my wallet. Of the zillion + 1 things I carry in my big as a rucksack purse, the small cute navy blue wallet was what was chosen by the disreputable thief. And with it went 800 odd rupees, one ICICI platinum card, one ICICI silver card and 2 debit cards :( Thats why I said, mera time kuch kharab chal raha hai :(

Now back to the basics, how did it happen. Well yesterday I chanced to get into a bus to commute to office. As per my habit I paid for the ticket and went ahead to read Love in the time of Cholera. When I alighted from the bus, my purse felt a teeeeeny weeeeny lighter and I checked - the wallet was MISSING! Now till then I gave no thought as to who, when, how - I ran to the nearest auto. The urgency in my tone was sufficient to convey to the auto driver who knew no other language but Tamil to go ahead and chase the bus. He could have given any Hrithik Roshan a run for his money by the Dhoom ishtyle in which he drove the auto rickshaw. We reached the bus in the next to next stop and when I got in and checked, there was no purse to be found :( First I thought, maybe I was careless and had dropped the purse and the driver or conductor took it up. Crestfallen, I asked the auto rickshaw driver to drive me home, promising him to pay once we got home. On the way back itself, zip zap I got 2 messages of transactions worth Rs. 2840.50 and Rs. 6293.00(within a span of 15 mins of loosing my wallet). Then I was certain, that none of the bus operators had picked the wallet, cos they would be still on the route. It must have been someone who took it deliberately - and I had quite a few people who chanced to sit beside me and there could have been any number of opportunities for someone to pick pocket :(

I must commend the auto rickshaw driver for the awesome help that he was. I later discovered that he was infact waiting for someone to come when I came and approached him. But rather than waiting for that person, he chose to drive and help me. His other passenger in fact still owed him money for the onward trip. I called up that person to speak to him, since the auto driver did not have balance in his cell phone. The other gentleman said that, he had picked the auto from near his home and would pay him surely in the evening.

Once home, I had to go through the long, unnerving and extremely irritating process of cancelling 2 credit cards and 2 debit cards. My God, how ICICI bank made me wait wait and wait phew! I have gotten allergic to the theme tune of the bank grrrrrrr.... It took from 1220 to 1445 to get the 4 things blocked. Then since there had already been some transactions on my credit card, I had to file an FIR in the nearest police station and fax the same to the Fraudulent Department of the bank. When anything has to go wrong it will most definitely go wrong. Today being election day in the state, most police men were on election duty and the rest present were munching mutton biriyani clad in white vests ( believe me thats what they were doing ) When I saw the sight I thought I wonder if anything will work out today :( But I think the writer recognised my face ( Yes I had come to the same police station 2 months back to inform about the loss of my cell phone, and he obliged to take the complaint. Thank God! As we were coming out, we heard of another case of a girl having left her credit card in the ATM machine itself! Someone withdrew 4K cash and used the card to shop for 15K odd! She had left the debit card in her office ATM machine, means someone well educated was into such abhorable task. Maybe there should be more plastic money :(

FIR logdged, we came back home. I was dead tired not only with all the scurrying around but also because of a reprimands I got from K. He was hyper, tensed and very very anxious. And my dad being his replica, I had warned my sis not to tell him. When I reached home from the police station at 1530 and was about to have lunch, my dad wanted to speak to me! I was nearly narrating Hanuman Chalisa. I was too happy to hear "It happens dont worry" rather than a face a rampage from him. He was so chilled out!! I was amazed! Maybe he thought I must have got a heady dosage from K and could do without a repeat telecast from him. Lunch done, I lied on the sofa and dozed off for an hour and my mil who was with me through and through (poor dear she ) too had a cat nap.

Evening was full of analysis of how, why, when, destiny, karma, God. We called up the store as well to find out what had been shopped and it seems the spurious person had bought vessels and a fan! My dad was like " Arre why did nt he/she buy and ac!" I was like "Dadddddd!! " My manager being the good samaritan that he is, offered any sort of help needed even monetary :) When I informed my onsite counterparts, I was touched to see their empathy and concern. One of them retorted, the fiend should be made to do allllllllll the documentations of our projects, not once not twice but thrice and should even be made to answer some questionnaires :)

Frankly speaking, I was having a very ominous feeling since the morning. One thing or the other was going wrong. I had a strong sense something very wrong was going to happen. So when the theft happened, I was relieved in fact, that okay, if this is what had to go wrong, its fine. Whatever happens happens only for the good....