Water Woes

Disclaimer: The account is actually based on real life experiences. Names have been withheld on purpose to ensure there are no comebacks whatsoever.

I always thought I am entering the golden phase of my life, a ‘seenager‘, a term recently coined for people of my generation, who are teenagers at heart but are senior citizens by physical age. We are living life to the fullest with no responsibilities to tie us down, kids settled in their professions and plenty of time at hand with no dearth of resources. What more can one ask for, having toiled in our youth we have earned a decent bank balance which can finance our indulgences without having to constantly look over the shoulder. So I thought, but then, life has its share of surprises and in my case she derives a perverse pleasure in playing spoil sport.

It all started with the removal of the slum area right opposite our dwelling. These slums mushroomed over the years, where there was supposed to be an eighty feet wide road. These slums were the life of our colony, in our otherwise drab and dull life, they added colour and kept it vibrant. The late night rich baritone with the right bit of slurring throwing choicest expletives on everyone in general as though he was reciting the shlokas from the Vedas was our primary source of spirited discourse. The early morning fracas near the Municipal Tap  ended up usually in torn lips and bruises all over for the gladiators. We of course were blessed and were witness to these incredible WWF level takedowns in person. Over the years, the usual politicking ensured the shanties remained they were, although they were offered accommodation in flats in the vicinity which they dutifully took possession off. But these people are so selfless by nature that they immediately rented them out to other more deserving, while they continued to stay in the shanties right here itself, grateful to the  govt for providing them the means for the daily evening ‘quarter’ and some chakhna (snacks) to go with it.

 We had reconciled ourselves to our friendly neighbourhood as they provided us with the domestic helps too. Then one fine day, the municipal corporation armed with funds for smart city project did the unthinkable, actually uprooted them and we thought wow, ‘better late than never’! We presumed with the new road constructed, life would be a lot easier, real estate prices in our vicinity will go through the roof and we will draw huge satisfaction from the notional millionaires that we would soon be.  Alas we were not privy to the trials and tribulations which the civic staff had in store for us.

One day, the taps suddenly ran dry, we presumed it must be an outage somewhere in the vicinity and carried on with our stored water in the underground sumps so thoughtfully planned for such contingencies, but when this spell continued unabated for a couple of days, we assumed the worst, the Third World War must have been declared, as we had heard the next war will be on water. Here we thought Indus Water Treaty was held in abeyance, but it appeared as though Nimad Plains has blocked the Narmada Waters flowing in the pipes to the neighbouring states ( Red and Blue Land in our Exercises and War games) Indore town. But the TV anchors were still blabbering on with Sonam-Raja ‘honeymoon supari’ so obviously the world was still at peace though in pieces otherwise.

We decided to seek redressal and were informed that the water pipeline had to be relaid as it was passing through the alignment where the road was planned. So we trooped in to the authorities seeking an alternate source in the interim till they laid a fresh pipeline. The wheels of governance do not move by themselves, they require graft as lubrication. But since the wise neighbourhood comprised people in our very age group who thought otherwise, so we commenced our operation water supply restoration, so guess where the authorities sent us, to the road construction department and not to the water supply department for a clearance. Now going to the authorities is one thing, but getting them to act is something altogether different. That is a realisation which is akin to attaining nirvana, and requires penance in the form of daily morning evening calling them without any response emanating from their side. You know how you call out God in times of difficulty but He doesn’t seem to listen, so these babus too are Godlike in their manner. Then when you are in dire straits you trudge up to their offices, like you go to the temple hoping Gods would be pleased with your having taken the pains, but to no avail, a single visit is just not adequate, so you do that regularly, morning evening and finally they do decide to act as though they are acting on the complaint. But the act still remains an “act” and still we were without a drop of water.

Situation was getting precarious and desperate situations merit desperate measures, so levels were raised and the concerned Engineer was sounded about the plight of us senior citizens. He sounded concerned and immediately passed directions to his staff; finally there was some movement, so we thought and sure enough a team did visit the site, but after that again there was the same old water tanker dong the rounds, quenching our thirst. A friendly neighbor was kind enough to share his bore-well water with us , but ‘municipal water supply’ had done the  Houdini.

The team of senior citizens again marched towards the Engineer’s office, he again gave us a patient hearing and immediately called the concerned staff and enquired about the situation. The staff clarified that this part of the project was not with the road construction team, this was with the water supply team itself and the layout of pipeline was not explained clearly, hence it had to be disconnected lest it result in damage to the pipeline and wastage of precious resource, i.e water. The engineer of the project also raised his hands and we set out to look for the water supply services engineer in charge, who had apparently gone on urgent leave and was expected back in a couple of days. There was no one else there who could apparently address the issue in his absence. We were back to the tankers and bore-well, waiting for the engineer to return. He did finally return and we cornered him and threatened him with dire consequences, now that we had had enough. He was kind enough to let us vent our ire and asked the supervisor to provide an alternate temporary connection forthwith. The connection was provided and we were waiting for the elixir to flow out of the pipe which was left without any valve or tap, just the open pipe out on the roadside. Sure enough water supply resumed but we had to connect our own pipes to direct it to our water tanks. We couldn’t keep the pipe connected as the road under construction also had some traffic which would simply crush the pipes and carry on. So we had to wait, till the first droplets emerged and then rush with the pipe, attach it there and in the bargain get drenched as this operation was being executed when water supply was in full force. While we were grateful to the Municipal Corporation and the Water Supply Department for their act of kindness as this system ensured we were bathed fully clothed twice over and in this peak summer it did provide some respite. Well, the ordeal is far from over, we are still waiting for the road construction to be completed, when they will again dig up the road for the water pipeline!