The Water Dance

A nation of billion people uses a lot of water and water shortage has been a problem that Indians have lived with for decades. I vaguely remember my dad waking up (over twenty years ago) before sunrise to fill up pots of drinking water before the water supply turned off. Water tanks on top of buildings and homes are a common site. Many homes have a system consisting of an underground tank that collects water, a pump that drives the water to an overhead tank which is then routed through pipes by force of gravity to the taps. I did not think that I would ever have to deal with this problem in my life.

WRONG! I am back here now and guess what? Continuous, dependable water supply is still a problem out here. First week was relatively comfortable but problems started in week two. We are renting two bedrooms in the service apartment and each has it's own bath. One day, the water supply in one of the bathrooms was shut down completely for several days. We had to fill buckets of water in one bathroom and carry it to the other. Since the kids had to leave for school at around 7:30am in the morning, this dance would have to start pretty early. After several calls to the manager, the problem got resolved. But around the same time, one of the water heaters conked out. For those of you who are unfamiliar with a geyser this is a small water heater that is installed in each bathroom and is used to heat water. There is no central water heating facility.

So now, we have water in both bathrooms but no hot water in one. So the water dance continued for a few more days until the heater was fixed. A day later, the cold water supply stopped in the second bathroom. Now hot water had to be transported from one bathroom to the other.

There is a positive side to the story. This early morning workout has helped me knock off a few pounds!