Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Nul* Ho Naa Ho

This has happened a few years ago. To be exact sometime in November 2003 when the movie Kal Ho Naa Ho was released. In those days we used to stay at Colaba, Mumbai, at the house provided by our Institute. Well, Kal Ho Naa Ho was a Karan Johar movie and its songs were being played everrywhere in radio and TV. My children and wife defintely wanted to see this movie. I was sure it will be a silly movie, like all Karan Johar's previous (Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham) movies. But this particular movie had a particular incident linked to it which always bring back amusing memories to me.

We had gone to see this movie on a Saturday. Now on that particular day it was announced that, in our housing complex where we lived, there will be a water cut and so no water in the afternoon. I remember that day childen and my wife were quite excited to see this movie and I was despatched beforehand to procure the tickets for the movie at the Liberty cinema, which was the nearest theatre where it was being played. I had gone about two hours before to get the ticket for the 6 p.m. show, which I got easily. I called my wife to tell her so and they were to meet me near the theatre before 6:00 p.m.

We saw the movie, the only memories of that silly movie I had that Shah Rukh Khan took his own sweet time to die even after diagonised with some form of cancer. though he looked hale and hearty throughout the movie. Anyway, afterwards we had dinner at a restaurant which is bang opposite Liberty cinema and reached home at around 11:30 p.m.

On reaching home we saw our next door neighbour, who had never spoken to us earlier, though we have been living in the colony for about three months, had a frantic expression on her face and was at the ground floor of the building. She said oh where you have been, there is a disaster at your home. My wife got scared on hearing this, but I had noticed something else which was quite strange. Though our colony had some water shortage due to which water cut was imposed, the water seems to be coming out like mini waterfall from the staircase and had formed a small puddle on the ground floor. Oh, it struck me immediately ohmygod we had forgotten to turn off one of the water tap before leaving and this water which was coming like mini waterfall was actually coming from our third floor home. Well, what I thought was totally true. It seems my daughter had turned the water tap of the wash basin in the afternoon, when there was no water, and had forgotten to turn off the tap. The water was released after my wife and children had left home for the theatre. On opening our home we saw the most amusing sight. Our home has turned into literal waterworld. There was water and just water everywhere, in kitchen, drawing hall, bedrom, everywhere. Now all this water from the wash basin could easily have been drained on its own to bathroom draingage but our bathroom had old style water barrier of about two feets, which was meant to prevent water from bathroom leaking into the rooms. But this barrier had also prevented the water gushing out from the wash basin to drain out into the bathroom. The tap of wash basin was fully turned on, and the water pressure was so great that some water was being drained out from the drain outlet of the wash basin, but most of the water was overflowing from it and falling on the floor and to all the rooms. Now we had a hell of task to drain out the water, which was more than ankle deep. Unfortunately our children had kept their school bags on the floor and all their textbooks and particuarly notebooks had become watery and soggy. (These textbooks and notebooks had to be sun dried for severral days before they become little usable. The writen words on the notebooks had practically been erased by the mighty water.) After the blame game, we all had to cool down and begun working as a team to drain out all the water from rooms by using utensils, spoonging out water, using brooms, even kicking out the water. It was both amusing and sad. Sad because due to a small negligence, water, which I belive is a precious commodity, had gone waste. I remember we had to work hard till 2:00 a.m. in the night before we were able to drain out all the water from our home.

So, I remember the movie Kal Ho Naa Ho as Nul Ho Naa Ho. And needless to say now when we go out to see a movie, we ensure that all water taps are shut tight.

Nul*= water tap

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