The biblical injunction that one should love one’s neighbour definitely packs a punch in its intent. After all, nothing could be more edifying and ennobling than living in harmony with neighbours. But what do you do when your neighbours turn out to be uncooperative and insensitive to your needs, and on top of that, brazen it out to make light of your problems?
We live in a second-floor flat. Our third-floor neighbours are a working couple. Their two daughters recently got married. The lady is uppity and prefers to keep to herself. Her husband is genial and social. However, being moneyed and finicky, they frequently carry out renovation of their flat, which means everything from dismantling old sanitary fittings in the bathrooms to replacing not-so-old pipes with new ones. And as the labourers go at the job hammer and tongs, the constant assault on our eardrums is enough to reduce us to mental wrecks soon.
That apart, the problem starts when their bathroom drains get clogged, which happens often, and the blocked water find its way to our rooms and, at times, kitchen walls. Over the last eight years, seepage from the top floor to our flat has become a routine affair, with walls of a couple of rooms and a toilet getting damaged. Damp spots on discoloured walls at various places now look like a piece of abstract painting conjured up by a maverick artist.
Like tolerant neighbours, we showed them many a time the condition of our flat, which bore the brunt of their innovative ideas. We didn’t get into any arguments; all we did was to request them to spare a thought for us. But our ordeal was far from over.
One fine morning, my spouse got the shock of her life when she saw the damp balcony wall. On closer inspection, she saw water seeping from the common pipe running through from the top to the ground floor. I went to my neighbour’s flat and told the flat owner accordingly. His wife got a little agitated and shrugged off my complaint as baseless, saying there was nothing wrong with the common pipe.
I asked both of them to come down and have a look at our balcony. They said they would but they never came. We called a plumber and tried to fix the problem. He expressed his helplessness saying that our top floor neighbour can only clear the clogged pipe. After a week or so the seepage stopped as suddenly as it had started. It was clear the problem had begun from the top floor but they were not willing to acknowledge it.
Our patience has started wearing thin. My wife suggested some time back that we sell this flat and go somewhere else to live. She felt that our neighbour had been blatantly taking advantage of our good neighbourliness.
Ours is now a case of once bitten, twice shy. With paint peeling off damaged walls, we can’t make up our minds whether to get the white washing done. These days both my wife and I inspect our rooms and balcony walls every morning to make sure there are no seepage from our top floor flat.
mukherjee.dashing@gmail.com
