For want of tap water!

Going back to my childhood days in Anna Nagar, this one is particularly interesting. Anna Nagar was a quiet residential locality at that time. Guess I was in Class III then, when my class teacher was looking for a rental house. Of course, those were the days without 99acres.com and mostly people searched for houses to buy and rent through word of mouth. That was when my class teacher (Rathi Miss) asked if I knew of any houses for rent in my area. That was the time my grandfather was preparing to rent a part of our house for rent, for want of extra income.

I was quite excited to help and said, "Yes Miss, we are giving away a portion of our house for rent." My class teacher was quite excited too as the house was not too far away from the school. Further, the teacher couple (yes, her husband was a teacher in the same school) wanted to find a house immediately. During the school break, I could see my class teacher talking to her husband. I was quite sure they wanted to visit my house to check out the rental portion. I guessed right! Rathi Mam came and told me they wanted to visit my house the following evening. I was both excited and happy and was lost in thought that very soon, my class teacher was going to be my neighbor. I asked my grandfather to write down the address of house in a small piece of paper and gave that off to my class teacher the next day.

Very soon, it was the evening when the teacher couple would visit my house! And they did come. Not sure if they had a scooter or they walked. They examined the house and had several questions for my grandfather who showed them around the house. And then the surprise! The class teacher asked, don't you have tap water here? My grandfather said, "No, you have to fetch water from the well behind." Fixing up a motor and overhead tank was a luxury, at least for us back then! But that was reason enough for my class teacher to decide not to be my neighbor :-( In fact, she also said if we were willing to reduce the rent a bit, she might even reconsider. I believe my grandfather was not ready to reduce the quoted rent. I remember we quoted Rs. 800 for a moderate sized portion of a house (with front porch, backyard, and of course a well). I was unhappy my grandfather was not ready to reduce the rent, so as to allow my class teacher to come in and be our neighbor!

Oh, those innocent and happy days!