Nothing special. It pumps water from our well to our water tank. It used to work really well and did not usually give us trouble. Until that day…
11th of May, night.
My sister’s wedding was the coming day. Suddenly all our pipes went dry. No water in our tank. The motor pump was put on but alas, water did not rise up and reach the tank.
The plumber was called immediately.
He diagnosed the pump as a doctor would a patient and found that the hose that carried water from the pump to the tank had broken at the joint.
FIRST JOINT!
He fixed it right away, lowered the pump back in, put on the switch and viola! Water rose up the hose! He went.
Not half an hour had passed when the sound of a lot of water splashing was heard. I ran out to our well and what did I see? Water was falling into the well from the pump!! What? How the heck could that happen?? A quick look gave me the answer. The fixed joint was safe there. But the other joint, the joint of the hose (which carries water from the well to the pump through the foot valve) and the pump had come off and the water staying in the hose was flowing back out into the well.
SECOND JOINT!
The plumber was called immediately.
Pump pulled out. Joint fixed. Lowered back in. Switch put on. Water rose up. Five minutes later the water rose no more.
“Now what?”, asked all of us.
Looking into the well, (a lot of heads sticking into the circumference of the well mouth), we were again blessed with the answer. THERE WAS NO MORE WATER IN THE WELL!
Oh great. Fantastic. Absolutely wonderful.
Quick thoughts came from everyone to somehow get water to our tank. Someone even suggested drawing water from the neighboring well and pouring it into our tank. Thanks to some concerned members of our family that it was his last suggestion. Finally a hose was extended from the tank of our neighboring house to ours for a while and we got almost one full tank of water. Thank God! I used the toilet peacefully.
12th of May, morning.
Wedding day. Our neighbors put on the motor pump to pump water into our tank. And much too obviously, not a drop was reaching our tank! And why, you may ask. Now our neighbor’s pump was turning off due to over heating!
The plumber was called immediately.
Diagnosis – done. Problem – overheating. Solution – replace the motor! And guess which motor was going to replace it? Yup. Correct. Good guess.
So the motor pump from our well was lifted and dragged all the way back to our neighbor’s and it was set there. Switched on. Worked fine. Everyone happy. The plumber let go off a sigh of relief and went back home to straighten his back. We all had a nice laugh and the wedding day went by uneventfully.
13th of May, evening.
The ‘our motor in our own house’ policy was put forth by dad.
The plumber was called immediately.
Five of us lugged the darn thing back to our house and the plumber set it up successfully. Switched on. Worked fine. (Water had risen in the well by this time). Everyone happy. We teased the plumber telling him that we’d write a story of him and our motor (Although none of us thought I’d actually have to write it).
5 days later….
19th of May, early morning.
Motor pump was switched on by mom as she does everyday morning. About at 7.30, when dad tried the tap in the bathroom upstairs, it hissed.
“Ahoy there! Turn on the motor pump!”, shouted dad.
“But it IS already on!”, replied mom.
“Mayday! Turn it off. Something is wrong!”, said dad and he went to take a look at the well.
I woke up at 8.30. Went to the toilet. Answered nature’s calls gracefully, brushed and finally had to wet my hair to comb it. Just while thinking of it, the water from the pump slowly drained away and started hissing. I got out, hair all messed up and asked around why nobody had put on the motor pump yet. I soon found out the answer.
The foot valve had dropped off into the well from the edge of the hose!
THIRD JOINT!
The plumber was called immediately.
But this time, unfortunately for us, the plumber did not respond immediately. Suffice to say we had a nice day of drawing water from the well for all our daily needs.
Evening.
Dad grew tired of waiting and went and bought a new foot valve. He was about to fix it on his own when the plumber showed up. Dad made sure that the plumber felt sorry that he couldn’t make it any earlier. He fixed the new foot valve onto the hose. Pump lowered. Switched on. Working fine.
There was a pipe in the car porch that needed fixing too. The motor was switched off for a while for this. He fixed the pipe, got paid and was happily on his way.
The motor was put on again and we were eagerly waiting to feel the joy of seeing water flow from our pipes. And dad went upstairs to bath. He turned the tap and waited for a while. Not even a hissing sound was coming. It was enough for him to know that nothing was reaching the tank. But it wasn’t enough for the rest of us and we told him to wait. Five minutes later we heard a cry.
“STOP THE MOTOR!!!!!!!!!” It was dad. He had climbed onto the terrace and had taken a peek into the tank which revealed that nothing really was reaching it.
The plumber was called immediately.
One look did not reveal the problem this time. The whole thing was lifted up can you even guess what the problem was?
The foot valve actually consists of two halves. One half with the nozzle part to be fixed onto the hose and the other half with the actual valve. The second one is actually screwed onto the first through nine lines of threading.
THIS SECOND HALF OF THE NEWLY FIXED FOOT VALVE HAD SCREWED OFF AND FELL INTO THE WELL! HOW THE HELL IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE???
FOURTH JOINT!
And it took both my brother’s and the plumber’s strength to unscrew the old foot valve. How could a foot valve so tightly screwed together be unscrewed from within the well? We praised our motor.
It was fixed. The motor was put on and we have a full tank of water now.
I wait with lots of hope for tomorrow. 🙂
PS: I suggested we buy a new motor pump. Dad said, “Suppose your hand got wounded and you couldn’t use it, will you just kill yourself or try to heal your hand?” 🙂
A 'psycho' path. 