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a clogged bathroom drain - an easy way to de clog it

 What is too awful when it’s about domestic problems......leaking roof? No....Water scarcity?  No... Insects? Not at all....all these we can manage with any mean but a clogged bathroom or kitchen sink drain!!!! Yes.... you have to work really hard to get rid of it. A clog is the block in the water drainage which restricts the waste water flow totally or partially and will progress as time going. This can happen to anyone due to multiple reasons; kitchen waste and soap foam can trigger this at kitchen sink whereas hair, dirt and soap again cause this at the bathroom drain. Once it happened it is better to de clog it as soon as possible, else it will tarnish your living at neighbourhood.

Our first remedy for such a situation is to call for a professional help, but our plumbers are really HARD workers!!! Yup they don’t approach it in a softer way; they prefer to do the cutting and demolishing job directly. As you know concealed plumbing is the fashion -now days -at our habitat, so that no one knows which pipe goes where and what kind of connection or junctions are present. Just imagine the situation where the plumber cut to deep your neatly (costly) tiled bathroom wall to find out the suspected blocked pipe? And how are you going to repair it to the prior glory...in most of the cases you are not going to get the very same tile again from the shop so the area will be marked as a souvenir of the clog with a different colour tile!!! All these will be a bit easy to digest if you are living in an individual home but if you are living in an apartment, the things are going to get more and worse. To repair your bathroom you may need to get the consent of your neighbours especially of the flat just below of yours. And if you are a tenant you will be fired soon for the mess caused.

I had come through this situation recently, that too twice!!!!! Both were at different situations. We were at a holiday at Bangalore in my brother in law’s new apartment    which he took for rent just few weeks back. Two days after we reached its been found that the kitchen sink drains a bit slowly...we took it simply as it happens at every home, if you put any food particles at sink and all you need to do is to flush it with lots water or just put some small stick or metal nail  and hit multiple times...

But here the situation was somewhat shoddier when we woke up the next day, the previous night waste water has welcomed us to the kitchen....still we didn’t took it so seriously as we are about leave the place to explore the Bangalore city. We returned in the night and the kitchen was just like that of the morning...if said precisely, as of previous night..!!! We started our rescue operation to solve it somehow as the owner also staying at the same apartment. We find out a long metal wire and tried to put it through the drain hole and it went in smoothly but didn’t worked as it started to encircle itself inside when it reached a corner...I need something which is flexible as well as strong ...it was fumes coming out of my head as I was experimenting various ways to deal with it within my mind...being a Para medical professional, the wild thing came to mind was an endoscope!!!! Yes if you went to your doctor saying you have block at your intestine, he will insert a tube with a camera attached to its tip in to our alimentary canal to find out what’s happening inside...same like here also I cannot see what’s happening inside and what is the thing which cause this nasty block?  My head was burning more and more and suddenly a bulb lighted ....yes its note possible to get an endoscope for this purpose but definitely possible to get one long hose...I ran to a wash basin at hall and untied the 2 feet long water connection hose, yes it’s flexible and strong. I tried to put it in to the drain pipe but it was not long enough to reach the block. Another thing came to my mind that is water...hydro electric power...yes we use water to generate electricity..water has so much power ....I had attached the other end of the hose to the tap and tried to flush the block, it worked partly as the dirt accumulated started flowing out through the drainage pipe to the room but still it’s not completely de clogged. I made my brother in law to run to the nearest hardware shop to get a long hose, after an hour’s search he bought me a 10 meter long transparent hose which i inserted in to the drain pipe and it went through the pipe as almost ¾ of the tube was in the drain hole. With full confidence I had attached the hose to the pipe and turned the water on again!!! no miracle happened but the dirty water  flowed in to room making our living more horrible ....I was running out of bullets....no more arrows left in my quiver.  I’m a Scorpio I will not accept defeat until my last breath...the wildest idea came to my mind...I had put the other end of the hose in to my mouth and blew through it after taking couple of deep breaths...hooooraaaaaaaaaayyyy.....an echo at the top of exclamation came out from everyone’s gullet....yes I did it....... I did it......it worked.....the whole dirty water accumulated on the drain pipe flowed out at once....operation success.

It came to my life again in the form of a clog at my apartments bathroom drain a week back, this time I was pretty sure of how to deal with it, hence I pretend careless till it clogged almost all. I had searched for a piece of  hose and found  a piece of ½ inch wide normal garden hose which was too much under of my expectation and I failed miserably in the first attempt, I hurried  to the security and grabbed our long garden hose and tried that through the water out let and blew forcefully.... a nasty smell has spread in the room with dirty water flooded from the hole...my degree of confidence was started fading  and i was like soldier without ammunition in the first part of the battle itself....I couldn’t try anything more that day except burning my head thinking what’s going wrong?

As it is a belief of the twenty first centaury youth that Google is the solution for all unanswered questions, I too tried Google with my current issue. A lot of options it gave me from using a simple drain claw to a wet type vacuum cleaner to de clog it. Again fumes started coming out of my head as I was started exploring all possible ways to de clog my bathroom drain.

 I purchased a one inch wide flexible hose the next day when I returned from office and enquired about a chemical which I heard before can dilute the clog, and bought 3 packets of it as a backup. I changed my dress As soon as I reached home and hurried to the bathroom which was almost like a battle field by then with the hose and stand like an idiot at the opening of the drain hole!!!yes the flexible 1 inches wide hose was not getting flexed enough to enter  the narrow hole which is almost in  a square  wide depth....I was such an idiot to forget that narrow opening....I came out of bathroom ......looser was the word  humming at my ear drum...and as I said before I’m a Scorpio hence I cannot accept defeat like that....

I had grabbed a knife from the stand  and cut the end of the hose in an angled way making the tip reduce in its width and tried putting it to the drain hole and it entered. I slipped the hose almost all then it hit the junction where I suspect the block to be present and blew with all my energy......a sound came through the wash basin at the corner of the bathroom but nothing happened to the dirty accumulated water on the floor. I was had the shock of my life that my trump card is on the table and nothing happened. I blew again and again till I started chocking but all went in vain. I had noticed the sound happens at the corner wash basin every time I blew through the pipe at the drainage, as I suspected the wash basin has connected to the same drainage pipe, but the water in the wash basin is flowing down freely without the sign of any block. I can see a donkey head at the place of my skull when I look myself at the bathroom mirror!! I decided to check the wash basin drainage more closely and removed the covering the basin and inserted the hose through its drainage and blew the water at the bathroom drainage responded as its of common origin... still I can’t make out where is the actual block is...I was continuously blowing and flushing through both the available openings to the drainage system and the amount of water at the floor has increased tremendously as I had to stop my task for some time. I decided to use the chemical powder, by believing at its action completely I had inserted the chemical powder through the wash basin hole and waited as instructed, but result was again negative. I started  feeling a vacuum in my head as it was drained out of ideas...suddenly vacuum came to my mind...I decided to apply vacuum pressure to the drainage ....no I don’t had a vacuum cleaner, if I had would have definitely used it instead of blowing in to the nasty hole. My idea was to create a vacuum by closing the other possible exit of air from the drainage that is the opening for wash basin drain. I tried first with paper but didn’t worked, hence I took my hair oil bottle which is round and long, covered it with enough wet cloth to fit it at the pipe and blew through the hose inserted in to the bathroom drainage, I can feel the pressure of vacuum but the water flushed back to the room through the drainage as there is no way for the air can escape. My head was burning like a coal engine to find an idea..I took one horlicks bottle from kitchen and covered it with a wet cloth and finally with a plastic carry bag so as to fix it properly at the bathroom drainage hole which is a quite big opening, and had completely sealed it. I had inserted the hose through the wash basin drain opening and blew, this time I hadn’t had much pressure but the water jumped out through the wash basin opening!!!.....I really understood that I’m at my goal...grabbed another piece of wet cloth covered the mid portion of the hose and fixed that portion in to the wash basin drain pipe ,tighten well and now its vacuum from both the ends and air has to find another way to exit from the drainage...took the moth end of the hose....Blew......a bursting sound fall in my ear and of water flowing after that but the floor is still flooded....I blew again and this time no pressure as previous...with trembling hand I had pulled out the bottle at the bathroom drainage hole kept to create and the water flowed very fast...yes I struck gold again with a clogged drainage.....it was 5 hours after I reached home and working at the bathroom...but I won it without troubling anyone at the apartment.

The moral of the story is, the hose is flexible and strong as it will pass till the first corner where the clog will be. Even though it’s difficult to find the clog at the drainage system but is easy to reach till the clogged area using a long hose and attach it to a powerful water tap, the clog will get open by itself...or fill the hose with full of water and blew through it with maximum pressure as much as you can ....and you will de clog the block- its sure..Easy and simple...

Christmas......are we celebrating it....?

Christmas is the chief festival of Christians regardless of the denomination. It is said to be the birth day of the saviour who came to save us from our sin. We celebrate this festival so as to celebrate the birth of our saviour, but do we actually celebrating it? We are celebrating a festival... it is...but the question is, are we celebrating the birth of our saviour? If so then how? What we do to celebrate christmas? Buying new cloths, preparing (or home delivery) delicious food, crackers, and bottles of liquor!!! So do we celebrate the birth of our saviour isn't it? 

A question to Christians.....why does Jesus Christ have selected a cattle shed for his birth to this world? Being God he can do anything in our life, both desirable and undesirable, then why did he born in such a place? Jesus came to earth for the poor, needy and the sinner. When he came for the poor and the needy, how can he born as a prince, hence he born as a son of a normal carpenter, simplicity that is what I wanted to emphasize here. When we spent so much for our celebrations have we ever tried to help some poor, atleast on Christmas time?

How many thousands of money we spent in X’mas time? For cake, decorations, dressings and so many like that….but have you ever tried helping a poor at the Xmas, by giving him and his family a day’s food, providing him neat dresses. We do a lot charity to poor by donating money to different organisations, its main idea is to save tax, but can we be sure that, the money reaches the much  needy ??? I don’t think so….when there are so many starving in our neighborhood how can we ignore them and help someone we haven’t seen or know at all….

Let’s this Christmas be a blessed one for us, let’s celebrate this Christmas as the way Jesus taught us, by feeding the poor and helping the needy. Merry Christmas.

Nostalgia.........

Nostalgia.......the smell of good old days...........back to my childhood......... 

The beautiful clouds embrasing the hills

I'm presently residing at calicut; I had spent my childhood at wayand, hardly 80 km from calicut. I was remembering those days at wayand and sharing that with my wife on a sunday, it was a lazy holiday, we hadn't had any work apart from routine cooking, which we have finished already. Do you wanna see those places...!!!!???  suddenly I asked her, Her eyes widened with surprise..........!!! Really?? Can we go ???? The answer was another question....I do like driving a lot, that too to a place with a scope for photography. Wayanad is a beautiful tourist place....the places where we played and lived are busiest tourist places now....so a journey to there is definitely a mind blowing one...

 We were planned to go all of a sudden....changed dress....checked the wallet.....bagged camera.....grabbed the car keys..........yes the journey to the nostalgic memories started.....

Elephant bath

We drove through wayanad many times, but never felt to visit these places before...may have forgotten all those memories....but when we chat about that, it was too enthusiastic to visit these. We were actually enjoying the drive hence the speed was average...on the go we saw an amazing scene of an elephant taking its bath from the drainage!!! Not that dirty as you think....it used the water flowing through drainage..... after heavy rain...we were approaching the famous Ghat road- the entrance to wayanad...I remember the travel on bus through these Ghat road when I was studying away from wayanad, when the bus reaches wayand, the AC like climate will tease your skin sensitivity- I wanted to experience the same and lowered my window glasses to welcome the fresh air in to my car.

We stopped our car near the famous banyan tree which is believed that a ghost has been captured on that tree, there is a little history there about this....at the time of British empire so many have tried to build a road to wayanad but failed to find the way up between dense forest and hill, there was a tribal man who used to climb the hill as he know an easy way, hence the fellow who was doing this work has approached this tribal man and with his help he found the way, later the foreigner killed this tribal man thinking the fame of building the road should come to him. But later when the road became a reality no vehicle could enter to wayand passing the spot where the tribal man got killed, and somebody found that it’s the ghost of the tribal man who got killed is acting there and captured his ghost in a banyan tree with a big chain, and the chain is still there hanging over the tree and the tree hence named as “chain tree”

St.Joseph's UPS

We moved after obtaining some photographs of the tree and stopped at a small hotel to have lunch. It was awesome beef fry we got there with chapathi ..mmm...yummy...I always like spicy food and this taste is something finger licking one. We moved in to beauty of wayand I was keep on explaining her all those spots appear there and realised with wonder that I still remember this place as that of the school days....there was my school visible so far from the road and those memories  rushed to my mind and mouth, St.Joseph’s UPS Meppadi, where I studied from 2^nd to 7^th standard, where I was a arts club secretary won among 4 contestants for a majority of more than 150 votes, Where i was a scout leader who got selected unanimously when even my seniors are there in the scout, where i got elected almost a school leader and withdrawn myself saying “I cant come too early to school as I’m coming from one hour journey distance depending only on KSRTC bus”. A bit self praising??? Okay....we will move on...

We were approaching Kalladi a place where we used to measure the rain strength in monsoon....no .....I havn't worked with weather forecast department...that is the flow in this river will make us judge the strength of previous day’s rain. In our childhood when we go to schools we used to travel on bus for nearly 13 kms to school, and wayanad is such a place where monsoon at its highest in kerala. We used to enjoy those journeys by helping the driver to blow horn and the conductor by controlling the bell. Yes we do even helped them by pouring water from side by river to the heated radiator to continue our journey to school....the present day students can’t imagine all these types of things,...isn’t it???

The junction where the road to the whole world starts

The journey was on a narrow road between tea plants...usually my wife will sleep immediately I start my car but she never felt sleepy during this journey, it was so exciting.....we were passing those places where I had lived as a child, the places where we were waiting for bus to and fro schools there was no school bus at that time....only KSRTC...that too 1 per hour or more....meanwhile I showed her some quarters we lived. My mother was a staff nurse worked in the hospital of a tea estate, hence we lived in many quarter there as she got transferred to different hospitals of estates. 

My 1st standard school

Finally we reached a place where 

I studied my 1^st standard...she was astonished rather shocked by seeing my old school....she is convent educated with uniform tie and shoe with class rooms in terrace buildings.. and thought I am joking by showing some old building. But it was true there I started learning....and the funniest part of this place is that that was the last stop for the bus and as a 1^st standard child I always believed that the road of the whole universe starts from there!!!...as there is no road further...but another question was there in my mind, if it starts from here then where is this ending??? I got answer for this when I visited Kanyakumari when I was in my 3^rd or 4^th standard...haven’t you seen the road ends there near the sea!!!

Stray Dogs - A Threat to the Society

"Keralam" is famous in the tourism map for its natural beauty and heritage. The tourists whether they are domestic or international, who come here for  their vacation are only gave us this much fame as a tourist place, through their mouth publicity.

The tourists used to describe about everything  that they experience here during their holiday- both positive and negative,like the beauty of our back waters and the rude behaviour of our auto drivers. One factor I used to notice in almost all the cities of kerala is the high density of stray dogs, it is the same in city and village. huge, barking, wild, stray dogs that will eat at the waste bin and ran behind vehicle as if we encroached their private place.

This phenomenon is increased in few years as the hon'ble court has banned killing stray dogs, we used to catch and kill stray dogs and this has helped to control their number to minimum and, some activists has approached the court and they got a verdict in their favour which caused this now. Just imagine if any of the street dogs attacked any forigner and he developed rabis! then what publicity will be we receiving internationally.

We know, our foriegn tourists will roam here and there, every nuke and corner of the place they visit, even in late night also, and this accident will occur soon if we neglect this growing issue. I felt it so amusing to hear the court has passed a judgement to not to kill stray dogs as some one approached them saying

 “dont kill these poor animals,they have their right to live here”

yes...I too agree that  the earth is for them too....but we too need to live here peacefully.....with out fearing any animals, with out the fear of a giant tree fall in to our house, which we cant cut due to the nature activist’s protest. When there is law and court to protect even stray dogs why cant we have such things for us too? Are we not worth as a stray dog in this society? Don’t we have no rights here? Only stray dogs meant to live here ????

 One thing we should remember here, no activist or nature lover will walk home late night after the day’s hectic work, they all are roaming in their own AC vehicles from their air conditioned home to offices, they dont need to face the spine chilling experience of a wild looking barking stray dog follow you as you walk home, and you feel to run faster in your every step and will control that inhibition by remebering that it will jump upon you if you run....

A Clean Defeat.....Shattered.....but a Normal Congress Lover Liked It.......

Congress party has failed dejectedly in the election held recently to four major states like Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya pradesh and Chatisgarh, congress was in ruling in some of these states but they lost all these four states to BJP, the defeat was complete especially that in Delhi, the country capital-where congress was in power in 15 years and crushed to third position after BJP and the new sensation Aam Aadmi Party and even their CM was defeted to a tyro in politics.

I remember one election slogan of congress, that 

                                        " Aam Aadmi ke Hath Congress ke Sath"..

yes congress always had won the elections by the votes of aam aadmi- the common men- but it is a fact that congress failed to keep up the faith that the common men had on the party, especially after the second consecutive victory of the UPA alliance...I remember that after winning for conesecitive second time, immiedetely the petroleum minister has signed the agreement for fixing the price of petroleum goods by the companies itself, which, has no doubtly can say -caused all these increase in price of all that daily consumables.

This was just a beginning and all these acts were annoying common men, and the congress knew it, but they thought as always we will bear it and vote them in all the forth coming elections. Rahul gandhi congress vice president said positively that voters give important to local issues in state elections, yes it is, but it is a beginning of a wind in opposite direction, a storm that can change anything..even the ruling party of India....

Congress has to learn a lot from Aam Aadmi Party, the kids in the field of politics, the way they campaign, the way they succeeded to collect vote that was against the ruling party. As their name indicated, they stand for common men and fought for their needs which the other parties usually used to neglect.



As a common man it gives me immense pleasure to see the party shattered in this state wise elections that the party has got a shock treatment which will wake them up from their fools paradise, that they will attract the votes what ever if they do...congress has to realise the facts and stand for the needs for common men if they want to sit in the driving seat of India.

Sarovaram – an example - how to ruin a beautiful place

Sarovaram

Sarovaram bio park- (was) a fine-looking situate in Calicut city other than Mananchira square, to visit and spend your evenings, whenever I visit Calicut I loved to visit and enjoy the splendor of this  quite place within the tiring city. 

a poetic one?

There was a canal flowing at a snail's pace through the side of the park, there were attractive and comfortable benches to take the weight off your feet and enjoy the evening. More of all it was neat and guarded by security staff with out encroaching in to our privacy. All this I praised above was the anecdote of this commons before 2 years….

The Black canal

Last month I happened to visit this place again on the reminiscence of the earlier harmonious visit, from the point of entry a Shhhhh….Shhhhh hum sidetracked my attention towards a corroded metal net cage where a head was popping out and shown some gestures to come near….I searched there for a notice board or rate displayed sign and there were nothing around, matches that variety.

Dirt frozen canal

I reached the cage, owner of that popped out head  forwarded two slips of Rs 10 each, to me (we where two) I wondered there was no entry fee when I visited there before. Naturally a doubt came to my mind about the camera, I took the camera out of my bag and took a snap of the black canal which was standing still now due to the dumping of waste, and again I heard the Shhhhh….Shhhhh noise from the historic metal cage which was not seen paint in the recent past, another slip of 25 rupees was forwarded to me for using camera inside the park.

Sit at your own risk

As we proceeded further inside the square, the picture of that beautiful park which I visited 2 years back started gradually fading out . All most all the benches was in such a state that it must carry a "sit at your own risk" board on it, and the black, dirt frozen canal which was flowing gradually in my last visit must be the factory of mosquitoes for whole Calicut city. 
I have been observed my wife using the hunter bat for mosquito destroy at home, as she uses the bat in Calicut the sound mimics that of a special item of fire works during Thrissur Pooram. That many mosquitoes will be there in a single room and when these kind of production house is there at the heart of city itself, there is no more reason we need to find out for this excessive density of such insects.

Building under construction

After 30 minutes we decided to come back to home as there is nothing to enjoy the evening there at Sarovaram, apart from some on going construction buildings and for that we need to pay 10 rupees per head. A lake with boating is there, but it will attract extra charge for boating.

 It was well maintained when the entry kept free to all but when they introduced the entry fee it should be more attractive, hygienic and must give the value for money, which is the responsibility of the corporation if they want to extract money from people for visiting this place.