Oru Cup Coffee

After Deepavali, we'd few hours of sun in Chennai and rain for rest of the time. I've not seen so much rain in Seattle. It has been a continuous downpour. I hear the frogs croak in the night, with water welling up around the home. My neighbors had water in their house during the first storm and they weathered it by staying with us. Now for this storm, they just left to another part of the city. Our wells are full, garden is flooded and our homes are barely dry.

My home has a big ditch in the front that becomes the dumping ground for people around us including a nearby slum. The ditch was already filled with water when I came here before Deepavali. Now it is rising and leveling with water on the road. Couple of days ago, I felt foul taste from the well water. I stopped using it and advised my family to do the same. My dad ignored it, used it and got sick. I called the pest control board to find out what they can do. They answered my calls politely, surprisingly very responsive on the phone, spoke to me with concern and felt that they were in a hurry to leave for my home, but so far did not do anything to alleviate our problems. I am still waiting for them to show up and spray something to stop the mosquitoes. Thankfully, I suspect our well water is better now. It does not have the foul smell, but may be as bad or worse than it was. Surprisingly, through all this, we still have electricity. Though we get power cuts 30 to 60 minutes a day.