We finally got a washing machine! It is a green, twin-tub TVS semi-automatic, for eight hundred rupees.

I was meandering home from Parihar Chowk last week when I saw this shop with a few washing machines lying around outside. I casually walked in and asked the shopkeeper whether they had any second-hand pieces. They did. They had three semi-automatic machines, out of which I selected the one that looked most likely to work. I got it “tested”, which in electronic-goods-shopkeeper parlance means, that when it was plugged into an electric socket, it made noises and the motor spun. Both motors spun actually. I was happy, and after a quick consultation with my flat-mates made the deal. The shopkeeper provided me with a 3-wheeler Tempo (seventy rupees) to take the thing home. The pipe to connect tap to machine was not available, so I got the shopkeeper to extract one out of another machine. So equipped, I took it home.

At home, the builder has provided a special corner for washing machines – with a tap, a water drain outlet and an electric socket. The machine was quickly parked there, connected to water and electricity and switched on. As water filled into the drum, a layer of dead leaves and twigs rose. No problems. In Rs. 800 I wouldn’t exactly have cried foul even if I had found a dead rat or two. After three rounds of cleaning, all seemed well.

Then somebody noticed that the drum was not filling up as quickly as water was flowing into it. Water was directly flowing out of the outlet! There was this switch that you could set to “Wash” or “Drain”, and even after pushing it to “Wash”, the water continued to drain. The tap was shut and the power cut off. The machine was not yet twenty minutes old and like true engineers, we had the back panel open. I examined the waterways in detail. The problem was promptly discovered. The wash-drain switch was connected to a rubber valve, which ideally should have cut off the water. But on opening this valve, we found that the rubber was old, hard and shrunken, and unable to plug the pipe. A brilliant solution entered my mind. I called up one of my flat-mates who was still in office, and asked him to bring rubber contraceptives. He was too stunned to reply and hung up immediately. In the end I had to go out and get some myself – the idea was to wrap the rubber valve in multiple sheaths, so that it became thicker, and blocked the hole. It almost worked. The problem was that it in between all this tinkering, the stiff wire that connected the switch to the valve got disturbed. The valve would no longer go up, so that now we had the opposite problem: the water wouldn’t drain. This was most frustrating.

This condition persisted for another day, while I wracked my brains for a solution. In the end, the remedy that worked was as simple as it was brilliant. Out went all the rubber sheaths. The only thing to do was to keep the outlet pipe upright, hanging by the machine – actually they have provided a hook at the top, it is meant to be kept that way when not in use. (Picture a petrol pump with the pipe propped up vertically by the side). This is the position when the clothes are being washed. Water can rise up in the pipe only as much as it rises in the main tub. It simply cannot flow out. Elementary Physics – water levels in connected vessels. When water is to be drained, we just lift the pipe off the hook, and put it into the drain. With a bit of practice, we can now do it without spilling water. It is as easy as that.

The machine is a great boon. It is no longer necessary to ferry clothes to and from Mumbai. There is no need to lug a big bag around to office on Fridays and from office on Mondays.

Dho daala!