Butterfly Effect - The case of a broken valve!

Butterfly Effect - The case of a broken valve!

I heard the term, Butterfly effect, in my school days when my dad explained it to me. Later on, in my college days, I watched the movie with the same name and got really excited about it's concepts. As I grew older, I started looking for similar effects in real life too and correlate them.

Years rolled...

I finished college, got a job, got married, got kids, changed jobs. One day, I visited my home town and in my parent's place, my mom was complaining of having back-ache due to washing dishes in the kitchen sink, since the water tap is far from edge, and close to the wall. Thus, she had to bend a lot to reach for the water tap. I started searching for flexible water taps that can be moved around the sink and thus, reduce my mom's stress of bending over to use the water tap. I did find one and ordered online. 

Within a couple of days, it reached my parent's place and installation was complete as well. My mom now found it easier to use and confirmed that she no longer has to bend a lot to use the water tap. My better-half tried it out and suggested we get a similar one for our home as well. So be it. We ordered one, got it and installed it as well. Wifey was happy to have this tap since it reduced her bending over as well.

Now comes Corona and the lockdown...

After many months of installation and usage, when everything was going fine, we came across Corona Virus. All of a sudden, the entire country was in lock-down. We were allowed to go out only for essentials. No other shops were open and no other service was available as well. And then it happened.

I woke-up early, around 5:45 AM, went for grocery and vegetable shopping, came home and cleansed / sanitized myself with a bath. Relaxed for a while watching the news on TV, with the plan of starting to WFH (Work From Home) and closing the day early. Suddenly, heard a splashing sound. Ran into one of the bathrooms to saw that, the inlet valve to the heater is broken and water was splashing all over the bathroom. Immediately, closed it with the broken valve temporarily and held it in hand. While my wife held it for another 15 minutes, I went to the terrace to close the valve. This valve shut the water supply for all the houses in my series. 

The fight....

Didnt have any dummy at home to close it. For close to an hour, I was struggling (1) to retro-fit the broken pipe, (2) to create a loop and make it like a dummy. All my efforts went to waste. Finally, after lot of fight, fitted one half of the broken valve with a looping pipe. After the valves were opened, realized that, the valve was still no good and was leaking water. At least, it was not splashing with full pressure like earlier. Still, water was leaking and was getting wasted. Also, I know that this valve is not going to hold on longer since the pressure of the water in my floor is high.

Due to lockdown because of corona virus, there was no hardware store open and no plumbers were available. I had to be the plumber (which I liked to do). I had a ticking time-bomb at home, which was awaiting to blow. Once it blows, I have to keep the valves closed, which will also shut the kitchen water supply, for all the houses in my series. 

Took some rest again thinking of what else to do.

The relief....

After some minutes of peaceful thinking, got the idea of removing the valve that connects from wall to the wash basin tap and connect the wash basin pipe directly to the wall, without the valve. Realized that the male-female of the valves don't fit with the broken valve. Then, jumped onto the idea of keeping the valve intact and closed, but remove the water tap and fit it into the broken inlet valve. Tried removing the taps in multiple wash basins with no avail. I crossed the kitchen to look for the water tap, when I saw the new tap installed. It then came to me, that we had a spare water tap at home. I was so happy that I felt I got some solution. 

Removed the make-shift dummy and fit the water tap. It fit itself like a glove and just like that, in 5 minutes the valve problem was sorted.

The retro....

In retrospective, looking back, I realize how my mother's back-ache helped me today. While trying to find a solution for my mother's back-ache, I inadvertently created a solution for the problem, that came at me when the situation was dire. This may not look like a direct butterfly effect but indirectly, I believe, it is, since the trigger of finding the solution to a problem many months back, eventually solved my problem.