Weird little habits

I am pretty oblivious to a lot of things happening in the house. My mother recently told me that the washing machine was making a lot of sound, which I very conveniently filtered out and acknowledged with a slight nod of head and a "hmm..." while merrily typing away on my computer. She immediately understood that I hadn't heard what she had just said. I think she made a sarcastic comment on my "not-listening" habit but I did not hear that either.

The other day Dad called me at work to remind me about something I had said I would do when I heard this weird sound in the background. It sounded like a child wailing after being forcefully fed a glass of bitter-gourd (Karela) juice. And it was a periodic sound. I asked my Dad where he was and which kid was making such a ruckus. Dad quietly replied, "It's not a kid, it's the washing machine. Your Mom's washing clothes." I decided we needed to get a new washing machine. And that's what we did today.

Every family has their weird little habits, just like every house has a feeling of its own. I don't know if you have noticed, but whenever you go to a house for the first time, you'll experience a different feeling. Every house has a smell and vibe of its own. You'll notice that in some houses you feel comfortable as soon as you step in while in some houses you feel a little uncomfortable and alien. I think this vibe or energy is actually a part of the people living in the house. And the process of "making a house a home", I feel, is what makes the difference. The little things that make a home, including the little weirdness that each family develops.

We have this habit of collecting plastic bottles of soft drinks and juices for storing drinking water. Its not like we are cheap guys who don't want to buy proper water bottles. We have a lot of them too, including (overpriced) Tupperware bottles. But we just end up storing water in bottles of Coke, Fanta and a variety of juice bottles, sizes varying from 2 L bottles to 300 ml pet bottles.

This weekend, I told my Dad, we need to do something about this. It looks sad. Pathetic looking bottles all over the place. We decided to throw them all out. We threw approximately 15 bottles out. I noticed today, we still have around 6 remaining. I realized some things are meant to be. There is no point in trying to change them :) but an occasional clean-up is required so that it can be messed up again.