The Bucket Challenge

The other day I was carrying a bucket full of hot water from one bath room to another. As soon as I exited the bathroom into the bedroom, the bucket disintegrated flooding the room with warm water. Thankfully I managed to steer clear of the hot water and avoided being scalded. However, now I faced with this humungous task of draining the water out of the bedroom. For a moment I stood perplexed not able to think what to do, a term aptly summarised in Sanskrit as "kinkartavya vimudh". I soon got my composure back and managed to do everything right. Afterwords I realised there were crucial lessons to be learnt from this episode that can be applied to any crisis. So here are the Dummy's Guide to tackling a Bucket Challenge :

1. Have a plan. Any plan will do. I immediately realised the easiest way to drain the water out would be through the balcony.

2. Do the Damage Control. I removed the soakable items from the floor and placed them out of harms way in the next room.

3. Work towards your plan. I started draining the water towards the balcony with whatever tools I had.

4. Get the right tools. I remembered I had a nice new rubber mop that could easily drive all the water towards the way I wanted.

5. Get help. I asked my son to fetch the new mop from the kitchen while I was doing the damage control.

6. Restrict access. I realised if my toddler daughter would walk into the room she would find it extremely amusing and would try to muddle the water. So I immediately asked her to stay away.

7. Keep at it. I energetically kept using the mop to drive the water into the balcony and yet I found more and more of it. But I kept going on.

8. Decide the end point. After I had flushed most of the water I realised going would be a waste of the effort. So I stopped.

9. Think of the long term solution. I realised changing buckets before they developed major wear and tear was a good idea.

10. Focus on the positives. Instead of griming on the back breaking mopping I realised the bedroom had a much required cleaning and was now looking sparkling clean!

Phew!

Comments

Varuna said…
Found it extremely amusing! Very well summed up!
Varuna said…
The most positive thing you can do about anything is to write about it.... Takes the pressure off and helps others who would find themselves in a similar situation..:-)
Varuna said…
The most positive thing you can do about anything is to write about it.... Takes the pressure off and helps others who would find themselves in a similar situation..:-)
Varuna said…
Found it extremely amusing! Very well summed up!