Noisy neighbours

Hearing the incessant pounding next door, combined with the tile cutting and the drilling has given me a headache. I can’t think straight and seem to be in a bad mood constantly. Since there don’t seem to be any rules at all in our housing complex, I have no way of countering this except maybe earplugs. Not a good last two months. I may actually have to get myself a job to escape this horrible din :-)

Why someone wants to buy a ready-to-move-in house and then break down walls is a mystery to me. After all it would’ve been a lot cheaper to just build your own house the way you want it than demolish parts of a row house endangering the neighbouring structures on nothing more than a whim. I tried going through all the proper channels. I notified our complex manager and the association which comprises volunteers from the residents here. A bit of a noise ensued but nothing actually happened. I wrote a mail to all the residents and got a bit of support but there was no way to enforce any of our written down rules without support from an active association. I talked to the owner who apologized but said she would obviously continue. I asked her why she didn’t feel it necessary to inform the neighbours beforehand – especially since we have a common wall and I can feel every vibration from the ceaseless pounding. She said she forgot.

I can do nothing but put up with the awful inconvenience. I cannot write because I cannot focus. I sleep poorly at nights and can’t take my afternoon naps because of the noise. There is no corner of my house that is sacred. There is noise everywhere and I am losing it. The only way I do get relief is fantasizing on the most satisfying revenge options. I have managed to jot down a few of the milder ones:

1. I record the din and play it back as soon as they move in – maybe in surround sound from the outside.

2. I make a room upstairs just for the heck of it – after all if a rank newcomer can get away with forbidden facade changes, as one of the earliest owners here, I can build anything I want on my terrace and make their bedrooms a dusty nightmare.

3. I play Carnatic music loudly all the time – no rule against that.

4. I learn to play the drums and the electric guitar – since my neighbour on the other side has a tone deaf son blaring away even at 11 in the night, I already know the basics.

5. I make really smelly food. Bring on the fermented shrimp paste and stinky tofu. Or I could just fry dry fish from my backyard – I do have that extra stove.

6. I go for a vacation and get someone to sit in my backyard and cut ceramic tiles for two days – right next to their rear veranda.

7. I don’t sleep all that well anyway – I could leave my hair loose, wear a white sari and peer through their windows at 2 a.m with eerie music playing in the background.


That’s most of what I got so far – considering that the neighbours from hell still have their furniture to make (haven’t they heard of ready-made stuff?), I will probably come up with more creative ways to torture them by the time they are done. Meanwhile the thumping goes on...