As received in Apartment WhatsApp Group ...👌👌👌
I live in a Bengaluru apartment.
The guy in the flat above mine keeps pacing around 1 AM every night.
Heavy footsteps. Daily.
I’d had enough.
One night, I took the lift up, ready to give him a proper piece of my mind.
Before I could even knock, the door opened.
He was holding a crying baby.
The flat was almost empty.
No sofa. No dining table.
Just a mattress on the floor and a few cardboard boxes.
He looked completely drained.
“I’m really sorry,” he said softly.
“I walk him to sleep.
The floor makes noise. I know it’s disturbing.”
I glanced around. “Where’s your furniture?”
“Bed bugs in the previous place,” he replied.
“Had to throw everything away.
We just shifted.
Still saving up for a crib.”
Just like that, my anger disappeared.
“Wait here,” I said.
I went down and carried up my old rocking chair...the one sitting uselessly on my balcony.
“Sit,” I told him.
“Rocking is quieter than walking.”
He sat.
The baby calmed down in minutes.
The next morning, I posted on our apartment WhatsApp group:
“New family in 131 needs a fresh start.
If anyone has spare furniture or baby stuff, please help.”
By lunchtime, Bengaluru had done what Bengaluru does best.
A crib. A sofa. A small dining table. Clothes. Home-cooked food.
Even a pressure cooker.
Tonight, there was no stomping.
Just a soft knock on my door.
“We slept for six hours,” he said, smiling.
“Thank you.”
Sometimes noise isn’t bad behaviour.
It’s a bad phase.
Judge less.
Ask more.