How do the Chinese know what we want?

Shifting into a new home is never too easy. Especially if you choose to shift during Diwali time when suddenly everyone gets too busy, starting from the carpenters to the plumbers, electricians and painters, and it gets difficult to convince them to do your work first.

Moreover, every area comes with its own set of peculiarities. The new house that I just shifted into has one such peculiar problem--water comes for only three hours in a day, and at different times of the day.

My entire neighborhood has installed motors to pull the water from the main line into their underground tanks. They wake up at odd hours to switch on the motor so that their home gets adequate water for the day.

The result is quite predictable--they all get the same quantity of water. Although it sounds rather inane to spend on motors and electricity, the downside is that if you forget to pull water at those three occasions in the day, your neighbors get to keep your share of water.

Amid all the hassles of getting my house in order, I did forget to either switch on or switch off the motor! The water problem was literally giving me headaches.

A few days before Diwali, I came across a chap who sells water management gadgets. I called him over and narrated my peculiar problem to him. And lo, he had a solution for me.

He sold me a gadget--worth around US$150--that turns on the motor on the three occasions when the area gets water. If there is no water, then the motor automatically turns off. It tries again after 10 mins. And it goes on trying for 30 minutes (at every 10 minute interval).

Now, my underground motor tank has several sensors that manage the water supply to my house--something I would not have dreamt of a decade back.

No prizes for guessing where all these water management gadgets are made. During Diwali, almost everything we shopped for (like most other years) were from China. Be it lighting, crackers, crockery, gift items, you name it and China has made it! Even the idols of Gods--Lakshmi and Ganesh--came from China.

My only question is: how do the Chinese know what we want? How on earth did someone in China know that I get water only three times in a day; and that my neighbors have motors to pull the water to their house?

It almost seems like someone from China is sitting in our living rooms. Much like the bindis, sarees, Gods, lights and lamps that we use in our homes, they are also privy to our day-to-day problems.

This is one country that appears to have 7 billion solutions to the world's problems.