💬 The weird comfort of hearing your neighbor's TV through the wall

Our wall is shared with the flat next door, and every evening from about 8 I can hear their TV. Not clearly. I can't make out words. Just a murmur, music now and then, and the uncle laughing at something. When we moved in 2 years ago I thought it would drive me mad. I even asked the landlord about it. Now I'd miss it if it stopped. That's the strange part for me. I live alone. My parents are back in Warangal and I'm here for work, so evenings are quiet. I eat dinner, wash up, and then the flat just sits there. No TV of my own, I never got one. And then through the wall, the uncle laughs at some serial. It's like having company without having to talk to anyone. I don't even know what they watch. I think it's mostly Telugu serials and the news at 9. I met the uncle properly for the first time last month, in the lift. Retired, 70 something, lives with his wife. He apologised for the TV. Said his hearing has gone bad and his wife keeps telling him to turn it down. I told him please don't. He looked at me like I was mad. I didn't know how to explain it. So I just said it's fine, uncle, it doesn't bother me. Which is true, but not the whole truth. Does anyone else have a sound like this? Something from outside that makes home feel like home? For my friend it's the pressure cooker whistle from the flat below. For my mother it's the azaan from 3 mosques at once. For me it's a 70 year old man laughing at a Telugu serial I'll never watch. I hope they never move out. I'd have to buy my own TV.

The murmur of someone else's evening is the kind of company you only notice when it is gone. When my neighbour went away for a month in 2022, I kept the radio on at 8 just to fill the gap.

This is oddly relatable. My neighbor watches cricket commentary most evenings and I can hear the crowd noise rising and falling through the wall even without understanding a word of what is being said. On nights they are traveling I notice the quiet almost immediately, and it feels a bit off, like the building itself is missing something rather than just being peacefully silent for once.