B.L. Theraja, Mottainai, etc.

It is that time of the year again when gadgets start breaking down in my house. About the same time last year my two laptops got fried. Why does it happen at this time of the year? My latest laptops have survived so far, though one of them is a bit unstable. Other gadgets, however have been acting crazy. I have no idea why this happens. Is it because of the change to the dry season? Who knows? Or, it may be the B.L. Theraja curse.

Some of you might be wondering, "Who the hell is B.L. Theraja?" Well, if you have studied engineering in India, the chances are high that you have heard of Mr. Theraja. His book on electrical engineering is the one prescribed by most universities. It's a humongous book with which you can even kill people, if used in the right way. Not that I tried killing anyone. Anyway, I didn't open that book much and my roommate used it to bolster his pillow (he liked it high) when sleeping. There were also other unmentionable usages of this book at competitions conducted in the college hostel. My guess is that Mr. Theraja didn't like the disrespect we showed his book and probably cursed all of us - "May your electrical gadgets go nuts during the new year season." (Also, most of us in the computer dept. barely managed to pass the electrical engineering paper, if I remember correctly.)

Coming back to the stuff that died on me over the last few weeks: The water heater and the water purifier stopped functioning suddenly. A few light bulbs - some new - went kaput for no reason. Two or three speed regulators for fans started acting funny. The funny part is that I had replaced all of these regulators last year with new ones having one-year guarantees. This means they have been manufactured to exacting standards. That is, they all break down exactly after the one-year guarantee expires. How do they do that? I would very dearly like to know the secret behind that. Anyway, I ended up spending close to Rs. 400 per pop on three of them again. Perhaps I should set aside an annual reserve in an NRI fixed account for buying fan regulators.

The water heater issue was not exactly a problem with the machine but with the wiring work of the house. I got a new electrician (a venerable old guy) whose investigation revealed the dodgy work behind the shiny exterior - loose connections, broken fuses etc., left as it is inside the distribution box, which also explained the frequently dying light bulbs.

There was also a pleasant surprise associated with the above problem. I received excellent service from the water heater guys (V-Guard). I made a phone call to their service center and their technician came over the same afternoon, took a look at it and said it's probably a wiring issue, but anyway went ahead with a thorough inspection. The person was polite, efficient and quick. A rare occasion I was impressed by the service here.

Contrast this with the following: The water purifier guys. Big company (E-Forbes). Took three days for their technician to turn up. That too, at an awkward time when I was about to go out for something. Anyway, guy fixed it and left, but it promptly broke down two days later and he had to come again.

A table fan (Optima) that broke down a few months back. It took them four months to fix it. In fact, I almost gave up on it. Four frikkin months!! to fix a table fan. What kind of company is that? It was as if they were repairing some satellite from the space shuttle.

Mind you, all these are private companies. The myth of privatization and the so-called better service.

Before ending I'd like to introduce you to a Japanese word - mottainai. As usual, this year also I had a few visitors from Japan. A friend who came for a short vacation (she liked the place) used the above term. I had taken her around the usual tourist haunts like beaches etc. On our way to Kovalam, God's own beach, we decided to shut down the a/c and open the car windows for enjoying the fresh air. But, every few kilometers the stink - God's own stink - started hitting us. The route to Kovalam is dotted with piles of smelly garbage. And that's when she said "mottainai". It could be translated as, "it's a shame", or in a much more negative sense, "what a waste". On the same day the Indian Express had an article about how the boat operators taking tourists on backwater rides near Kovalam struggle to divert the tourists' attention from floating garbage (including animal carcasses from some abattoir upstream) while trying to explain away the garbage smell as decaying coconut husks. Just proves that we have not learnt anything from the chikungunia epidemic. The way we're going, few years from now we will definitely kill this tourism goose. Mottainai!