Last week twice “mirrors” came into the discussions.
I am a fanboy of Arnab these days. For the unversed, this is about a different Arnab. Arnab Ray is the author of “May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss” and “The Mine”. He blogs at http://greatbong.net and can be followed at @greatbong.
I was introduced to his blogs by my wife and since then I have been a regular follower of his Times of India columns. There were a lot of articles that made me connect with him and there are moments you feel :
” You are not alone in this space”.
During our times (early 90’s) it was abundantly clear that we have two streams- one engineering and second medicine. Since I was not able to follow whatever our biology teacher tried her best to teach me, it dawned on me that I should take the path of least resistance. That was geography. I was not able to pinpoint exactly where was Vesuvius in the final 10th exam I lost those 3 marks, I could have been a geologist and that meant I would travel to different places. I succumbed to internal pressure and the only technical line left was engineering. And the rest is not history, what I learnt in Engineering is a mystery. That is where I had high regards for Arnab for showing that mirror.
He wrote in this blog titled, ” They are all after me: From water that is not going down the kitchen sink to fridge making a strange sound. Sharing a piece of his blog which spoke to my mind was the one below on “small things” at home where supposedly an engineering dad has to handle small things at home to maintain domestic order.
“And by ‘small things, I mean stuff at home, the plumbing, the appliances, the flush; the machine that powers what is urban living, silent and unobtrusive at its best, disruptive and needy at its worst. Everything seems to be going wrong of late: The water is not going down the kitchen sink, the flush seems to be having a mind of its own, the door handle just came off, and the fridge is making a strange sound.“
I had dealt with all the above. In the initial days my wife would first give a look and check if I am interested. But the fact was very simple. I didn’t know how to fix it. But then as Arnab says, ” The root cause, I accept, is me. I never seem to have the right tool for the job, the screwdriver never fits, and the nut is at an impossible angle below the sink, in the darkest corner of plumbing hell, because that is where it always is, and it’s stuck and it won’t turn, and I don’t know if it is even supposed to turn, and if it does, what will fall apart. In the documentation, if it exists, I can never figure out the picture, how to orient that diagram to the mess of metal that is in front of my eyes.“
He literally massaged my ego when he said, ” I am afraid. I am afraid if I do nothing things will get worse and if I do something I will wish then that I had done nothing”.
So after careful analysis, I have come to the confirmation thanks to my wife and kids that any “small things” these days at home “Adda (too good)is the best bet, or my wife will open the “Urban clap” app ( rightly chosen they understand my plight) and log in the request. The only thing I did was to open the door to Raju the plumber who is my best friend with whom I have a relationship with the highest respect. Manjunath who came from Urban clap I have a special respect as he gave me his number and told me that he can come anytime to “restore pieces” at home.
My wife asked me a very deep question some time back, ” Why did you do engineering”? I had to tell her a story and she was very convinced that “one of the best things I did after engineering was staying out of engineering”. Handling small things at home is no more a big thing. That is the secret of our domestic peace, about pieces and thank you Arnab who showed me the way.
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