Born Engineer

Since the day I left BIT & came home, there has not been a single day when these words have not been crammed into my ears “beta, ye to tumhara last vacation hai ghar pe..jitna aish karna hai kar lo” And all these days at home, I am seriously trying HARD to enjoy my vacation. And as a result of one of such attempts, I have started playing carom with my family.

Last evening we were engrossed in a game of carom when suddenly the tube light of my drawing room went out. “We will have to buy a new tube light” was the obvious reply of my brother. But on closer inspection we found out that there was no power in the drawing room and kitchen. My brother’s n my only concern was “TV”. Without wasting even a second, we checked out all the fuse wires but all the fuse wires were intact. My parents decided to call an electrician but it would be possible only by 2mrw. That means one night without TV—this is the only time my brother gets to watch HBO n Zee Studio and the only time I get to be online without any disturbance (my brother being hooked to TV)..So our eyes met each other and in a glance it was decided that time has come to prove that we are engineers.

My father, aware of our intentions, said, “The entire wiring needs to be checked. We have to go for dinner and I don’t want to be late for any avoidable reasons…and above all 12 hrs without TV would do you no harm.”

Me : “but papa you should give me at least one chance to prove that I m an engg now ( I know this is the most irrelevant reason but it was the only one my pea sized brain could think of..)”

Papa : “haan ab computer engg power problems handle karega!!!”

Within five minutes I arranged all the necessary tools—emergency light, screwdriver, tester, plier…down went the main switch of our house & I started checking from the fuse board. Taking full advantage of beginner’s luck, within 5 mins I found out that a wire coming out of one of the fuses was burnt & disconnected..n the only thing left was connecting it back to the fuse board. Victory could already be seen on my face but to my utter surprise I could not open the screw of that connection point however hard I tried. “The nut is free” was the only consolation I could give myself n passed the screwdriver to my brother (who was the first to mock at me..) and to my relief even he could not!!

Finally we concluded that it’s the job of an electrician and not an engg ( I always have consolations for me..hehe ) and what we did next shows what enggs are best at….if you cannot solve a problem, change the problem….so we shifted the TV to dinning hall, connected it via extension cord to another switch & finally the TV was working. Beaming with pride I switched on the TV only to find that its picture tube was damaged and my parents said a HUGE NO when I said “papa, soldering has dried out…just bring me a soldering rod and I will bring back color to this TV!!!”