Fear of the mechanic

 The guy slowly raised his eyebrows so that they were as far up as they could be. Peeling his eyes from the screen of my ipad, he looked at me slowly, with a suspicious look on his face. I was too familiar with the look and had received it umpteen times from – mechanics, repairman, IT people in office and even doctors at times.

The screen of my Ipad started flickering a few weeks back, probably due to overuse, overheat or maybe someone just sat on it!! I tried a few solutions on it - youtube hacks, giving it a sharp rap, banging it on the pillow and lastly, tried the best solution there ever is to any gadget – restart it.

Nothing worked, screen was still flickering. My daughter was woeful. After all, internet, phones and screen gadgets are the life of kids these days. I took pity on my daughter’s ‘situation’ and went out to the electronics repair store and showed my iPad to the ‘guy’ mentioned above. He connected it to the charger and turned it on (It was turned off by me after trying a ‘shutoff and switch on’ routine.).

When he turned it on, the screen came alive, perfectly ok, no flicker, no hint of fading light, no darkness on the edges, no ‘ghosts’ – thereby the suspicious look on his face.

Like a little kid trying to justify a naughty prank, I told him “It was flickering at home, don’t know what happened to it here.” “Maybe it just started working after you checked it. Aap se darr gaya woh” He smirked and said ok sir.        

I’m sure it has happened with all of us. Whenever a gadget goes awry and we call a repairman to fix it or take it to a repairman, it works perfectly in front of him. In that way a gadget is similar to a young child, who is all mischievous in front of folks at home, but SO well behaved in front of outsiders!!

Let alone gadgets. I have had such situations with myself and the doctors as well. The day I decide to visit the doctor for an illness, I start feeling well and by the time I am at the physician’s clinic, it seems pointless being there at all. Even doctors have given me the same suspicious, quizzical look as that of the repairman.

To narrate another story - Once my bike lost ignition and stopped. I was stuck on the main road. The mechanic was somewhat far from the place (Past a signal junction and a ‘U-turn’). I tried the kick start, the electric start - with and without the choke. Also tried jump starting it (after seeing a youtube video in the middle of the road !!). Finally there was no other solution, than to push it to the garage. I reached the garage, walking, trotting, even running while pushing the bike. By the time I reached the garage, I was soaking with sweat and panting like a dog. I told the mechanic what had happened. He said ok, put the bike on centre stand, turned the key and kicked the start. The engine fired to life – he pulled at the throttle and it whirred. Then looking at me, he smiled. Here I had pushed the bike for about a kilometer and a half, sweated like a pig from the effort of it to get it to a garage, where this guy had started it in a jiffy without even opening up the engine !! It was like a mockery of my efforts !! Unreasonable, but for this reason, I was kind of angry on the mechanic for starting the engine at all !! 😊

Why it happens, god knows? But it does and lots of times.  

So, guess it means that mechanics, repairman and doctors are all necessary to put things right and work well again and sometimes even fear or presence of them is sufficient !!