Returning to blogging after the longest time! Did not have any particular intentions to resume, but there was this nagging thought that I should post and when a really silly but seemingly significant event happened, it appeared to be a good candidate to blog about. It's been a while since the incident took place, but as the impact remains, I will put it up here...
Our microwave had been in use since about 16 years - it was a gift from my maternal grandparents who took notice of the trouble my mother had to go through to heat the food for my father who returned from work much after the usual dinner time, when we were all done with it. This struggle was a daily event, and being the thoughtful parents that parents are; they decided to gift it so as to reduce significantly the preventable misery.
Now this was the time before planned obsolescence had invaded the manufacturing industry, and it was absolutely normal for devices to work well for a significantly high number of years. So there was our faithful little heating device, working perfectly well, until genuine aging issues started reducing its efficiency and it slowly stopped serving its purpose.
This was about a year ago, and staunch believers that we were in repairing and reusing and fixing solvable issues, we decided to get it repaired. The services guy fixed it and even gave us warranty for a few months, absolutely confident that no issue would befall it, atleast not in the warranty period. Well, he proved to be right and the microwave was running as good as before! This went on for a few more months, and then, you guessed it right, it had to be repaired again. Pretty evidently, the warranty period reduced, and we were a bit concerned, but since the device was doing its job, we were satisfied. The frequency of issues increased, and the visits to the repair centre started growing tiring (and expensive). The button panel would stop being responsive, or the heating would be too feeble, or it would stop abruptly while running - the types and frequency of issues grew in number.
When the number of days for which the microwave refused to work outgrew the number of days for which it worked, we decided to give it one last shot and then finally dispose of it if we would have had to spend more on its repairs.
So it returned from the repair center for what was confirmed to be the last time ever. Worked perfectly well for the first few days (Honestly, I was a bit disappointed because I was eagerly looking forward to an upgrade since it was decided that we'd buy a convection oven next which would also have baking capabilities.), and then it stopped working - randomly! While secretly happy, I was absolutely not looking forward to the intervening period wherein we would have to make do without any heating device, except for the good old gas/stove.
And so this is the part that had the most impact on me - living without the power of a button that would heat my food in minutes; without the extra pains of using two utensils to heat food like rice, cooked vegetables, etc. (You'd need an outer bigger vessel to heat the water in, and a smaller vessel which would have the contents to be heated, and this would rest inside the outer vessel with the help of a trivet)
After getting irked every single time I wanted to use the microwave but couldn't, I slowly got accustomed to the fact that I would have to live with this, atleast for the next few days. I reminded myself that I was lucky to be born in an age wherein we were blessed with technology. My grandmother, or even my mother for that matter, did not have this convenience when they were of my age.
This was a small dose of medicine taken twice a day that helped me be a bit more grateful. Every time I realised I was going to get annoyed for having to heat food the long way, I replaced the thought with that of gratefulness. It did take some time, but eventually, the irritant thought had disappeared completely.
Another thing I noticed is that it made me more mindful. If I knew that I had to heat xyz for dinner, I would make sure that I got it out of the fridge atleast an hour before heating it, so that I wouldn't have to spend too much cooking gas to first get it to room temperature, and then to heat it. While the same can be applicable to heating in the microwave, it was not exactly the same situation because we'd hardly bother about a few extra seconds or 1-2 minutes, whereas it would be definitely much slower with the stove and would require a significantly more amount of time.
The entire event made me look at the issue in a different perspective - it was not just about my generation being fortunate or spoilt to be living with so many gadgets. I felt that more than that, it was also about the kind of life that we are now leading. Every simple action is mostly automated, and we are required to do too little of the tasks ourselves. We blame our dependence on these little machines on the lack of time and the ease of convenience they provide to us. Once we are accustomed to this habit, it is an uphill task going to back to simpler ways.
It is more than just normal to live the fast paced life we're leading. You'd easily be the odd one out id you're not keeping up with the latest trends in tech. But is it truly the best way? When I was comparing the way of life that we lead with the way of life our grandparents did, I realised that while we may be blessed with automation and convenience, they were blessed with peace of mind. Agreed that they had to work harder or longer, but at the end of the day, they had a slow life, more peaceful and satiating. A life spent closer to their true being rather than away from it. Happier, more fulfilling.
People are likely to argue that there is no time to even take rest in this frantic pace we're living at. While I know that that's true, it is also true that reducing your speed just a bit will get you the peace of mind that you're trying to get from the yoga classes you've been struggling to squeeze in your crazy schedule.
Now that the oven is replaced, so have my daily struggles. But what hasn't gone are those thoughts
that made me realise why our elders lived a deeper, more connected life.
Our microwave had been in use since about 16 years - it was a gift from my maternal grandparents who took notice of the trouble my mother had to go through to heat the food for my father who returned from work much after the usual dinner time, when we were all done with it. This struggle was a daily event, and being the thoughtful parents that parents are; they decided to gift it so as to reduce significantly the preventable misery.
Now this was the time before planned obsolescence had invaded the manufacturing industry, and it was absolutely normal for devices to work well for a significantly high number of years. So there was our faithful little heating device, working perfectly well, until genuine aging issues started reducing its efficiency and it slowly stopped serving its purpose.
This was about a year ago, and staunch believers that we were in repairing and reusing and fixing solvable issues, we decided to get it repaired. The services guy fixed it and even gave us warranty for a few months, absolutely confident that no issue would befall it, atleast not in the warranty period. Well, he proved to be right and the microwave was running as good as before! This went on for a few more months, and then, you guessed it right, it had to be repaired again. Pretty evidently, the warranty period reduced, and we were a bit concerned, but since the device was doing its job, we were satisfied. The frequency of issues increased, and the visits to the repair centre started growing tiring (and expensive). The button panel would stop being responsive, or the heating would be too feeble, or it would stop abruptly while running - the types and frequency of issues grew in number.
When the number of days for which the microwave refused to work outgrew the number of days for which it worked, we decided to give it one last shot and then finally dispose of it if we would have had to spend more on its repairs.
So it returned from the repair center for what was confirmed to be the last time ever. Worked perfectly well for the first few days (Honestly, I was a bit disappointed because I was eagerly looking forward to an upgrade since it was decided that we'd buy a convection oven next which would also have baking capabilities.), and then it stopped working - randomly! While secretly happy, I was absolutely not looking forward to the intervening period wherein we would have to make do without any heating device, except for the good old gas/stove.
And so this is the part that had the most impact on me - living without the power of a button that would heat my food in minutes; without the extra pains of using two utensils to heat food like rice, cooked vegetables, etc. (You'd need an outer bigger vessel to heat the water in, and a smaller vessel which would have the contents to be heated, and this would rest inside the outer vessel with the help of a trivet)
After getting irked every single time I wanted to use the microwave but couldn't, I slowly got accustomed to the fact that I would have to live with this, atleast for the next few days. I reminded myself that I was lucky to be born in an age wherein we were blessed with technology. My grandmother, or even my mother for that matter, did not have this convenience when they were of my age.
This was a small dose of medicine taken twice a day that helped me be a bit more grateful. Every time I realised I was going to get annoyed for having to heat food the long way, I replaced the thought with that of gratefulness. It did take some time, but eventually, the irritant thought had disappeared completely.
Another thing I noticed is that it made me more mindful. If I knew that I had to heat xyz for dinner, I would make sure that I got it out of the fridge atleast an hour before heating it, so that I wouldn't have to spend too much cooking gas to first get it to room temperature, and then to heat it. While the same can be applicable to heating in the microwave, it was not exactly the same situation because we'd hardly bother about a few extra seconds or 1-2 minutes, whereas it would be definitely much slower with the stove and would require a significantly more amount of time.
The entire event made me look at the issue in a different perspective - it was not just about my generation being fortunate or spoilt to be living with so many gadgets. I felt that more than that, it was also about the kind of life that we are now leading. Every simple action is mostly automated, and we are required to do too little of the tasks ourselves. We blame our dependence on these little machines on the lack of time and the ease of convenience they provide to us. Once we are accustomed to this habit, it is an uphill task going to back to simpler ways.
It is more than just normal to live the fast paced life we're leading. You'd easily be the odd one out id you're not keeping up with the latest trends in tech. But is it truly the best way? When I was comparing the way of life that we lead with the way of life our grandparents did, I realised that while we may be blessed with automation and convenience, they were blessed with peace of mind. Agreed that they had to work harder or longer, but at the end of the day, they had a slow life, more peaceful and satiating. A life spent closer to their true being rather than away from it. Happier, more fulfilling.
People are likely to argue that there is no time to even take rest in this frantic pace we're living at. While I know that that's true, it is also true that reducing your speed just a bit will get you the peace of mind that you're trying to get from the yoga classes you've been struggling to squeeze in your crazy schedule.
Now that the oven is replaced, so have my daily struggles. But what hasn't gone are those thoughts
that made me realise why our elders lived a deeper, more connected life.
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