ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

It was one of those afternoons when nothing seemed to be going according to plan [who am I kidding? When has there ever been a plan?] The words wouldn’t come and even a walk down to the corner tea-stall for a couple of fly-infested, oily samosas wouldn’t kick-start the old grey-cells.

Dejected I walked upstairs to Shreeram/Sriram’s office and stopped dead on my tracks.

Shreeram was busy typing while Sriram seemed to be crawling about the floor like a baby.

Eh?

Suddenly interested, I walked in and found Boss, armed with nothing but his Electronics and Communications Engineering degree, trying to fix his broken desk. Apparently he had rested too much of his weight on the roll-out key-board holder of his desk and it had buckled and crashed under the strain.

Fascinated, I watched as Sriram, doubled in half, maneuvered himself into the leg-space of his desk [bet the last time he was this folded, was when he was a foetus] trying to find the round ball-thingys that make the roll-out bit of his desk slide smoothly [what? I’m not the one with the Electronics and Communications Degree!]

“I need grease”, he murmured [when instantly the Bee Gees started playing inside my head] and started hunting about in his pen stand.

Boss keeps a spare dollop of grease in his pen-stand?

He studiously picked-up Fevistick and smeared a generous amount of it on the grids. Er …. I may not exactly have an Electronics and Communications degree, but I’m pretty certain that glue and grease are 2 different things altogether. I voice my concern and Sriram replies, “It’s glue for stamps but when you put it on metal, it’s a lubricant.”

Riiiiiiiiiiight.

Images of them trying to install The Calling-Bell flashed unbidden in my mind.

Morbidly fascinated I stood and watched Sriram gamely maneuver himself like those under-water, cave explorers in that small space and place the metal rod with the round thingys, only now smeared generously with Fevistick, and then …… a few minor adjustments later, the desk was fixed!!

Oh ye of little faith, Sriram’s expression seemed to say.