Cause & Effect: A Fall Story

Cause & Effect

    Sunday evening my laptop just wouldn't boot. Tried everything I know but the screen alternated between blue and black. Sought expert help from my teenage  daughters who looked up hacks on the internet, but still no remedy. My daughters gave the verdict, the hard disk had collapsed, it needed to be fixed or replaced. I may lose all the data. 

    Consoling me they said, don't worry Dad, such things happen, it happens all the time, it happed to us as well. No big deal. Promptly the family got around to determining the age of the laptop, which they concluded was about four years. That is equivalent to old human age and therefore injury, disease or even death is quite explainable and should be accepted with equanimity. My daughter even said that Dad when you are unwell or sick, you need to see the doctor. Same with the laptop. It is injured and needs treatment. I feared the worst.  

    Don't know why but I have been very affectionate towards my laptop. Endearingly I call it Lappy. It is the only one in our family with a touch screen, foldable monitor, and is sleek and smart. It is my home office. While my daughters have Apple laptops, I opted for an HP Spectre. There is institutional competition, so I have to be more caring, possessive and defensive about my Lappy. Needless to say, my daughters detest the name as well.   

    Monday morning, saddened by eminent sickness or possible death, I took Lappy in my office bag to  office in the hope that the NIC wizards can fix it. I got down from the car with Lappy in a bag in one hand, my lunch bag in the other, my mobile in my third hand, mask on my face and eye glasses, ready to conquer my day in office. As I looked towards the office gate, I found my vision clouded by moisture on my glasses. But since my hands were full and I still had some tunnel vision through the glasses, I was confident I would be able to manage the four red stand stone steps of South Block. A grave miscalculation! Just as I was about to finish  climbing the steps my vision disappeared and in a flash I stumbled and found myself prostrate on the ground. The friendly and strong CISF men at the gate quickly helped me on to my feet. I did a quick systems check. Both my bags and my phone were in my hands but I felt an acute pain in my right knee and swelling in a finger of my left hand. Somehow I managed to navigate myself to my room.

    Taking a breath, sipping some water, I took stock of the situation. Clearly I was rattled. It was a sudden and a big fall. I found my finger black but didn't have the courage to look at my knee. Within a few minutes I was myself again and the first thing I did was call Ramesh, my secretary. I handed him Lappy and asked him to immediately call tech support and fix it. I went into some length explaining to him how Lappy was important to me and how I was able to work from home during the Covid second wave only because I had this machine. Like all good secretaries Ramesh was convinced. 

    I then examined my knee with some trepidation. Luckily the gash was not very deep and there appeared to be no bone damage. I left the wound to dry after applying the ubiquitous hand sanitizer to disinfect it. I then got back to seeing my papers, with Lappy not far from my thoughts.

    Within minutes, Ramesh was back, asking me for the systems password. I laughed at him responding that I would give that later but first get the machine to boot. Fix the hard drive baba. Saar, he said, there is nothing wrong with Lappy, it is just fine. It just needed to power up. Once Ramesh plugged in the cable, the computer started as normal. 

    Normal!! I couldn't believe it. Promptly I entered the password and it was as if nothing had happened. My familiar home screen appeared. Lappy was alive and kicking. 

    Somehow the computer healed. Was it because of my fall? Now, as I sit on my bed and type this story on Lappy, I only hope that my wounds are like Lappy's and that they will disappear overnight.