A difficult 'aha'

This one came from the most innocuous of places, and that took the embarrassment quotient uncomfortably high.

My microwave had conked out. After several attempts at repair, the mechanic himself gave up and said "madam, దీని లైఫ్ అయిపొయింది, కొత్త డి తెచ్చుకోండి ". (it's life is over, get yourself a new one)

No go. I had to drag myself out of home and to an electronics store. The sales guy there says "should I send someone over with the machine, and for a demo?". I was like "No, it's a simple microwave, no need, I'll figure". And I brought it off with me.

I got down to using it soon enough, and over two weeks used it regularly, but found it wasn't the most easy one to use. (read booklet and stuff too) 

As always, I turned to Diksha. "deech, why is this being so troublesome". She came back with a simple "happens when we change instruments no ma, like phones, you'll get used to it".

Another week, and it wasn't getting better. Set ego and all else aside and called the store "Vishnu, you were right, I need a demo, in fact maybe your mechanic will find that this is a defective piece, it's not settling".

And that came in the form of Ramesh.

He breezed into the house with this gust of energy. In under two minutes he ran through his script, and I was left gaping. I had him do it again, and again....it was a beautiful machine....issue was with me. I was missing one simple step. (despite effort and booklet and need and all that)

After I signed off his sheet, I asked if I could take a picture? and he's like "naada madam? enduku?"

I found myself saying "what you did was like magic. You not just got my microwave working beautifully, you showed how presumptuous I was being, you taught me something about myself, that's why"

And he so got me. He said it happens all the time . A fridge he'd done that morning....they'd put it on minimum, thinking it is minimum cooling, when it's actually minimum temperature, and it had formed icicles....he got full enthu, settled down at my table, and reeled off so many such examples. He'd found a keen listener.....  I was still recovering from the magic he'd worked.

When next day I got a call from their customer service department asking for a feedback rating on a scale of 1 to 10, I said 15.

Microwaves and Fridges can have a Ramesh to set them right, but I wonder how many such spaces in life we make assumptions and presumptions that make life difficult for us.... and we yet muddle along (after all my microwave was working, just not as efficiently and beautifully as it could).

What would it take to step back, want better, and make those tweaks? (or changes too :)