My house has many members. Currently there are 14, but there are also floating members, who come and go. There are at least 20 cell phones in the house at any given point of time. They all need to be charged on a regular basis and for some now-forgotten reason, the responsibility of charging them all had fallen on me, the oldest member, at 90 years.
And I take my job seriously. Can you imagine a cell phone which has not been charged? Hell has no fury greater than that of the owner of a dead cell phone!
Ours is a sprawling house with many rooms and plenty of electrical outlets; so charging the phones poses no particular problems. But unfortunately the cell phones are of different models, needing different chargers. There are also Apple and other electronic watches which need a round magnetic charger. There is the Bluetooth music headset without which I cannot negotiate my daily morning jog of two and a half hours. It is not a pleasant experience, I can assure you, when in the midst of a long jog, the lady whispers into my headset, “Battery Low “ and after about three or four warnings, switches it off!
Some encouragement
My children (and grandchildren) all encourage me to continue to be in charge of the chargers, assuring me that it is good occupational therapy and it would ward off onset of dementia (ward off, mind you, not prevent).
There are other types of chargers too. My great grandson, all of two years, is the owner of a fancy train which winds along on rails occupying the floor of almost the whole room. The catch is that the train needs to be charged periodically, depending on for how long he had used it. Since I can’t keep track all the time of his activities, it is not unusual for me to hear the complaint, “Daddy, Aarav’s train has not been charged “.
She is my granddaughter Janaki, but she calls me daddy. Now Aarav, an angel of a two-year-old that he is, has the nasty habit of chewing on anything within his reach, and the train charger is no exception. He bites the insertion plug of the charger out of shape, and
then what is the charger in charge supposed to do? Luckily I have also a grandson, an aeronautical engineer for whom it is child’s play to knock the charger back to shape. Old Shankar, now a young father in his own right, and, as I said, a fine aeronautical engineer, had his own share of biting anything near his reach when he was a toddler of two. So he knows the problem and luckily, the solution too.
No worries
I am tech-savvy, thanks to the gadgetry that abounds these days. I don’t get worried if there is a power failure. You see, I have several battery packs in my store room. It is child’s play for me to charge whatever needs charging with one of those battery packs. But I often face new challenges in my job as charger-in-chief.
I have two great granddaughters. The elder one is Varalakshmi, just one year old. Her mother Akila, that is, my granddaughter, God bless her, is a very resourceful girl. She has got hold of a gadget (electronic, naturally) which warns people all over the house if and when her baby daughter cries or makes unusual sounds in her crib. But, yes, you guessed it, the gadget needs frequent charging, depending on how often or how long the baby cries. But Varalakshmi is not much of a crier. She smiles all the time, grins at everyone who happens to be around and often bursts out into gurgles and screeches. The gadget dutifully picks up all these delightful noises and broadcasts them to everyone in the house. And I happily charge the electronic marvel for another session of Varalakshmi‘s repertoire.
Another three
One of the advantages of being old is the joy of having lots of grandchildren and great grandchildren. Let me introduce three more of my grandchildren. These three have not yet gifted me with any great grandchildren; they are yet to marry. They travel a lot but when they are at home it is great fun. Tara and Venkat are super-athletes and sport a few gadgets that tell them how much they sprinted or how fast they served in tennis. Yes, I certainly charge these gadgets.
And finally I have to thank my beloved grandson Ashwin, who is the one who coached me up on electronics, patiently taught me the intricacies of charging gadgets and interpreting their telltale and often bizarre recordings. He also sends me messages whenever he travels by Über in whichever city he happens to be. I often follow his rides, wonder why his car is held up, cheer secretly when a traffic light turns green to help him to proceed, and finally heave a sigh of relief when he reaches his destination.
I must conclude with a secret hope. I have not told you yet about my latest great granddaughter, Anika. She recently arrived in this world, a few weeks ago, in fact. Another beauty, obviously ready to set the world agog with her charm. I, on my part am waiting to see what gadgets her mother, Sneha is going to buy. I need to be ready and stay ahead and
be able to charge whatever is bought for Anika. These fourth generation babies are delightful, but they bring along with them gadgetries which can confuse an old man.
pviyer30 @yahoo.com
