When it rains it pours and how!

My woes started with the modem going kaput. What can be as disastrous as that for a blog addict?? I did not go into shock immediately that happened because my buddy Airtel gprs connection on my cell phone was there as standby while the BSNL people got their act together… or so I thought not realizing what Machiavellian thoughts Airtel had. Once it knew that the modem (BSNL) had conked out for good, Airtel, the traitor *&%$**#@ started showing its true colors. It slowed down to a pace slower than a snail’s, taking ages to open pages (wow that rhymes) which till then it had opened in a jiffy, all sweetness and light.

Sigh, there was nothing for it but wait…  ages for those pages to open and hope for the best from BSNL.

A new modem comes the very next day, but as luck would have it I couldn’t get connected in spite of it. After frustrating calls to and fro and some resetting and stuff, something wrong with the cable, the BSNL people conclude. We’ll have to dig up and find out. With the weekend looming in sight, there is nothing for it but to wait for Monday. Oh well…

Come Monday and no one turns up. On enquiry it is found that the whole lot is busy at an emergency that has sprung up after some lines had burned down after the Attukal Pongala festival. Oh well…

Tuesday no one turns up either. How could they??? The BSNL office is almost empty with the hartal against the petrol price hike. No buses and autos plying you see. Oh yes, we Mallus take hartals very seriously you know. So it is more waiting in the anvil for me. Oh well….

At last the workers turn up on Wednesday and start digging the road in front of our house. Phew, looks like the light at the end of the tunnel is going to be visible soon, I think to myself. They change the cable and say, “Madam, try now” But no, Madam still cannot connect to the net. Ohh well…

Airtel GPRS meanwhile is chuckling and trying to play Censor Board (or Moral Police??) picking and choosing pages for me from those I try to open. For some strange reason it seems to think Facebook is where I need to be and promptly opens it each time, but not those others I want to see. Oh well…

So now I call the BSNL helpline, they check things, reset everything and arrive at the conclusion that something seems to be wrong at their Exchange. It will be rectified by evening, they assure me. Oh well…

Late evening we are connected to the net and the Lord and Master and I are ecstatic. Errrr…. The L & M merely looks relieved and goes to check his mail while I am ecstatic. Now I can have n number of pages open and start reading and commenting on blogs.

Did you think it was over?? Oh no Siree, it wasn’t. If you are a regular here at Shail’s Nest, you should by now know that any story of mine doesn’t get over till about a minimum of 1200 words have been written and so far it has only reached 553.

The next day I am at my favorite place, in front of my laptop and have about a dozen pages open. I am blissfully lost in reading when in the background I hear some sounds and out of the corner of my eye see flashes of light. Not Diwali yet, I think to myself, then why the splutter and sparks??

Sparks?? OMG!!!!! SPARKS???!!! I rush out to check its source. Everything is quiet in the lane just like on any other lazy afternoon. The partly burnt coconut leaf touching the electric post is the only thing to indicate otherwise. Oh no… Looks like a short circuit and a power failure. Rushing back inside I find the fan whirring and heave a sigh of relief.

Ahh… let me get back to my blogs. I seat myself in front of my laptop. Something seems different. No warm and friendly little red, orange and green lights blinking welcomingly at me from my right. Egad, the modem is dead yet again?? Hmmm no. It seems the converter was not converting current any longer and had decided instead  by its non-converting ways to convert me into a depressive maniac. I was back to square one. Oh well….

I call up the BSNL people again. “Yes Ma’am. We will check tomorrow” Sigh, back to the Machiavelli of an Airtel and its moral policing ways. Grrr……

I don’t bother with the net the next morning and instead prefer to delve deep into The Color Purple by Alice Walker. By noon the BSNL people turn up with a new converter. The little red, orange and green lights on the modem dance once again. Finally and hopefully I am back in circulation for the time being. And no, I am not keeping my fingers crossed as that would greatly inconvenience the tap-dancing of my fingers on the keyboard. But tell me honestly people, what exactly are the chances that everything that can possibly go wrong with a connection should/could go wrong one after the other in this manner??