A little something...

Let me start at the beginning.

Two weeks ago, my UPS started acting funny.

When I switched it on one evening, its light turned red and it began beeping. 

I turned it off and tried again. Same result.

I tried the next day. Once again, same result.

Another day passed, and I called someone to check it up.

Apparently my faithful UPS had a drained battery. It was dead. 

So for the last week, I worked with the constant fear that the power would go before I could switch the computer off myself and I would lose what I was working on. 

But the real problem was yet to reveal itself. 

The man who had come to disconnect the UPS had also disconnected my speakers.

So for the past week, I've been working without speakers.

It was then, of course, that I realised how much I use them and depend on then.

And it was then, of course, that almost everything I had to do seemed to NECESSARILY need speakers.

Email attachments - "Check out this great pps. Remember to turn up the volume"

Websites - "Turn up the volume"

Music - What's the use of a music streaming site without speakers???

Internet countdowns - I use them sometimes when I'm working on the computer. Now, I couldn't hear them blaring at me!

Youtube - Listening to relaxing music was no longer as relaxing

I almost missed the error messages

Just yesterday evening, I remembered another situation, about a month ago, in my summer holidays. I'd been stung by a bee or wasp of some kind. For about 4 days, my right index finger was swollen, painful and unable to move. I couldn't write, type, do up my laces, brush comfortably and a whole host of other things that I was used to doing without any problem. 

For a time, I was stuck without being to do much besides watch TV or read. 


For some reason, I remembered some stories I had read in a Chicken Soup about people who were physically challenged had overcome all odds. I began marvelling at them. Imagine being unable to do something everyone else can, while feeling that the whole world is against you. Imagine seeing everyone around you easily doing all the things you can only struggle with. Imagine knowing that its something you'll have to live with. Imagine the dissatisfaction, the frustration and the helplessness. 


I'm not saying all this to victimise those who are challenged, but I think we should all marvel at strength some of them have. While we face troubles ranging from aches, pains, sprains, cuts, bruises and all such things, they face something very different. Only a week of working without speakers made me feel how much I was missing. I practically felt cheated, as if the universe was trying to taunt me. My speakers will be fixed soon someday, but what about them? Who knows if help for them will be so easily available or even possible?  And yet, we see miracles everyday; not only from the challenged but from various people facing different crises. I don't quite know how to express it, but it was quite an eye opener to realise that it might not be the big things, but it's certainly the small things that irk the most. This means that its those who deal with these (for us) small things without losing heart are certainly to be admired.

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." - Hellen Keller

Oh and I'm extremely sorry I haven't posted for so long. I was procrastinating on blogging for a while. I was also  starting all sorts of things like diary writing in my spare time. Will try harder from now on.