Of gadgets and handymen

Growing up, being gadget-savvy had never featured in my list of wanna-grow-up-to-be. I've wavered between wanting to live in a thatched hut(have you ever sat inside of an umbrella and moved in your little doll-house belongings and pretended that you're living in a hut? Well I have and at that time I thought it was uber-cool!), to becoming an air-hostess, a doctor, travel guide, journo and so on and so forth. Fixing things, handling screw-drivers, hammers and what-not never featured in the daily agenda - painting, drawing, craft-work, reading, music- all packed in some very entertaining days and weeks and months, growing up.

Adulthood has been all about realizing an entirely new dimension to my personality; perhaps this is what makes one become what is called 'well-rounded'. Over time, I have become proficient in using screw drivers and hammers, pliers and some others the names of which I can hardly recall. Most of it has been due to the nature of my job. Some due to moving to this land of DIY where labor costs are an arm and a leg.

This weekend, I made grandiose plans to paint my bedroom. I had swapped the window treatment about a year ago, and there had been some remnants of a valance holder which I was unable to remove at that time. With this new project, I couldn't possibly paint around the plastic holder which appeared to be nailed(flat) to the wall. All efforts to pry it out with the limited gadgets that I owned came to naught. And it appeared that my project might come to a grinding halt, because unless I had the nail removed or found a way to break the plastic holder- there was no moving forward.

After finishing some long overdue chores, I landed at one of the two popular 'home improvement stores'. I rang the bell for assistance in the hope of getting some assistance in the form of humans over automated robots. Each one of them seemed pre-occupied and it appeared that it would be a while before someone could come to my rescue. I sauntered around the hardware/tools section- made a couple or more rounds. And returned more confused than ever. An elderly man happened to enter the section. After a second's hesitation, I walked up to him and explained my 'situation' in detail. With amusement, he asked me how I'd landed in this situation. And after a long spiel, he smiled and walked two aisles over to pick this up. "Here you go", he said, "this will be the best 10$ you will spend". A few minutes of explanation followed on how I should be using the tool and what else it could be used for. If there had been some spare nails and a test wall around, he would've even demonstrated to complete the lesson.

He ended it with "Don't even think of calling for professional help for this, you can do it!". Some pep talk that!

And thus I came home and if it weren't for the fact that I was ravenous, I would have proceeded right upstairs to get cracking. But 10 mins was all it took for 4 nails and holders to come out. And thus I now have a new tool in my kit and learnt a new lesson in gadgetry. Nail pullers! Who would've thunk?