The Indian mother Vs The Little red light

You know how dogs go inexplicably crazy chasing the red dot from a laser pointer. My mother is a little like that too, but with the little red LED lights on electronic gadgets. For some reason this whole "stand-by mode" concept doesn't make sense to her. When you turn a TV off, she wants it to really be turned off. I mean to say that it is not enough to just turn it off using the remote control, you need to get off the couch, walk up to the television and really turn it off till there is no red light. The microwave clock ticks her off too, when the clock blinks at her it becomes like this itch that she cant resist scratching. Its the same with the laptop, the modem, the air-conditioner. Every light emitting semiconductor device has to be dealt with till they no longer produce light. And you have to absolutely do what it takes, like press that main power button on the TV (and it typically takes about four thumbs to press the button) or find that hidden switch on the modem that really is impossible to locate or pull out the power-cord from the switchboard that is hidden so far behind the desk that it requires your elbow to bend backwards in order to reach it. You have to realize that some of these demands are physically impossible and dont even get me started about getting off the couch. I totally understand why one should not waste power and I admit to being guilty, more than once, of letting the television run without actually watching it, but I don't understand why it cant remain in the stand-by mode. I tried to explain to her how the little red LED actually doesn't use all that much power and how getting off the couch can be injurious to my health, but lets face it she is incurably addicted. When my back is turned I know she still secretly goes about turning things off.


I would normally let her go about with her button pushing addiction, but the other day she just pushed the wrong buttons for me. I was trying to turn the laptop ON. Now, the LED predicament means that I couldn't leave the laptop in suspension. This meant that I had to resurrect my laptop again from its death, electrons had to move about in the system and reach a state of dynamic equilibrium before I could use it again. And this only takes about 15 to 20 years. So I thought I could turn it ON, go check the scores of the cricket match and come back. Then my dear laptop will be waiting for me ready to use. I turn on the laptop, go watch the cricket match till the advertisement comes on (which nowadays happens every time you blink). So I go to check if the laptop is turned ON and quite irritatingly it was turned back OFF. Why on earth would you turn a laptop off before it even booted up? And how in the 3 milliseconds that I was away, did my mother find the time to come and turn my laptop back off.

Now this was simply getting out of hand so I turned it back ON and went to go give her a piece of my mind and tell her to keep her hands off the laptop. I marched into the hall furiously rolling my cuffs up only to ironically find myself in the receiving end of a tirade for having left the TV running.... and the laptop running... and everything running. What ensued was a well rehearsed commentary about how I leave everything switched on, with an emphasis on how precious electricity is, and with side-notes mentioning my lack of concern for the economy and the environment and how education has completely failed me. I hunched into a ball in one corner of the room and cried myself to sleep.