Long since, man has been fascinated by the journey to the core, to the centre, the focus, the essence, the substance. And he has always succumbed to the painstakingly gruesome desire to fulfill his wishes. More often than not, though, he returns disheartened and with a sense of being cheated and betrayed. But, still, not undermined by his failure, he again undertakes the 'custom', or rather the 'tradition', as it eventually becomes.... but what happens exactly during his sojourn?
I met with a similar experience lately, in fact less than 12 hours ago. My laptop, now prediluvian, was once purchased in July 2003 from a showroom in posh Dubai. After some initial hiccups, exclusive ownership was passed down to me. Since then, it has been subjected to eclectic stresses, testing it to its limit, and a few times, to an almost catastrophic results. The reasons for the same were my experimental nature and probably the first full-time laptop running only Windows available with a B. Tech student in Nilgiri since his first year. The list of the almost-fatal hardships would definitely include the transportation between the hostel room and exhibition hall on a typical monsoon day, the trip to France, besides the usual stuff. Inspite of all this, it pretty much stands (or rather stood, till about 12 hours back) just as it once did, the petty differences include the complete failure of CD writer or DVD reader and the special functionality of detecting only home-made CD's (piracy?), physical bruises, LCD coating infringement, spilling of liquid (dont ask me which) on both the keyboard and the touchpad (more than once) causing rather atypical consequences, breakage of the SD card slot (or whatever it is), expansion of the RJ45 slot, phenomenon battery backup of 67 seconds (unmatchable?), But still, it stood much the same, that was until I let curiosity overcome conscience. I dint realise that it was curiosity which had once killed the cat.
So, I had this great new idea to open up my lappie to clean the interiors, and particularly the fan, which I had just now noticed making unacceptable level of 'noise'. So, I tried to arrange for a set of screwdrivers, but it just wasnt my day. Having wasted around 1000 precious seconds on the same, I settled for a knife, which was pitted against a metallic strap of watch, a plastic scale, a staple pin, a pen cap and a couple of other similar stationary stuff. It worked quite fine, as though it had been optimised for this functionality. I took a random guess as to where to start first, and luckily luck was by my side, if only for this moment. As I progressed, I almost wrecked another smartly concealed screw. Sanity overcame, and saved the screw from further destruction. As I removed the plastic flap, what I saw I could not have expected.
It was so mesmerizing, so beautiful, that I cannot explain it in words. So, I took pictures, which I shall "hopefully" update in another 24 hours. I did not know whether curiosity is good or bad, but decided that the decision can be postponed for now. So, I opened even more screws, It was like the peels on the skin of an onion, one concealed beneath the other, and all so beautifully.
So, here I was, staring at the dust. I blew it away and wiped with a soft cloth. But how could I let this moment go away so easily. So, I decided to proceed with my basic instinct, ignoring any premonition that I could encounter. There lay the keyboard, an assembly of around a 100 something buttons all rolled in a plane with white symbols on a black background. I took it out too, practically ripping it off the trunk of the laptop. But what I got in my hands I can not compare with any mortal object that I have seen in my 20+ years of existence. A thin sheet of aluminium or two, pasted together, and on top of those were pasted this set of buttons. So thin, so delicate, so light, I felt like I could literally roll it up and carry it around in my pocket. Just holding it in my hands gave me the pleasure of thousand orgasms (ok thats a little bit of exaggeration). It was a touch no femme fatale could equal. It was a sight no caricature could compare. It was a smell no lily could rival. All this in my very own hands, what else could I have asked for? Thank you ACER. Thank you very much.
As I proceeded more, I wanted to go deeper and deeper. So, I took out the whole fan and the heatsink. The fan was ugly, a blot to the intricate atmosphere, or maybe a complement. Under the heatsink was hidden the heart of the computer, the CPU, so small, so tiny, so cute, and yet so dusty. Contended, I cleaned it up.
Somewhere down the line of disassembly, I accidently pressed the power button. The laptop getting started was the only predictable part, what was unpredictable was the dominant reddish tint all over the LCD screen, virtually replacing every pixel of black and leaving its impression on all others. Scared to death, I turned it off immediately, OK not that immediately.
It was then that I recalled I had a meeting to attend, so I ran out, leaving my beloved in a complete state of mess. I came back a couple of hours later, to find her in the same state as I had left her in......Labels: laptop, travel, zeal |
