The afternoon sun pours into the living room, leaving long streaks of gold on the floor. The flowers in the vase on my coffee table sway gently in the breeze.
Everything seems peaceful, but I am not. I am repeatedly clicking my tongue in exasperation. “Why?” you ask.
I have problems with my remote, remotes rather!
I have an elegant remote-holder next to me, on a side table. It overflows with remotes that help us stay entertained, with movies, soaps and lovely music.
Each device has a remote, and there is a ‘universal remote’, who’s the boss!
All’s well when all these remotes are behaving well. However, it’s not always like this, is it?
So, I have decided to watch a short film that was recommended by a friend.
Despite the latest gadgets surrounding me, I have to now battle with the remotes. Of late, the remotes have become quite rebellious.
The main TV remote has to be directed at the TV screen for a continuous period of 5 seconds, with the power button pressed, for the TV to sense it. It was not always like this. It used to be a good remote. We changed batteries, tried hitting it on the palm of the hand (isn’t that the universal cure for faulty remotes?) and also pleaded with it to work.
But this is the way it behaves now!
Our next remote is the smart remote for the smart TV. All is well here, except that something keeps rattling inside the remote. And ever since the rattling started, the ‘forward/right’ button has stopped working.
Courtesy – Openclipart
The one good thing in all this is that some of the features of these two remotes overlap!
Which means that before I start watching the short film, I have to use the ‘point me for 5 seconds before you see a flicker remote’ to switch on the TV.
I then use ‘the not so smart remote’ to click on youtube. I then navigate with the pointer on the mouse to reach the magnifying lens, which is the symbol for the search function.
If only it would point and click. Instead, the arrow runs wild on the screen, as if playing a game of hide and seek. I click in exasperation, as the pointer disappears from the screen.
I have to do it manually now. The right arrow on the not so smart remote does not work, I use the up, down and left arrows to reach ‘search’. Phew!
At this point, the naughty pointer arrow is back from its break! The system opens up a keyboard for me to type-in my choice.
I move left, up, down with one remote, then switch to the second remote, where 5 seconds are wasted before each letter is selected, then back to the other remote!
And this crazy thing goes on for two to three minutes, and I whoop for joy as the short film finally gets loaded.
“We have to get these serviced,” I mutter to myself, as I become one with the characters and their lives; and at this time, my problems seem remote!!!
Simple Moments of Life 