Which is the most complex piece of machinery in the world?
Without an iota of doubt, the human body. Like all machines, this one too needs maintenance.
Periodic, Preventive. And breakdown. And to do that, it needs a maintenance manager, who knows the machinery inside out, and also knows how it works under different conditions.
This is about my maintenance manager.
My mom !
It’s been more than two decades since i left home for studies and then for work. I and my parents live in different cities, a thousand miles apart. Nowadays, I see them every few months, when i visit them, or when they visit me.
Whenever we meet, my mother would bring to the fore the best engineering skills that can be mustered- in spite of the fact that she has no formal training in engineering. She will very quickly get into the thick of things better than the best trained engineer in the world.
Her standard operating procedure involves checking on my nails, the dandruff in my hair, and dryness on my feet. Each of these 'known' and 'recurrent' maintenance issues have established mechanisms through which they are evaluated and subsequently addressed. The 'special' Japanese nail cutter will come out from the closet to ensure my nails are not only cut but also neatly shaped. I will be given special instructions for my dandruff. She will then oil my hair. And comb them.
A while later, she will get a bucket of hot water in which i have to dip my feet and stay like that for fifteen minutes so that the dryness goes away. She will then apply coconut oil on my feet to keep them going around in a nicely oiled condition.
She then commences her food and nutrition session - she will get mangoes, bananas, apples, papayas and whatever fruits are available to make a fruit salad out of those. She would cut them and decorate them in a nice salad bowl and keep running after me to feed them. I often fuss around complaining about the excess quantity she always feeds me. She knows that i have a particular liking for the Dahi Vadas and Nimbu pani she makes- these are ready whenever we meet. For protein intake, the maintenance manager has Rajma (red kidney beans) ready. The Periodic overhaul procedure works on the premise that between one trip to the home shed and the next, there should be adequate maintenance done to keep the machinery going.
Most of the time, this food and nutrition session results in a dose of over maintenance, with much more than necessary being fed. I fuss. She says it doesn’t matter. She runs after me trying to feed me.
Every morning, she gets me tea on the bed. And while i am having it, she would put her hand to my back, lest i fall down like an unbalanced six month old baby. I am still a toy for her. No more, or no less than what i was when i was born. We enjoy this sport.
It’s been more than two decades since we have been doing this. Many of my friends comment that i still continue to look very similar to what i used to when i was finishing school.
I think I know the reason. The periodic, preventive maintenance schedule, which is clear about the parameters to check, keeps a periodic track and takes actions to ensure the machine is running regular monitoring through data loggers. Plus that one additional ingredient whih has made my maintenance manager the best in the world; an ingredient that makes all the difference to all the things in this world. It’s called LOVE.
Without an iota of doubt, the human body. Like all machines, this one too needs maintenance.
Periodic, Preventive. And breakdown. And to do that, it needs a maintenance manager, who knows the machinery inside out, and also knows how it works under different conditions.
This is about my maintenance manager.
My mom !
It’s been more than two decades since i left home for studies and then for work. I and my parents live in different cities, a thousand miles apart. Nowadays, I see them every few months, when i visit them, or when they visit me.
Whenever we meet, my mother would bring to the fore the best engineering skills that can be mustered- in spite of the fact that she has no formal training in engineering. She will very quickly get into the thick of things better than the best trained engineer in the world.
Her standard operating procedure involves checking on my nails, the dandruff in my hair, and dryness on my feet. Each of these 'known' and 'recurrent' maintenance issues have established mechanisms through which they are evaluated and subsequently addressed. The 'special' Japanese nail cutter will come out from the closet to ensure my nails are not only cut but also neatly shaped. I will be given special instructions for my dandruff. She will then oil my hair. And comb them.
A while later, she will get a bucket of hot water in which i have to dip my feet and stay like that for fifteen minutes so that the dryness goes away. She will then apply coconut oil on my feet to keep them going around in a nicely oiled condition.
She then commences her food and nutrition session - she will get mangoes, bananas, apples, papayas and whatever fruits are available to make a fruit salad out of those. She would cut them and decorate them in a nice salad bowl and keep running after me to feed them. I often fuss around complaining about the excess quantity she always feeds me. She knows that i have a particular liking for the Dahi Vadas and Nimbu pani she makes- these are ready whenever we meet. For protein intake, the maintenance manager has Rajma (red kidney beans) ready. The Periodic overhaul procedure works on the premise that between one trip to the home shed and the next, there should be adequate maintenance done to keep the machinery going.
Most of the time, this food and nutrition session results in a dose of over maintenance, with much more than necessary being fed. I fuss. She says it doesn’t matter. She runs after me trying to feed me.
Every morning, she gets me tea on the bed. And while i am having it, she would put her hand to my back, lest i fall down like an unbalanced six month old baby. I am still a toy for her. No more, or no less than what i was when i was born. We enjoy this sport.
It’s been more than two decades since we have been doing this. Many of my friends comment that i still continue to look very similar to what i used to when i was finishing school.
I think I know the reason. The periodic, preventive maintenance schedule, which is clear about the parameters to check, keeps a periodic track and takes actions to ensure the machine is running regular monitoring through data loggers. Plus that one additional ingredient whih has made my maintenance manager the best in the world; an ingredient that makes all the difference to all the things in this world. It’s called LOVE.
