Slaves of Gadgets

As usual I started the day in the office by connecting my laptop to the "lan" chord. I waited for a few minutes....there was no connection. I prayed that the wireless connection worked...neither did the Wifi connection work....I was restless. I tried the usual trick...put off the laptop and started it again...praying that it would work (many times we do this...without understanding the problem, we presume that something would happen by any "solution" that we have on hand)...the result, however, was the same. My laptop refused to get connected to the LAN. I called the service engineer...he tried his best and told me to replace the laptop...that is easier said than done. Of course, I used IRAS to get connected to our server at Mumbai...but that means that I could not use the landline telephone when I am connected to IRAS...that introduced another stress. ....this is another example of how we have become slaves to gadgets...once the gadget does not work, you are stressed...be it a washing machine, refrigerator, TV, Radio, mobile, microwave, iron, AC, fan...once it is out of order, you can see the effect....the intensity of the discomfort differs from gadget to gadget...but to my understanding the maximum discomfort is seen when the TV is out of order....we spend a lot of time in front of the TV...if the TV is not working what do we do...how do we kill the time ?...the result is restlessness, frustration, anger....all symptoms of an addict ....when not allowed to use the "addictant". Hats off to the marketing guys for creating a generation of slaves !!!!!