Hey there!
I have a couple of announcements to make.
I’m giving away my book, The Advisory Board, for free. Since a lot of us are stuck at home, reading can be a good way to indulge yourself. If you know of anyone interested in reading, share this link with them - http://hemantrjoshi.com/ and I’ll send them the book.
I will be resuming publishing short stories. About a year ago, I used to consistently post short stories on my website, but had stopped publishing as I was not receiving enough readership. I’m going to try again. This time, I’ll share my short stories directly with you through e-mail. I’m calling this series, “Easy But Hard.”
Please share this with your friends.
With that, today I’ll be sharing the short story of a watch repairer who is no longer in demand, as digital watches and phones take the place of a wristwatch.
The Watch Maker
I was sitting at the shop today, calculating my monthly earnings. It was for ten months in a row that the earnings were less than five thousand a month. The money was barely enough to feed three people in the household. I had diluted three bank fixed deposits till now to pay the rent for the last few months. Looking at the earnings, it was going to be tough to continue.
My daughter was going to start her job in three more months, so I had to manage until then.
No bank was ready to give me a loan. My wife had started working at a tea stall, but she was earning just three thousand rupees for a month. Even for her, who worked day and night at home, the workload was unbearable. Her health was declining day by day, so I couldn’t risk her working anymore. Of course, I couldn’t afford the hotel bills. She had to quit working within two months of starting.
I had hoped the shop’s decline would stop after a while, but the decline had continued on and on. Who knew how long this was going to continue? I had not even repaired the big billboard saying ‘Smart Watches.”
“Bhai ji,” a young man in his thirties came up to me, panting. He looked as if he had not shaved in years. How could people go for so long without shaving? The moustache curled at the sides like a king from Rajasthan. He looked fit like most of the rich men in the country did, with his biceps and chest struggling to fit in the white T-shirt. It was tough to miss his sunglasses. He put them on the round glasses on the desk beside me and looked at me in the eyes.
“Ye repair ho sakta hai kya?” he pointed to his wristwatch.
I had a customer in days! How could a watch repairer say no to that question? I nodded before my eyes turned towards his left wrist, on which the square-shaped watch was hanging on a plastic strap, the kind of strap that made metal straps obsolete.
Nowadays, only a few people carried wristwatches. The ones who did had transitioned to smart watches, which were too hard to repair. Gone were the days where a watch battery was replaceable. Most of the watches these days were rechargeable.
While making these watches, did they never think about people like me? How would I live if all the watches were rechargeable? It is true, you know, no one cares about the common man. The big companies all want to fill their pockets with money, with no one willing to look after people like me.
I was almost tempted to say yes, but I knew I could not repair his watch. I nodded sidewise.
“What? Check the watch, at least? The shop says Smart Watches. Why do you call the shop smartwatches if you cannot repair the most common smartwatch?”
“Well…”
The person loosened the strap and placed the watch on the desk.
“Take a look at least,” he said.
“Sorry, sir, I don’t know how to repair this watch. I named the shop Smart Watches before Smart Watches existed. Back then, everyone wore a watch on their hands. I thought watches would be permanent, just as time is permanent in this world. But how wrong I was. Everything in the world changes. I am sure time will also change soon.”
The person looked at me with wide eyes. I felt as if a drop of tear rolled down my face, but when I rubbed my hand under the eyes, there was nothing. I could only feel my dry skin.
All of my watch repair equipment was lying in the shop gathering dust. I couldn’t even remember when was the last time I had repaired a watch.
“Well, that is a deep statement.”
“I know, I know, sahib. You will not understand our pain.” I replied as my heart stayed silent. “But I am sorry, sir, I cannot repair this watch. I don’t even know how to open these smartwatches, forget repairing the watch.”
The man looked around. The watch was important to him, I could tell. As if his father had gifted him the watch, like in the old days. Wristwatches were the most sacred gifts of our time when a watch was considered to be a permanent part of your body. Today, the number of people wearing watches was reduced to a handful.
I still wore my Timex watch I bought eleven years ago. It is a classic, you know, this Timex round-dial watch. I bought it for a whole one-thousand and thirty rupees. The Timex dealer was a friend, who agreed to let me pay in installments. I still wear it as my proudest possession till date. This watch has seen it all — my rise and my fall. Today, I feel ashamed to call myself a watch repairman. How could time turn around so quickly?
“Well, is there no way to do it?” he turned back to me after looking around the busy market. Even the markets had changed so much in just ten years. There was no space to even walk on the market street, not to mention all the bad air.
I am sure some people died because of the bad air. I, for one, do Pranayaam every day in the shop, since I have a lot of free time. I even told people about it. That is the only way for us to survive in the bad air, you see.
Life is getting tougher day by day. I have no money, my health is not getting any better, and my daughter’s marriage will be coming up in a few years at most. How am I going to survive through these?
“Sorry, if I could, I would try and open it up. Why are you so worried?” I said.
“Well, my fiancé gave me this watch. I am meeting her in some time. if she doesn’t see the watch working, she will be upset.”
How foolish these young people of today are? In our times, people worried about finding jobs and filling their stomachs. With money filling everyone’s pockets, new problems come up.
“Hmm. I would say just tell her frankly that the watch stopped working. How old is this watch?”
“It is three months old.”
“Oh, so it could be under warranty. Have you checked?”
“Yeah, it is under warranty. But if I give it to the dealership today, they will repair it in seven days. I cannot wait for that long.”
“But if the watch is damaged, you will have to get it repaired, right?”
“I know. But I need to somehow show her that it is still working. I am meeting her in an hour from now. If she sees me without the watch, I am sure she will be upset.”
“Well…” The poor man was worried that it could break their marriage. He was insecure about himself. I could tell he cared too much about the girl.
“I think if you tell her that it is broken, it will be fine. In fact, this will be a memory that you will cherish ten years down the line.”
“No uncle, you don’t know the kind of girl she is. She is going to make a scene if she sees me like this.”
“What is wrong with the watch?”
“Well, it is just not working. It doesn’t show time properly. I charged it only yesterday, but it still doesn’t work.”
Looking at the watch, one could see how careful he was in using it. Not a single scratch on the strap. The dial was still shining as if he had walked out of the showroom half an hour ago. These new watches needed a lot more cleaning, and I wanted to commend the person on respecting the watch so much.
But was there a way to repair the watch? I didn’t know. He was looking at me with hope. I had repaired some of the most expensive watches a few years ago, but today, I did not feel confident to even open the watch. Heck, I didn’t even know if the watch opened at all. I held it in my hand to see one solid block of aluminum with a glass on top. There was no joint that I could flick open.
I stared at it for about a minute before putting it down.
“But why do you need to tell her anything about the watch?”
“Well, she expects me to wear it today.”
“Hmm, interesting.”
As he was turning around, I screamed with excitement! “Do you have the watch’s box with you?”
“Yeah, I have it in my car.”
“Does she know that you have opened the box?”
“No, I told her that I would not send a picture. I would show it to her in person.”
“Well, that makes things very easy for me, bring the box here.”
“Okay.”
“I cannot fix the watch for you, but I can fix the situation.”
The man ran to his car standing on the crowded street behind a couple of cows ruminating on a pile of garbage.
He almost fell down while turning around, but gathered his composure and came back to the shop.
“So here’s what I will do. I will put the watch back in the box and tape it so that it looks new. I have some transparent tapes. I can make it look like new.”
“Are you sure?”
“Well, we can try at least.”
“Okay, let’s see.”
I didn’t know how to fix these watches, but a decade of repairing watches had made my fingers dexterous. I cut a plastic film to fit the dial of the watch, with the precision scissors from my toolkit. The person was astonished when he realized that I had cut it to the exact measurement of the dial.
Without using any gum, I swiped the watch dial with my finger. Then I poured two drops of water on my finger before rubbing the water on the dial. The person was scared for a moment but realized that I was probably doing the right thing. I kept rubbing until the drops of water disappeared. I pasted the plastic film right on the water, ensuring that no air bubbles formed.
I placed the watch in the box. There was some tape sticking in the box, which was easy for me to replace. I closed the box and handed it to the person.
“Here. Just open the box in front of her. If she finds out that the watch is not working, tell her that it is brand new and it is not you who damaged it. Okay?”
“Thank you, uncle. But what if she finds out?”
“Don’t worry, son. She will not. I am confident of my hands. Can you tell if the watch is not brand new?” He looked at the watch.
“Actually, no. I think I should be good to go like this. Thank you so much! You saved my marriage!”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Go ahead, you must be getting late.”
“How much should I pay you for this?”
“Well, I didn’t repair your watch, so…”
“Anyways, keep this uncle. He put a hundred rupee note on the desk and ran off to the car.”
I didn’t know if I should accept the money. This was a memorable incident for sure. Watches had changed, and so had time. But my hands were still good to fix peoples’ troubled times. Quite literally, I had fixed several peoples’ times to date.
I think I should be happy with this realization. Only if happiness was enough to live a good life…
Like always, I’d love to hear your feedback. Please reply to this email, or fill this 2-minute survey.
Thanks for reading :)
Hemant