Amber means off

I used to work in On-site Hardware and IT Services back when I was 18. What that means is, I used to go to places and offices and set up Outlook for people who can’t figure out what the “Email” and “Password” fields are.

One summer day, my boss got a call from a client who urgently needed someone to fix their internet because it was not working. Off I went in the local trains of Mumbai (takes about 30 mins). In scorching heat. Wearing a shirt. That’s right, a full sleeved shirt..

On reaching Bandra, I got off the station and tried to find a Rickshaw, but to no avail, I could barely find any, and the ones I did find, did not want to go where I wanted to. So, I walked. I walked for 20 minutes trying to find this place, which wasn’t even on Google Maps because it was still under construction, and no one knew where it was.

I finally found it, talked to the person in charge, and she gave me useful pointers regarding the problem like, “The internet is not working!” and “It was working before!”. I assured her that I was an expert at making the internet work.

There was a Desktop PC connected to a WiFi router by LAN, so I booted up the PC first, and the internet worked just fine. H,uh.

Actually, she meant that the internet wasn’t working on her laptop. I logged into the router, to see if maybe the WiFi wasn’t turned on. It’s on. Huh.

Then I got my smartphone out and tried to connect to the WiFi, and it connected. Huh.

I walked to my client and asked her if I can have a look at the laptop. She complied. I was now looking at the laptop. It took me about 2.284 seconds to notice the issue. She hadn’t switched on the WiFi on the laptop. There was a wide glaring button right in the middle of the laptop, right below the screen, glowing amber, with the universal symbol of WiFi on it. I tapped on the button. I fixed the internet.

“Amber means off, Blue means on”, and with these words, I walked away, never to return.