Amber means off

I used to work in On-site Hardware and IT Services back when I was 18. What that really 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 for.

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 to Bandra. From Malad. In the local train (takes about 30 mins). In scorching heat. Wearing a shirt. That’s right, a shirt. Yes, I owned a shirt and it’s framed on the wall right next to my posters.

On reaching Bandra, I got off the station and tried to find a Rickshaw, but to no avail, I barely found any, and the ones I did find, did not want to go where I wanted to. — One day I want to get in a Rickshaw and tell the Rickshawala to go where he feels like going that day— So, I walked. I walked for 20 minutes finding the place, which, wasn’t even on the map because it was a place under construction, and no one really 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. Huh.

Apparently 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.

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