Inexpensive Repairs

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By Rajkamal Rao 
 
Go back to India Live!

We talked about Green Improvements prior. But there's a huge green story that is largely unreported in the media.  Western nations ought to look at India as a role model for practically not throwing anything away. 

By not discarding an entire object simply because a small part of it doesn't work - and instead fixing what is wrong - Indians are contributing more to saving the environment than all of the western nations put together.  To be sure, Indians resort to this in order to be frugal but the reason is less important.

We always knew that repair shops of every kind would cater to your every need.  Growing up, if your motorcycle appeared to be losing power, you would get the engine of your 2-wheeler re-bored at a nondescript machine shop.  The mechanic would essentially enlarge the hole of your engine and fit extra size piston rings on your piston to maintain (or rather, increase) the compression ratio.  Sure, the fuel economy would be impacted - you now have a slightly bigger engine - but the motorcycle is not junked.

What is to be appreciated is the skill of these technicians in repairing objects that have gone bad.  And yes, we know that labor in India is cheap but did you know that it was this low? 

1. Cost of repairing three headsets, INR 150.  We had three good over-the-ear headsets for our i-Pods that simply stopped working because the wires were loose.  I went to an old-style electrician's store and had the wires and the connector pin replaced on all three of them for just INR 150 (combined).  Now we have three perfectly functioning headsets.
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2. Cost of repairing HTC phone that was not charging, INR 650.  My HTC Droid Incredible that I bought in the US began giving me problems on day 366, a day after the warranty expired:  I could never charge the phone from my laptop.  I was in the US last fall, and when I called HTC, they acknowledged that the charging port was probably defective but needed me to ship the phone at my expense to them in Long Island and wait for their technician's evaluation.  Approx. estimate to fix it was $100 including labor but this was only if the charging port was bad.  And I had to be without a phone during the time.  I called Verizon in despair and the lady politely asked, "Sir, you are actually due for an upgrade.  Do you want me to go over some new models with you?"
   
   Back in Bangalore, I walked into a HTC authorized service center and had a brilliant technician replace the charging port in under 30 minutes - all when I waited.  Cost for parts, labor and lots of polite-speak - INR 650.  My phone is working like a charm ever since.
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3. Handy-man services, INR 150.  My mother had an electrician come home to fix a whole range of things - install electrical sockets, two new tube lights and repair a blender whose motor had gone bad.  It took him three hours to do the work at a total cost of INR 150.
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4. Eye glass repair.  The screw on my eyeglasses came apart and I luckily caught the lens before it fell down.  A visit to the local optician set me back INR 40 - INR 10 for replacing the screw; and INR 30 for replacing the nose bridge on my glasses.