The Humble Fan | Flash Post 463

Button, I’ll tell you why I thought of suddenly writing a post on the humble fan!

You mean, the 3-blade machine that goes round and round to make our surroundings slightly bearable on a blistering summer day?

Exactly. This morning, while walking out of the bedroom to go to another room where the family congregates every morning—me and Dost for our morning cup of tea and the girls for breakfast—I, for the first time, switched off the fan.

How does that make a fan humble?

Isn’t it when compared to the electricity-guzzling air conditioner that has to be serviced every couple of months or it’ll spray H2O all over as if in protest because it wants a rub down! Where the humble fan is concerned, all one needs to do is clean it with a damp cloth when it needs a scrub. I spend a lot of money every year calling my air conditioner mechanic to come and service it because if it decides to spray, it’ll spray—no holds barred! That’s why I call the fan humble: It’s quiet, it’s unobtrusive, it does its work without much ado, requires minimum attention and serves its purpose of cooling—maybe not so aggressively as its counterpart—but just about enough to cool the space. You get what I mean?

Yes!

Do you know why I switched it off?

Tell me!

Because I felt that it too needed some respite when nobody’s in the room. It does its job as well even without a soul around but what’s the point! That’s when it can rest its blades even if it is for a brief moment. Don’t we put off air conditioners when we leave the room? So why not the fan? I am guilty too of having kept them on unnecessarily all these years but good sense prevailed this morning.

People will think you’re insane for using the adjective ‘humble’ where a fan of all things is concerned!

I really felt compassionate. Yes, compassionate! I know it’s stupid to feel that way about an inanimate machine but I had no business making it spin round and round purposelessly!

I would understand if you said that you switched the fan off to save on a very precious commodity like electricity but the reason you state for switching it off seems far fetched!

Maybe but switching it off whenever not needed serves a dual purpose. It not only gives the fan some respite but also saves a few Watts of electricity. With 10 fans at my place, I’d end up saving quite a few Watts of electricity! If homes around the universe switched off their fans when moving out of a room, it could means saving a whole lot of Wattage! This would also teach generations after us not to be wasteful? Have you heard the song “Little drops of water, little grains of sand, make a mighty ocean and a beauteous land…” Likewise, saving that little bit of electricity can go a long way when we are mindful of switching off fans, lights, air conditioners, and televisions when we leave a room. Water taps must be turned off to save water. Usage of these precious commodities should most definitely be limited to as much as is needed. I know of people who question why they should curtail their usage of water and electricity because they see no sense in saving for generations after them. Reason being that they have slogged their entire lives to earn those privileges! They want to live in air-conditioned comfort and splash around in their heated swimming pools. To hell with the under privileged and generations to follow is their verdict!

Ok, point accepted.

Now, is that an appropriate adjective for a fan, Button?

I guess.