The story of the cleaning machine

There was once a cleaning machine. I encountered it at my first job, in a manufacturing plant in Silvassa.

One of the primary tasks of my team was ensuring the electronic and electrical components of all the machines ran well.

The machines seemed to have lives of their own. Some always functioned, some occasionally and some never. In the last category lay our primary enemy – the cleaning machine.

It seemed to never work. One day a sensor would malfunction, the next day the pipes would get jammed, another day a wire would get cut. For all of the years I worked there, more time, money and effort must have been spent on this machine than on any other. And unbelievably, it wasn’t even critical for production.

Then one day, 5S was implemented company-wide. Which led to the removal of tons of junk. All of us in the electrical department laughed. How could the management be so foolish? The cleaning machine should have gone first.

The machine concept was probably good. But somehow over the years, it just didn’t work out. The proper thing would have been to decommission it. Instead we kept on trying to make it run.

But then, who was I to laugh? Looking at my life I find that, I too don’t have the courage to accept reality. I keep holding on. To so many things. To outdated ideas. And situations, and people. Hoping that things will change, will improve, and bring happiness eventually.

During sudden times of insight, I realize that I actually need to let go, to find happiness. Have the courage to simply admit that I made a mistake, accept the situation or person and move on.

Will I ever be able to make it a habit, of intelligently letting go, at each moment?

P.S. The name of the machine has been changed to protect its identity. 🙂