The solution was simple

“We often stare at the closed door for so long that we miss to see the one that was opened for us”. Perhaps, this might be one of the most used quotes by motivational speakers and managers. But I never thought I would experience somewhat similar in my home.

My flat is on the 13th floor of our building. There is no other building around which is as tall as the one I am living in. It’s surrounded with lush green all around and Sanjay Gandhi National Park at stone throws distance. Provided these conditions one would certainly imagine a house with cool breeze flowing in through the windows 24X7. But what we experienced was something opposite.

My flat was exceptionally warm with no wind blowing in despite the windows being kept open all the time. We blamed it on the Mumbai weather. We cursed ourselves for getting into this flat. In fact, when we saw our flat for the first time we were thrilled to see it situated in a location with beautiful surroundings. We never thought we would experience such uncomfortable warmth inside the flat. Thanks to that person who invented electric fans, we felt a bit comfortable as long as it ran. And our curse to those who didn’t invent a fan that runs without electricity! Fans and air conditioners won’t run when there was load shedding and in summer there’s plenty of it.

The windows of my flat are in the direction in which wind blows. We wondered why wind is skipping our flat. It became a complex puzzle to us. This puzzle got more complicated when we went out. Even in this concrete jungle there was always pleasant breeze flowing at the ground floor lobby. If flats at ground floor with concrete buildings all around have such pleasant flow of fresh air, I wondered, why our flat at 13th floor high with open space all around doesn’t have that blessing. It took my friend from US to find a solution to our problem. By the way, he too solved it by chance.

He had come to our place to stay for few days before he could find some other place. For no surprise of ours, he too felt uncomfortable with the heat inside our flat. He joined hands with us in blaming Mumbai weather. Only until that Sunday came!

On one of those lazy Sunday afternoons, we were sitting in our living room watching Formula 1 Malaysian GP. One of my roommates was also sitting besides us preparing for his GMAT with all his papers scattered around. As we were witnessing a thrilling race with new team Brawn GP leading for most part of the race, power went off. We felt irritated with untimely power cut. The rising mercury helped us only to lose our temper faster. 5, 10, 15 minutes gone, there was no sign of power coming back. Then my US friend asked us an intriguing question, “Why don’t you open the door?”

We had never thought about it. There was no solid reason why we didn't keep the door open. Usually neighbours feel uncomfortable and complain if you keep your main door open. But opposite to our flat is the Refuge, open space which is built to serve as a gathering point during fire mishaps. We didn't have to worry about neighbours complaining if we kept our door open. I pondered over the question my friend asked and was thinking of an answer. Before I could think of an answer, he went up and opened the door. What happened next was one of the most exhilarating experiences.

Breeze of fresh air flushed into our flat through the window as if it was waiting there for ages to come inside but we never permitted and suddenly it had got the permission to get in. It was blowing with such a force that my friends GMAT preparation papers started flying in the air aimlessly and few papers flew outside the living room. It was amazing to feel the soft touch of fresh air blowing. We felt no need of fans or air conditioners even when there was no power cut. The wind blowing in was more than enough to make us feel comfortable.

After this incident we found out the answer to our puzzle which had been tickling our brain for a long time. Everything was perfect with the flat except our moronic brains. We had been keeping our living room door closed all the time. If air was to flow through the room there should be both an inlet and an outlet. There was the window which served as inlet but there was no outlet for air to go out. Hence, the air flow was seized. We, engineering graduates (We spent 4 years learning how to apply scientific principles in our daily life to improve living standards!!!), had forgotten the basic principles of science and were ranting over the weather like dumb heads! The solution was simple! We didn’t even have to apply the principles of science but use a little bit of common sense!

After this experience I slightly modified the quote I mentioned in the beginning and came up with my own. “We often stare at the closed door for so long that we forget to realize that it is us who have to go and open it for ourselves”. WOW!!