Are you going to do it Yourself?

As usual, I am going to start a comparison about this topic between how its done in India versus, here in the US. In India the only thing I did myself was brush and take a shower. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc was too menial to be done. And if I found a screw loose in a table, I would call the carpenter in to tighten it. Not that I did not know how to do it, but who has a tool kit at home over there anyways.

Labor is cheap and you can get help for anything and everything which will cost less than a peanut. In every household, the driver (Desi chauffeur) is the key person. Any task is given to him to take care off. Believe me, if the driver takes off for a day, nothing will get done. Your cook won't have the groceries, kids will miss school, you'll miss work, bills won't be paid, your mistress will be mad etc. Its just chaos. 

Location: US. You can enjoy the same benefits here as well, only if your dad's name is Bill Gates i.e. Which I am not, so I have to take of everything by myself. Labour is so expensive that at times, I think of changing my career. The mentality here is very different. You can do anything without feeling embarrassed about it. Besides I like to fix things myself. If you give me something. I would split it to its atoms. And then put it back together. The end result would never be even remotely close to what it was before.

I bought a Table Tennis table and decided to assemble it myself as the installation was $150, which is almost half the price of the table itself. All it is, is two pieces of wood with four legs. It was actually more than that. I had to put in around 2 million screws and my palms were sore for a week after that. In the process I had fitted the leg wrong. This made the wood in the bottom rip out. This would be the only TT table, which doesn't have a flat surface. It is so inclined that kids climb on to it and slid down.

I re-tried the same experiment on the bed I had bought. This had only 16 screws, but my angle wasn't correct. Now, the mattress does not fit. And, it might fall apart any time. I still hadn't learned. I wanted to replace the bulb in my car's headlight over the weekend. Two hours and a broken shoulder later, I did manage to change it without blowing the car apart. I had actually done something without any causalities? Now that, simple was not possible. Its like saying, that the Corolla is now a lovely car. Well, I figured I had done it yet again when I switched it on. The 'low' beam light was now pointing at the moon. 

In the interim I had ordered a cycle which had to assembled. I returned it as something told me that after I apply my skills, the cycle would have the pedal and seat locations switched for sure. The only success I had till now was with Ikea furniture. It doesn't matter if you assembled it right or wrong. It will fall apart regardless.

I wouldn't criticise DIY as a whole, because there are people who can do a damn good job. Here everyone fixes things at home by themselves without any outside help. For me? I would rather leave it to the professionals.