Buying a Microwave oven

Percy Spencer, the scientist who accidentally invented microwave ovens (read more about it here), didn’t know what a magnificent equipment he was leaving behind for generations to come. God rest his soul. If he is still alive (and obviously old), God…please grant him one extra day with his microwave oven.

Yesterday, we bought a microwave oven! Yes, sixty-two years after the technology was invented, sixty-one years after it was patented and sixty years after the first microwaves hit the market….we bought one for ourselves. I know…we haven’t really been keeping up with the Jones…but then, in India…isn’t it about keeping up with the Agarwals?

After consulting hundreds of friends – some of them special and close to the heart and some that come two-a-penny – we decided to go in for a Samsung CE1031LAT (Read its Review on MouthShut | To post a review on other consumer durables products, try out ibibo Opinions)

If you are planning to buy a microwave oven, I suggest you hold on till it is really necessary – like when your wife cites ‘not buying a microwave’ as a reason and cancels the trip to her mother’s place.

I say hold on because…one of the friends I sought advice from said she used it only to cook Maggi. Another friend pointed out that after the first week of enthusiastic microwave cooking the sleek machine was used to store her niece’s and nephew’s crayons. We anyway went ahead and bought one for Rs 10,000 and upwards.

At 4 p.m. on Monday, after swiping my card, the consumer durable guy told us that the mean machine would be delivered within the next two hours. We called him at 6.01 p.m….and complained about his lack of punctuality. I don’t know what did the trick – we only called him 17 times in the next one hour – but by 8 p.m., the microwave was in our house.

As soon as the attendants left, I realized the microwave oven was way too big. In the shop it didn’t look so big. The same happened to me when I bought a Samsung 29 inch TV (and no…Samsung isn’t paying me to endorse them, yet) three years back. I thought the TV looked fine but when it came home, I couldn’t sleep with my legs straight till I changed my house the next week. If you like your girls small and cute…please don’t buy Samsung CE1031LAT.

Anyway, I opened up Samsung CE1031LAT’s User Manual. Due to smudging of the printing ink…it read ‘Loser Manual’. “How true,” I commented…while memorizing all the controls. I am now planning to apply for a helicopter pilot’s license – a helicopter’s controls can’t be more complex than a microwave oven’s.
By the time I had complete control over the mean machine that lie naked in front of me, it was 9 p.m.. Rekha noticed the passion in my eyes, and covered the microwave with a piece of white cloth. Here is the excuse she gave: “It is new…I don’t want a coat of dust on it.”

To cut the long story short, we had been living & breathing microwave oven the whole day and when we went to sleep that night, we nursed only one grudge: “Why does it have to be microwave-friendly vessels…and why not steel utensils, which we had in abundance?”

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