We love toasted breads and we need around 16 toasts (8 each) two days a week. Tuesdays and Saturdays to be precise. I love toasts with omelettes. Sometimes peanut butter but mostly omelettes. 

Our beloved toaster gave up on us last Tuesday. All these years we operated it on the cancel button to pop the toasts manually. About many many years back the automatic pop-up function of my toaster stopped working. I don’t even remember when that happened. I simply lost track of time. One of us had to be always cautious around pressing the cancel button just in time. 

This bread toaster I am talking about would have completed 8 years this year in August 2022. It was ancient especially in an economy where such devices are designed around planned obsolescence. Three years max, give or take one.

Last Tuesday we could feel the absence of a toaster. We tried warming the bread slices on a frying pan, but it was no fun. 

The output of 16 toasts needed some degree of co-ordination between us. One person had to keep a watch. There were days when we had our share of toasts turned charcoal black. Then the blame game begun. 

The breakfast prep, especially on the days we prepare omelettes is quite hectic. There is boiling tea on one stove, frying omelette on a big pan and then the output of 8 toasts has to be managed on the side. We need this output just in time. A little delay and the omelette would go cold. A little early and the toast would go cold.

All these years, even once it did not occur to us that we might need a new toaster. If something is working, why dispose it?

That’s the trap we all fall into. 

Functionality and intended functionality are two different things. 

The automatic pop-up function of a toaster can be a huge relief. Most of the things in life are like that. We learn to live with them but should we? 

Every small change can make your life better. If it makes your life better do that change.

Getting your cavities filled. Upgrading your spectacles. Changing your sports shoes. Changing the old battery of your laptop. Servicing your air conditioner.

We waited for years to change our toaster. It was a trivial thing but it mattered. A good toast contributed to our joy twice a week. But the good news is we have placed an order for a new toaster, 4 slots, steel, many automatic features and it is arriving today. 🙂