In US, we tend to have a lot of smoke alarms in our house. Houses, here, are made of wood primarily (unlike concrete in India). Also, there are multiple potential sources of fire – fireplaces, gas heaters, kitchen ovens, shorting of electric line etc.
These smoke alarms are usually placed on the ceiling of rooms or high up in the walls (warm air and smoke will rise to the top first).
Those smoke alarms are usually run by batteries. Ever so often (let’s say once in 2 years) they start giving shrill beeps (that is very unpleasant to the ears) to warn you that the battery is about to run out and you need to change it.
The series of doodles were reflecting upon the frustrations a common person faces around this. For example, getting woken up in the middle of the night because the smoke alarm has decided to warn you that its battery is running low!!
This chart is depicting one more of those frustrations. You try to reach for the smoke alarm from the floor – on your tippy toes and outstretched hands – only to realize that invariably, you are missing it by a centimeter or so!! Which means now, what was a simple task has translated to you having to go downstairs – go the garage – get a ladder – haul it up – climb on it (just for that one frustrating centimeter), change the battery and then haul the ladder down again!!
This cartoon was about how we always miss the height by a tiny bit but that brings about a lot more hard steps!!
This is my story…and not just for smoke alarms.
Bujhini
In US, we tend to have a lot of smoke alarms in our house. Houses, here, are made of wood primarily (unlike concrete in India). Also, there are multiple potential sources of fire – fireplaces, gas heaters, kitchen ovens, shorting of electric line etc.
These smoke alarms are usually placed on the ceiling of rooms or high up in the walls (warm air and smoke will rise to the top first).
Those smoke alarms are usually run by batteries. Ever so often (let’s say once in 2 years) they start giving shrill beeps (that is very unpleasant to the ears) to warn you that the battery is about to run out and you need to change it.
The series of doodles were reflecting upon the frustrations a common person faces around this. For example, getting woken up in the middle of the night because the smoke alarm has decided to warn you that its battery is running low!!
This chart is depicting one more of those frustrations. You try to reach for the smoke alarm from the floor – on your tippy toes and outstretched hands – only to realize that invariably, you are missing it by a centimeter or so!! Which means now, what was a simple task has translated to you having to go downstairs – go the garage – get a ladder – haul it up – climb on it (just for that one frustrating centimeter), change the battery and then haul the ladder down again!!
This cartoon was about how we always miss the height by a tiny bit but that brings about a lot more hard steps!!
Just move the switch to the position that says “no smoke alarms permitted after 10PM”.