The first big thing I bought from my salary when i started working in 2002 was an air conditioner set in the window of my bed room in Lucknow. Prior to that our house had only one AC and that in parents' room. So to have one of my own was a great luxury. I have been debating with myself about to buy or not to buy an AC from a long time. Though my 17th floor apt is quite windy but it does get heated up during the daytime which makes weekends little uncomfortable for a couple a months a year. I could tolerate it, it wasn't much as compared to the loo of North India but still I decided to go easy on my wallet. After all AC is a life long investment and I would need it no matter where I live in India.
Now that I had made up my mind to buy and AC, the next question was which one? Window or Split. I went through numerous reviews, asked friends digged from own experience back home and zeroed onto split AC of either Samsung or LG. Then there were researches on what capacity for which room size and which room to fix it in. I also read about the significance of stars and finally after spending hours staring and reading at various ACs at Vijay Sales in Infinity Mall on the occassion of Gudi Padwa, I finally booked my Samsung 1.5 ton 4 star split AC! The installation guys called and appeared exactly two days after.
So the installation guy arrived and just when I thought that it was all finally fixed, little did I realise what a daunting task I had in hand. First they had a good look at where we wanted to fix the AC took measurements etc. Since there was no balcony, those guys suggested that I should get a grill made and it would take Rs 5500/-. I did not have an option but still I decided to take some time to say yes. Few more calls and googles later, I went for a normal stand rather than a whole grill. So whats to be done was set and I decided to get it done from own building management.
On the day of fitting, a process which was going to take one full day, two men arrived with instruments, stool, rope and shifted all my stuff to one corner of the living room. First they broke off the curtain holder and then strated drilling a hole in the wall. It pained me to see a hole being made in a thick brick wall. It wasn't my house but still it was an irrepairable damage. The drilling went on for 2 hrs and I almost felt as if the whole wall will come down. I kept peeping in between. Next step was to take out the window grill. They could take out only one and rest were badly jammed for last 25 yrs, being painted in several coats.
So the option was to either to cut the grill by weldor else break the glass covered window. We decided on breaking the glass and doing that from the 17th floor was again a risky proposition. Glass was broken bit by bit carefully and taken care that it all fell inside the room. Once it was all done, the man tied a rope around him and crawled out of the window holding the grill by one hand and trying to nail in the stand. Then his 2 associates brought the outdoor unit of AC, pushed it through the open window hole and carefully placed in on the stand all on the 17th floor.
My misery did not end there. The AC ran ok for a couple of hrs in the night and then woke me up with some girdling noise. I switched it off and from next day the cooling did not work. It was a friday evening, I was unwell and weak from so called Malaria and on top of it my hopefully life long companion my 1.5 ton 4 star samsung AC seems dead. After going through all the hassle, this was now getting too much to handle. I cursed the moment I had decided to buy an AC. Wept and slept and woke up next day with baggy eyes but a refreshed spirit. After several phone calls someone came to rpair and found a small thermocol piece inside the machine. Its been an experience for a life time.
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