Appreciating “Standards”

In the states, I always took for granted the fact that electrical plugs fit electrical sockets. I don’t know how it is done so consistently, but I don’t think I ever came across an electrical appliance that I couldn’t plug into an electrical outlet. It is different here. There are different types of plugs, and so we often need adapters even for appliances designed for India. And we often need to jiggle the plugs in a particular way so that they would “fit.”

At work, I needed new scotch tape for a dispenser that I had brought from the US. I got new tape from the mailroom, inserted it into the dispenser, and it fit. Oh joy! I was amazed and pleased that the tape matched some sort of “dispenser standard” in a setting where more basic requirements, like plugs and sockets, are often mismatched.