There is never a perfect replacement!

"Mohammed, can you go get a new Nozzle for our Water Purifier, the old is broken?"

Over the weekend, I had started watching a new series on Netflix and was completely hooked on to it. When Dad came to me with this request to go get a new nozzle for the water purifier, I had no inclination of stepping out for 2 reasons: 1, it was a Sunday and most shops these days are shut on Sundays and 2, I just didn't want to break the rhythm of watching this Netflix series.

However, with Dad's impatience, he still stepped out to look for the nozzle himself but came back with no luck finding this nozzle.

With sufficient water already stored for the remainder of the day, we were okay to not get this replacement on Sunday. However, come Monday and we had to ensure that this broken part was fixed immediately.

We figured out there was an Aquaguard office in nearby Chembur. On the way to Chembur, I kept making stops at local hardware stores to see if they had this nozzle...but, as expected, they didn't have this part and neither had the inclination to suggest where I could get it. Anyway, I continued to move towards Chembur. While I had put up the address on Maps (the first use of Maps in the last 4 months!), when I reached the location, it turned out to be a wrong one.

I got off the bike and started asking around for the Aquaguard office but no one knew about it. I was almost about to search again on Google for an alternative address and that's when I saw one more hardware store close by. While I knew I may not find what I was looking for, I still made a visit to the shop. The shopkeeper looked at and said "We don't this exact part BUT if you want, I can make one for you right away, okay?"

With no other options in sight, I was like "yeah sure, let us see what he has to offer". The part that I was looking for was an Original part made of plastic which connected the main water supply line to the water purifier. This shopkeeper combined 2 Brass parts and made an alternate part (with the same measurements) which would surely serve the purpose. I clicked a photo to Dad for his approval and he too was okay with the same. I paid the shopkeeper and while making the payment, I again asked him "this would work, right!?". He just kept quiet.

I came home and handed over the new part to Dad who fixed it in the next 30 minutes - while it wasn't the exact match, but it served the purpose and what's even better is that this one was made of Brass as compared to the old Plastic part. The life of this new part is surely going to be longer!

In our professional life too, we are always faced with this challenge of finding a perfect match or perfect (like-to-like) replacement - we may or may not always find that "perfect match" but if we are open to being flexible, we surely can make something out of nothing.

Your thoughts?