As power outages used to give us an opportunity to bond with our neighbors, internet outages give us an opportunity to bond with our own family members.
In my childhood days, long before power backed-up apartment living, we used to face power outages frequently. These would be spurred by rains or simply by state ordained power savings. A cry of "Arre, bijli chali gayi..." would bring our lives to a temporary standstill while someone scurried for laalten or candle and someone else would grope in dark for torch or matchsticks. We kids would be overjoyed for getting a genuine excuse not to study and
secretly hoped the outage to last at least till our bedtime.
Sometimes we continued working in candle light. But soon enough, it would be time to go on terrace. Our neighbors would have also gathered on their terraces and gossip sessions ensued. We kids played hide and seek or ghost and watched stars. We looked for Dhruv taara and Saptarshi and tried to guess different star signs. Some astronomer types would tell us about Venus or Mars and we would nod along appreciatively. If we got lucky, we would also spot a shooting star. The world looked so different bathed in a veil of darkness. Soon, we got acquainted with that scary shadow and figured out it was nothing but a branch of our own mango tree. It looked so innocuous in daylight but nights gave it a menacing look. Sometimes, we spotted jugnus. It was magical to see them. They looked like tiny lanterns, flickering messages in a secret language. Frogs,crickets and other creatures lent their music to chords of night. The world seemed a bit more primal and interesting without electricity and for that brief while, we felt one with nature. Jokes, stories and small talk with neighbors gave a nice touch to the whole experience. It was with a twinge of regret and grudge that we accepted electricity back intoour lives. It was difficult to transition from the world of nature to the world of electricity, so to say.
Only when TV invaded our lives, did those power cuts start to pinch a little. We hoped with all our little hearts, that there would be no power cuts between 8:00 and 8:30 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays, as we waited for our precious Chitrahaar. And please, oh
please, have mercy, we prayed to higher powers, that there would be no power cuts between 9 am and 12 pm on Sunday mornings, otherwise we would miss our He-Man, Disney and Rajani.
The other night, I and my husband were predictably sitting with our respective devices, engrossed in our own digital worlds. Our 6 year old daughter was reading a book. Suddenly, my husband appeared from his trance and came to play with our daughter. He had already spent an hour playing with her a while back and I looked quizzically at him. "The Internet is off and I don't know what else to do!" he said answering my look. Ah! The mystery was solved. Since I was also trying to load a couple of pages, albeit unsuccessfully, I joined in their game. Suddenly, internet outage had made us bond for that hour. We played a board game, laughed and had fun. And I secretly hoped that the internet wouldn't revive for a while!
PS: This write-up was published in the 'Right in the Middle' section of Deccan Herald, 11th November 2016.
2 comments:
Makes me nostalgic about good old times!
Excellent write up .. Captures my childhood memories well!
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