Rains and The Evening Power Cuts

It is a common in the country that when it rains heavily, or even for a slght drizzle, there can be a power cut in the city or some areas. Power cuts that can go into late hours during the nights and sometimes days.

During my school days, or even some 5-6 years back, power cuts in the evenings were supposed to be the best time for the family to bond when at home.Candles were lit, doors and windows opened for the breeze to come in. We had hand fans or papers to blow ourself some cool air. We had to battles the mosquitos at times. Families used to sit in the living room and chat away to glory, until the power came back. During school, it meant that we play in the dark with friends.

I remember me playing with frogs and playing hide and seek with friends when there were power cuts during the summer vacation. When alone at home and when the power went off, i used to sit in the balcony and watch the headlights of vehicles caress the walls of the various shops and houses along the street, and race into darkness again. Watching the sky turn from crimson to grey to black, and the steady drizzle through all this, is an experience in itself. I remember rushing to the candles once the power was up, so that i could blow them and feel proud about it.

After the candles era came the era of the Battery lights and the Emergency lights. It was considered a matter of luxury to have a nice emergency light with inbuilt radio and a battery light,with a good backup, and was one of the topics very eagerly discussed in the classrooms. Hand held battery lights have been present since long, but the sleek ones with big batteries were fun to play with. Watching the shadows of the hand increase and decrease on the wall when we move the hand to and fro in front of the light was fascinating during school, which ofcourse was explained by optics in high school :)

The simple pleasures of playing with the candle wax, the battery lights and the emergency light slowly faded away, and today we find ourself lead a normal life amid the fans and the tubelights even when there is a power cut, thanks to the inverters and UPS we have at homes, with a backup of 1 hour to 10 hours. Though a luxury, i feel inverters have taken away the chance from us to enjoy and experience the joys and fun of a power cut in the evening, when it rains.

It rained very heavily this evening in the city, and it took a half an hour more than the one and a half hour it takes to reach home. Managed to capture this across the street.