Power Cuts and A Death

Bless Faraday. Devising to tax electricity. Say it is , imporatant, indispensable, vital in your life. Well for me its always a HORROR. No, I dont hate it. But lack of it during my important times in the past year has driven me mad. Yeah, it all started alongwith my final year of high school.

There i was sitting in my room, studying chemical equations, rather seeing them for the first time for the next day's monthly exam. The temperature slightly dropping outside, my head was bursting with curses at my chemistry teacher. I couldn't concentrate anymore and took a break. My hands reached for my PC's switch. The moment I touched the switch everything went dark. A million WHYs and IFs passed through my mind. I desperately wanted light. Yes , I did want to read my book. I searched for my phone and made a call to the so called ELECTRICITY BOARD(E.B.) and i was welcomed by a paused beeps indicating it was busy. This was usual, as they usually kept the receiver down before ceasing power. But this episode was nothing, because power resumed in half an hour.

After this small incident, I never really worried about power cuts. I like silence, only when i want it. The week continued with the regular tests. So did this power cut. And it was so strange it happened, always happened before a chemistry or rarely a math test. The blackout time increased more than a hour. I had this friend, yea only one who uses the mobile during exams and I do get immediate replies. This was a great relief for my desperation to study. Believe me, I had my doubts discussed but instead of panicking myself, I was advised to meditate, or I was doing something similar, trying to doze.

More worrying episodes of powercuts and messages, I had to face my quarterly exams. Being a non believer of supernatural or superstitions, my conscience had to fight me into believeing this as a mere COINCIDENCE. With just two small sections of the syllabi to be revised, my room was enveloped again in darkness after dinner. It wasnt late. 10 pm. I was compelled to sleep so that I could write the exam fully awake. Vestiges of fear still resided in my mind. I succeded in pushing myself into sleep. 50 sweet minutes of sleep disturbed by the blinding light which i forgot to switch off. Power was back. Fatigue of studying, pressed me hard on my bed. As I was pulled again into peace I glanced at fingers on the light switch. Noooo. Not over yet. After 2330 hours there was no power which the responsible officials managed to restore it by 0315 hours. A disturbed sleep, incomplete preparation and the same WHYs and IFs flashed again. Fully awake at 0500 hours. I managed to finish my study. Not again. Half hour before starting to school, the officials decided to torment me. Another disruption. I left home and the exam was satisfying as usual.

Atleast I had time for main exams. I had to write some weekly tests without even glancing at the books. Between all this, my calls to the E.B. were answered. The reason stated was "Load Setting" . This was a constant answer. What in the world these words mean? I felt this was a overdo from the part of the government. So, I asked the lineman the same question only to be treated rudely, " You won't understand Sir, even if i explain ". How infuriating... A science student myself, a physics freak... Those words were more like a personal insult to me. But to my surprise, the guy knew he let slip words, and asked a reluctant apology. It worked for him. I kept the phone down without knowing what it is.

Sequences repeated. Sleepless night before the test. And everytime it was chemistry. So, has the govt started illegally providing extra power to industries and compensating the loss by tormenting me. A surge of revenge. Not so serious. All that I wanted to do was sue the government for damages. Funny, I thought. Silly thoughts cheered me up. Another big exam, half yearly passed just the same way. The prefinals imitated the previous occurences and my performances were getting better. Yeah, these power cuts restricted my diversion towards my PC. And loads of thanks to this friend who helped me to be alive.



Now that the study holidays between consecutive exams were longer, power cuts were not much of a problem. But i couldnt stop noticing the time of interruption. It was always the day before. Strange it was. Varying between an hour and two, it became a integral part of my life. The trend followed for the most hyped BOARD EXAMS. Most hyped because it decided my career. Now that school tests were over, I had to face some more tests called ENTRANCES. It didnt need last time study. I had to prepare for months together. This connection between ME , CHEMISTRY , ELECTRICITY , was more interesting and strange. Power cuts on the eve of exams continued for all my 4 entrances. I reached oblivion. I felt the battle ended. Seriously speaking , powercuts became a rare occurence. A month passed. It rained all through that night. I woke up to meet my dear old friend POWERCUT. News was that trees uprooted and pulled down a couple of lines. I didnt worry as long as I didnt have anything to do. Someone told me it would take the whole day for them to repair.

Hours passed and I made a call to the most hated phone number only hear the guy on the other side crying and trying to talk to me with so many gasps. All he said was, Mani, the guy who went to repair the lines was electrocuted and died. Power was restored in an hour. It did shock me. But I am still not disturbed. Two weeks later, I came across this strange holiday. The minister called it POWER HOLIDAY. Compulsory power cut for an hour in the city. Aha!! The government has made it legal, the words which I didnt understand "Load Setting"... or in correct english terms which I found it from the daily paper "Load Shedding". The poor guy had pronounced it wrong.

A load shedding, is an intentionally-engineered electrical power outage. These blackouts are normally in response to insufficient resources and inability to meet prevailing demand for electricity. What all ways the government has engineered to make things legal. Fortunately, the procedure's been cancelled in a week. And now I wait for my college to open. For all those wonderfully timed powercuts and a new friend to listen and talk to.