Powercuts, a part of life
On returning, one must get used to power cuts all over again. Simply put - Not nice! Everything comes to a stand still. Since, I depend on the laptop and Internet for most everything, the powercut really brings everything to a grinding halt. The battery on my laptop does not have too much life in it on its own. When the power goes, I must keep it shut. And pretty much the cable guy providing us with the broadband service is able to keep the service up only when there is power!!! And you have to just wait for them to come to work and do the ceremonial re-boots for you to be online again! Ugh! This problem however is likely to resolve when we get a BSNL broadband (DSL) connection. Unfortunately, we have to apply and wait for almost 2+ months to get a DSL connection through BSNL.
The kitchen too is almost non-functional. But for the gas stove, no other appliance in the kitchen can work without power.
Thankfully tho’, a lot of homes harness solar power these days. Both for heating (water) and lighting. My parents have solar heated water for the bathroom and a solar powered lamp (charged with solar power through the day and used in the evenings/nights). And most of the apartment buildings have some kind of basic back-up power - primarily for the lifts and some basic lighting for all homes in the building.
I wonder if there will ever be a day when powercuts will not be such an integral part of everyday life.
PS: We were in Cali when there was the “rolling black-outs” in 2000. And we didn’t lose power even for a single day!
Filed under: Infrastructure, powercut, Life, pollution, weather, Bangalore
When you bring up powercuts and applicances maybe it is a good time to ask you about the quality of internet service. What do you do when there are powercuts/ How much is internet a part of life in Bangalore? When I left India to come to the USA in 1996, I didn’t even have an e-mail address.
Welcome to my blog, Anon. Oh, I wish you hadn’t asked. I know I have to blog about the broadband disaster that we face, but it is tedious to even think of compiling that post. But, I will.
thanks Chitra…
Chits, Our first powercut in california.
We did not have power for full 15 minutes. Felt like home
You know what, sometime I enjjoy these power cuts, no TV, no lights, no kitchen work and nothing to bother.
Just sit outside the balcony and talk about something.. If we have power, definitely its not so easy to catch people and ask them to sit around for talk isn’t it ?
Smitha, the thing about a power-cut in the US, is literally everything is reset. All your machines.
Veena, what you say is probably true! But, coming back from the US, it was really hard. I wrote this post about 40 days after returning. Not very easy then!
Its really surprising that you took 2+ months for a BSNL broadband. We live in Hyd and it took 2 days for the landline and 1 day for the broadband.
Just curious, is it the case in Bangalore, that its taking so long ?