{"id":2405,"date":"2016-06-16T00:22:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T18:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2405"},"modified":"2016-06-16T00:22:07","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T18:52:07","slug":"power-cuts-delhi-metropolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2405","title":{"rendered":"How Delhi Power Cuts Shaped Our Childhoods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

W<\/span><\/p><\/div>

hen I first came to Mumbai<\/a> two decades ago, there were three things all Mumbaikars, across regions, religions, and income strata, took great pride in.\n\n1. \u00a0 Their local trains<\/a> (except for the Virar Fast. I was warned about getting on one on my first day in the city, and I haven\u2019t set foot on one in 20 years now.)\n\n2. \u00a0 Their autorickshaws (\u201cThey never refuse a fare and ply by meter, you know, unlike your Delhi<\/a>\u201d.)\n\n3. \u00a0 Uninterrupted power supply (Bambai mein kabhi bijli nahin jaati!)\n\nNow, any right-thinking individual \u2013 and I consider myself as right-thinking as the next MNS supporter<\/a> \u2013 would admit that you can\u2019t argue with the first and second point being major competitive advantages, so I will not even try to defend those. But I have always taken strong exception to point number three: uninterrupted power supply.\n\nMy argument is not with the factual accuracy of the statement, of course; I\u2019m not THAT crazy. But I have an issue with this somehow becoming a bragging right, like the esteemed \u201cSpirit of Mumbai\u201d<\/a>, as if this is a major benefit and has a significant impact on people\u2019s lives. Ha!\n\nAnyone who has lived in Delhi, or anywhere in the North for that matter, in the 1980s and \u201990s would remember the legendary power cuts or load-shedding that used to be a way of life, especially in the summers. Power cuts were to Delhi<\/a> what traffic was to Mumbai. These ranged from a couple of hours a day \u2013 if you were really lucky and lived inside an MP\u2019s bungalow in Lutyens\u2019 Delhi \u2013 to 4-6 hours in the rest of Delhi, and days on end in UP.\n\nNow imagine this.\n\nYou are a kid in a middle-class residential society in Delhi<\/a>. You\u2019ve just returned reluctantly at 7.30 in the evening after your mother has been screaming at you to come and do your homework since the last half an hour. You climb the three floors to your flat, enter the home, and like a cart-horse who has been flogged the entire day, you sit on your desk. With heaviness in your heart, take out your books to start studying, when BAM!\n\n

So in an \u201cehsaan jataane waali\u201d tone, she allows you to go. \u201cMagar light aate hi waapas aa jaaiyo,\u201d she still manages to impart a dire warning.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\n\n\u201cMummy light chali gayi!\u201d you shout out the obvious, like you\u2019ve just had an entire bottle of Hamdard ka tonic Cinkara<\/a>. No one can force you to do your homework now. It\u2019s like the Government has thrown in a Brahmastra for you. \u201cMummy, main neeche doston ke saath thoda ghoom aaoon? Light toh aa nahin rahi, homework kaise hoga?\u201d you use your trump card.\n\nMummy doesn\u2019t<\/a> want you to go back and while away your time, but in the dark, and the heat, she would much prefer that you don\u2019t keep getting in her way. The only thing better than two problems is one problem. So in an \u201cehsaan jataane waali\u201d tone, she allows you to go. \u201cMagar light aate hi waapas aa jaaiyo,\u201d she still manages to impart a dire warning.\n\nAnd then, you\u2019re off. The Happy Hours<\/a> are on.\n\nYou start collecting your friends by calling them out in loud voices one by one, the old school way before WhatsApp groups<\/a>. The same scene that you just saw has been playing out in their homes too. You collect, you chat, you go to the next colony on a long walk, because standing still leads to two complications: You sweat a lot and the swarm of mosquitoes hovering over your head makes you a stationary target.\n\nSo you go for long walks per force, which, as these modern fitness experts tell us, is so good for health<\/a>. Also, you go with friends<\/a>, which, as these modern wellness experts tell us, is so good for our mental and emotional health.\n\nSuddenly, the lights come back on, and you heave a sigh\u2026 of disappointment. Your ad-hoc gallivanting session has now come to an abrupt end. You trudge back to your colony, and climb three floors up, back to your main gate, and as you reach it and ring the bell, the colony goes dark again. Your face lights up, and you shout, \u201cMummy<\/a> main waapas neeche jaa raha hoon, yeh light toh phir chali gayi.\u201d\n\nNow imagine how many calories<\/a> the combination of the heat and this forced climbing and walking must be burning. No wonder all the top model-types<\/a> in Oshiwara and Lokhandwala are filled with those strapping, well-built models from Delhi.\n\nIt\u2019s late at night now. You cannot keep on walking indefinitely on the dark roads, so at 11 or so, you come back (which includes climbing three flights of stairs, remember? This is what we call flipping the calorimeter). It\u2019s hot and muggy inside the rooms, so your face lights up again, as you ask, \u201cAaj chhat pe so jaayein kya?\u201d\n\nAnd you pick up the folding cots from the store, and carry them excitedly to the roof. This happens in multiple rounds, because cots are followed by the \u201cbistra\u201d, a collective term for mattress + bedsheets + pillows. And now, you are lying down on what Gulzar Saab referred to as \u201cthandi safed chaadarein\u201d in the song \u201cDil dhoondhta hai,\u201d<\/a> and looking at the stars, identifying constellations, and sometimes, just sometimes, mistaking airplanes for UFOs.\n\nAnd then, your grandparents join you, and tell you stories. Ramayana, Mahabharata, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sheikhchilli, Mulla Nasruddin… they all become your friends for life, for they were with you on those dark, star-lit nights, pulling you into their lives irrevocably.\n\nYou sleep sounder than you ever could in a five-star hotel room with AC on at full blast. But no, it\u2019s fine, Mumbaikars are better off I guess, for \u201cyahaan pe bijli kabhi nahin jaati.\u201d\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone who has lived in Delhi of the 1980s and \u201990s, will remember the legendary load-shedding power cut that used to be a way of life \u2013 and how it characterised our adolescent days. Power cuts were to Delhi what traffic was to Mumbai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":2406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1225,3663,334,4880,4881,4882,243,4883],"class_list":["post-2405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-person","tag-childhood","tag-city","tag-delhi","tag-electricity","tag-indian-mothers","tag-metro","tag-mothers","tag-power-cuts"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Delhi Power Cuts Shaped Our Childhoods<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anyone who has lived in Delhi of the 1980s and \u201990s, will remember the legendary load-shedding power cut that used to be a way of life \u2013 and how it characterised our adolescent days. 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