Waking up to the irritating screech of the inverter I got out of bed today to the Monday morning blues, already hoping that the weekend continues, a blissful little vacation from the hectic schedules and crazy life of a “delhiite”. But it was meant to be a long day, testing my patience and harshly pulling me out of my weekend reverie into the hustle and bustle of weekdays.
Already late for college, the toaster and the coffeemaker are of no use today, I have to make do with good old cereal and milk. To my horror, I find out that there is no supply of water; to my relief I have enough water in storage. Again one of those water woes days that I am no stranger to. Already sweating once out of the bath, I dress quickly and walk out to the humid weather.
As I look for a rickshaw or auto, already angry and impatient for having such an irritating start to the day, not one rickshaw driver is willing to go to the metro for less than double the usual rate.Too annoyed to negotiate the price, I board one to the metro only to find that the metro isn’t working. There goes my half an hour ride extended by one whole hour.
Irate, I take the bus, unusually overcrowded, more than the overwhelming crowd of Monday mornings- there is sole topic of discussion in the bus; everyone is venting their frustration on the driver for being lazy and telling him to speed up, as if it’s his fault they are late today!
The roads are jammed, traffic is moving at practically a snail’s pace through the flyover. I reach my college panting and perspiring, glad to be away from people and perspiration to the open grounds and pleasant weather, but soon find myself in class dozing to sleep thanks to the heat and the lullaby of the teacher.
Life without air conditioners and generator; over the years we are so used to them that it’s hard to imagine our world without them. But for these days like today, we are able to appreciate the air we breathe, which otherwise, we hardly notice. But for these days, we would not realize the luxury that is availability of electricity and regular power supply or the fact that for a large part of the rest of the affected north India, life without electricity is not vastly different in the day from a life without it.
Abhiruchi Chatterjee
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