The darker side of Chennai!

Power cuts were not a huge deal in a city like Chennai or for any other part of the country (in a funny tone) until devices came running into our houses. I still remember when my father had the brick phone-Nokia 3310, which can break floors as the internet says. And by proper internet, I meant reddit. Alright!

Chennai is believed to be a city of varied cultural backgrounds, and unlike how people think Chennai is, let me put it in simple terms. Chennai, formerly known as Madras, is a city which now accommodates people from varied backgrounds- be it a super rich man, be it a poor man.

Let, just slowly turn our plot to a resident of Chennai..

Daily chores of a mother includes waking up, finishing her morning routine while parallelly boiling milk in the stove so that, by the time the children and the husband wake up, it'll be easy. Mind you, this is the regular, day to day story of possibly every mum. Right after the alarm fades from the room, the kid wakes up and quickly turns on Wi-Fi to check any sort of messages that would've stormed in during the night (maybe). None! No red tags on top of the green WhatsApp icon at all, none on Instagram, but to his surprise, there was one red tag on the SMS icon. Quickly, as his eyes signaled his brain to open the app to check what has come, the contact name reads as "Electricity board", and the message reads "Due to feeder failure, there will be a power outage in your area. We are working towards restoring the power by 5pm". This annoyed him. It had already spoiled his fun-day sun-day!

Everyone now has sufficient access to technology and what makes it worse is that, without electricity, not much is possible. Imagine having a device that drains battery as soon as you remove the charger. Like that fruitful phone eh!! While many of us forgot how to take the day forward during a power outage, here's a small story of a family, which got the hang of the day by noon.

The frustrated kid wakes up and runs quickly to the bathroom, to only realize that he cannot piss properly into the drain due to lack of aim, only because there was no power. The kid somehow finishes off and splashes a whole load of bucket filled with salt water and makes sure it doesn't stink for the next one. Coming out, as he picks up his brush, he finds his coffee ready by the TV stand, which accommodates not only the TV, but also serves as a home to many idols, coin stand and lots of wires connected to the multi-pin power socket.

Upon drinking his coffee, he once again goes into his room, and finds out that his phone is draining battery like a man who sweats on a humid day in Chennai. On and on and on.. it won't stop because of the apps that are open, the permissions, the cricket score widget, and what not. Without wasting much time, he picks up a local newspaper which covers a few feeds from his local area. There was nothing very interesting, which forced him to place the paper down. He later finds his mom, almost done with her work inside the steamy kitchen. Exchanging views, and pointing at the exhaust fan, was a bit saddening for the kid to realize how worse it is for her everyday probably. He goes into the kitchen to drown the coffee tumbler into the ever-full of utensil sink. It floats and strives for clean water, just like every other human. Upon his fathers arrival, he avoids much contact except for a Hi and vacates the hall and goes inside his room. The father also finishes his routine, and coffee gets served. He picks up the daily newspaper to find out the latest news on honor killings, day to day news on political happenings, who is the next actor who passed away because of the virus. He later gets up and takes a quick stop to swallow a couple of colorful tablets as per years of prescription. To escape the steam for a bit, she quickly takes a break and heads to the hall to sit. Paper thrown around the sofa, reading glasses lying down, coffee tumbler by the foot, ahh how much better can her day get?

She refuses to sit, quickly arranges the dis-arrayed newspapers, and takes the coffee tumbler inside to wash it. Without further due, she decides to skip the break and instead decides to finish washing the dirty utensils.

Dad quickly takes a shower and finds the hot cripsy dosa by the TV stand. He also quickly checks his phone for any notifications that might've come and realizes that Wi-Fi isn't working, he switches on the not-much-used mobile data. Complains that the dosa lacks a bit of salt. Mom adds a few pinch of salt to the batter and makes on more dosa. Now he finds out that it's the chutney actually that doesn't have much salt, and tells mom. Anger strikes!

This has been the routine of probably every Indian mom. And, how much do you think they can handle? Ever since smartphones came, we forgot how to talk to our parents, help our mom in some of the daily chores, massage her feet for a while, and take up cooking.

Well as I mentioned in the beginning on how this family manages get the hang of the power outage.. this family did get the hang, because it was a regular thing, much like the frustrations of a mother everyday, only because we ignore the tiniest things she expects us to do. Help her and if not, at least help her in the tiniest way possible.

As the sun sets slowly, the father having arrived talks to mom happily and gets her a few savories from her favorite shop. She finishes them, picks up the bits of samosa remains on the floor and heads into the kitchen, while dad wears his track and heads for an evening walk. The kid having seen this, is filled with frustrations and decide to talk stuff with his dad upon his return. He discusses a few things with mom. Having forgotten about his phone all this time, he realizes how often he forgot about these issues and ignored them as if they were non-existent. [distant phone switch-off sound].

[doors open]

[loud noise]

[power is restored]