Power cut!!!

I lit the tall pink candle and put it on my table. It was a much awaited episode of power cut. Now for all those people who see that morbid, maniacal and cranky streak in me, please read further. Believe me; you’ll change your opinion later. You’ll understand why I LOVE power cuts and why I’m none of those epithets which you might want to give me.

Power cuts are a great time for some deep introspection. In that brief period, you have no choice but to break free from work and do some ‘idle thinking’. I think one could think better in darkness than during any other time. You look around your own home with a new perspective. The door, for once, is completely opened, letting the friendly darkness permeate the living room. The winking candle-lights of the neighbourhood lend a humane-charm to each and every house. (From a romantic point of view, I HATE emergency lamps! Candle lights are more ‘fairy taleish’ and mysterious). We all return to bare-basics of life during such times.

I’ve read in one of my favourite books that ‘no two sunsets are alike’ Likewise, I feel that ‘no two instances of power cuts are alike!’ Each and every occasion of power cut has been a completely memorable, wholesome and unique experience to me.

On one such instance, the kids in my apartment gathered on the staircase landings to play ‘Antaakshari‘. These are the rare times when one doesn’t find them glued to their television sets watching the whiny ‘Mega soaps’ in an adult-like fashion. It is simply a joy to see them play and listen to their ‘pleasant’ cacophony of voices with jumbled and made-up lyrics without being seen by them. The general air of mirth that surrounds kids is just infectious!

I think power cuts unconsciously draw one closer to nature. I can never forget that hot summer night when I lost myself to the stars. The sky was blacker than ever with its jewels of madly twinkling stars. I knew that my Vega of the Lyre was one among them. I fell into a reverie of thinking about Emily and Teddy and the promise they make to each other whenever they see that star. Unfortunately, I’m still unable to spot her in spite of running endless internet searches. I wonder if anyone could help me with identifying her in the night sky. It’d be such a treat, for the next power cut, to gaze at my Vega of the Lyre with a smile and a million beautiful thoughts.

On one other power cut occasion, I turned my transistor radio on and listened to some really rustic music, lying down quietly. I’m never an avid radio-listener. But on that particular time , it felt fabulous to hold on to my radio and listen with all my heart, while my mind was busy feasting on memories, imaginations, dreams and ‘pretty-thoughts’. I especially love to listen to songs like Mohd. Rafi’s ‘Zindagi bhar nahee bhoolegi woh barsaat ki raat’ or SPB’s ‘Kaadalin deepam ondru’ or chitra’s ‘vaarmukhiley’ or a haunting alaapana in Jog or Meghamalhar or Madhuvanti. These transport me to the land of heart’s desire.

As Anne Shirley says, there’s so much ‘scope for imagination’ during power cuts. One such episode of my imagination took me to an untrodden village road. I was riding a bullock cart with a hurricane lamp dangling at its rear. I had just the moon for a co-traveler. That journey never actually ended. At the recent power cut, too, I heard the cart’s mysterious tinkle of bells. I’m not schizophrenic, believe me!

There’s nothing like it when it rains during power cuts. The whole atmosphere becomes story bookish with innumerable possibilities. On such occasions, I march into the kitchen and eat away rich and indigestible things like unfried vadaams, uncooked noodles, Marie biscuits with Jam, several greedy spoonfuls of yummy milk powder, sugar coated saunf, and many other crazy things (which I don’t seem to remember now) much to my mom’s utter disgust.

As a rule I love power cuts only when they happen at night or during dusk. But when I joined work, I realized that power cuts during daytime can be fun too. At office, we used to pack up our stuff and leave for our boss’s place. It used to be like a mini jamboree. The very informality of working from a ‘homey’ place used to appeal to me a lot. Though we are such a sincere (!) lot, we used to have nice chats and cozy times as though like a family get together blending-in an admirable proportion of work

So folks, don’t look down upon power cuts as a bane. You never know what a few power cuts could do for you if only you sit back and enjoy them!

Autumn

Autumn has arrived with all her crimson and gold beauty. When joy and sadness married, autumn was born. Being brought up in a family which prefers bringing up its children(even in this computer dominated time) by telling stories by the cozy family warmth, rather than letting them play computer games, this has always been my childhood belief of autumn's birth. I'm afraid if children of today would laugh at the fairy tales by branding them as falsehoods! Thank God!I still believe in them, inspite of the hectic lifestyle.When the slow breeze with a peculiar yet sweet mixture of smells, touched me, i realized that the 'autumn lady' brimming with her charm and allure has arrived. I experience such pretty moments when i take a long walk all by myself breaking free from all rush and madness.

The leaves swivell down the trees, bidding adieu to its loving family to keep a tryst with the fall-breeze and lend her a unique personality. A personality rich in its quality and ethereal in beauty abounding in old-world charm.To me, autumn is the most charming of all the seasons. There isn't a mysterious air to summer, winter or spring. They are either too joyful or too sad. I think autumn is much like middle adulthood-rich in the lore of life and living.Not immature like spring, or fast like summer or crabbed and old like winter either. Autumn is extremely poised after knowing some divine secret of the Gods. There is an undertone of triumph in autumn, something which is not seen even in the happiest of springs. The world is past all moods and pettiness in this enchanting season. The exhilration of having been born on beautiful earth is translated in all the hues of autumn.

"Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean.
Tearsfrom the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking on the days that are no more"
-The Princess by Tennyson