LOADSHEDDING (i remember quite distinctly elders in the house getting quite iriitated by its arrival) this word used to be a part of my regular vocabulary when I was 7/8 years old... then as I grew up it disappeared somewhere...there were no more Powercuts (also as I grew up I started calling Loadsheddings 'Powercuts'... coz i thought, that was stylish...)
However much my grandmom used to be bugged by it... to be honest Loadsheddings were quite a respite...being brought up by health concious (bengali) parents meant no studies during Loadsheddings coz the flickering of the candle could damage my eyesight... howmuchever it meant that the bid sized mosquitoes of south Calcutta might sting(!!) me.. there was a romanticism about the Loadsheddings...The few obvious things it meant to me and whihc are still in my distinct recollection are:
(i) My granddad would call the CESC if electricity does not come back within 1 hour thinking it is yet another cable fault (if not a burst transformer) ... thereafter on completion of that task would take long strides along the lane at one end of which our house was situated...all other old people would assemble below the lamp post and exchange news(!!)...I have not seen many matching my grand fathers poise...He used to say thats coz he has blue blood flowing through his veins :)
(ii) my grandmom would sit in the seat created in our balcony for adda's with her set of friends and would also cut some vegetable
(iii) my mom and dad(is my dad was home by then) standing in the 1st floor balcony chattig away to glory
(iv) my aunt would be pestering my cousin brother(who used to come first in class) to study (not bothering much about his eyes) and in turn asking me and my sister as well to engage in the noble deed
it would always be a whole lot of varied activities going on in the pretext of not doing the regular chores because there is Loadshedding :)
what is most remembered by me today is there was no sounds of TV's no music...no serials.. no chitrahaar's... no news ...happenning during that time ... as if there was some melody in the silence... some comfort in the heat without fans.. some romance in the breeze which blew suddenly during the Loadshedding
Now there are no more Laodsheddings in Kolkata and even if there are they are quite well taken care of by the Invertors... so with time .. technology has caught up to give us uninterrupted (Mega) serials ... 12 news channels...MTv's and V channel which show film music all the time.. but what it has taken away is the peace of human mind the romance of Laodsheddinsg and the romance in the Breeze...
Dont know what it has taken away from u.. but from me it has taken away my capacity to roll out in laughter in nothing... as a child no one could undertsand why i laugh all the time... I think i used to be happy all the time... theres a comfort in living with your parents living of your parents and living under your parents...
even now i carry a smile most times... but thats often coz i have read in innumerable books that a human should maintain a positive attitude..... as my father put it sometime ago.. he thinks i am running against my nature....
In fact i am trying to reinvent the laughters...
Today while I was sitting at office there was LAODSHEDDING...usually it is followed in seconds by the roar of the generator which lits the entire office in seconds...
but today it refused to get started... there was peace once again and there were memories rushing past...
Though i often think like many others I do not have the pleasure of memories but today... I could infact in those few minutes see myself peeping from the gate and could see my grandfather taking long strides in that narrow lane
1 comment:
Very original and very true, I must say...Although the electricity doesn't shed much of its load these days in Calcutta, the mosquitoes have multiplied by millions, as if to compensate for the gift of electricity.
I remember very clearly that when instances of load shedding were steadily on the decline, many of our elders, being the critical and analytical Bengalis that they are, attributed the lesser loss of light (as electricity is called in Calcutta or current!) and very vindictively so, to the Communist government and their inability to attract more investment in the state. No industrialisation, no load shedding!
But, what I remember even more clearly is what a relief load sheddings used to be...I used to pray for them every evening and needless to say, I would not be disappointed by God and the electricity department. And when they stopped suddenly, what else could we do but move on.... The price that we paid for underdevelopment!
Sorry if my comment was too lengthy. Just returned from Calcutta and this brings back a bagful of good memories! All of us would run to the terrace and so would many of our neighbours and we would chat or play antakshari across terraces…Nice time to catch up!
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