In Hyderabad the electricity situation is really good ("touch-wood"!!??).
The fact is we're so much addicted to electricity that we realise the fact only when we've got to do without it. So many times it has happened that we start cursing the electricity board when they shut the power... as the pitch black envelopes you...
You feel a sudden sense of the now pulling at you... you start responding to what is around you more than what's "running" in your head... say the movie that you're watching.. or discussions about politics or 100 different things.... "Noise" as they call it in Electronics....
You start hearing the small noises, real ones... And your ears start reaching out into the darkness... this must be how our ancestors must have reacted to Their surroundings... ears peering out into the night.... sniffing it for the tell-tale signs of the leopard prowling under the trees... I guess Instinct is so much a part of us.... we don't realise it...
Slowly as your attention attaches to your hearing you suddenly realise that its not that dark!! The inky blackness around you slowlys parts into a black-brown semi-haze...The dim shadows of familiar things bulging out in awkward angles... As the surroundings organise themselves the odd shapes seem more like ordinary things....
You shake out your sea-legs... reaching out from your perch on a chair.... a bed... out towards the void....
Slowly your fingertips sense the world around you... Your memory of obstacles... chairs, sofas, carpets under your bare soles... sharp edges of cupboards, the touch of cold walls separating you from the rainy world outside.... The wariness as you approach the delicate glass or china gingerly...
You realise the the table which seemed so small in the day, suddenly feels like a long stretch... seemingly endless... though known to be finite... Things seem different seen through the sense of touch. The polish on the chairs, so smooth and hard, cold to the touch.... all these sensations lost in the "day-light" of the night...
A few "knee-jerk" reactions later you become more confident and able to navigate the familiar maze of your house... stubbing a few toes if you're lucky... scraping a knee or two in your new found confidence!
The "oh-so predictable" calls to each other as you reach out to one another through small shouts of "Nobody move... I'm coming there...!!". The search for the candles or torches in their favourite "hiding places". The glow of the gas-stove as the match-box has disappeared somewhere, though the candles were found. As the glow comes on and the darkness gives way... the other senses too give way to our Masters - the Eyes...
The glow seperates like an Aura round the candle... an irregular ball that reflects off the floor.. the ceiling, yet leaves some corners untouched. All the scattered people "busy" watching TV earlier... come together to the dining table or hall and start talking about things past... old incidents and relations come alive and refresh themselves...
The eyes now reassured of light.. seek less of it... and extra torches/candles are doused - all but one... The mood shifts from one of being put out.. to one of gathering and chattering... I wonder how different we are from the nomads gathered around a wood fire... seeking warmth and company in the open sky with only moon and stars to twinkle on them....
You feel a sense of belonging.... as the mood settles and the rhythm of the wavering candle as it slowly waves around... like a slightly hypnotic wave unpredictable yet comfortable....
flickering yet steady... Now even the candle is sometimes put out... to relax in the inky calmness of the night... as "Antakshari" starts with songs favourites of each one... as we let go of sight for sound, of seeing for hearing and feeling... The night embraces the mind... relaxing and comforting...
Soon the power-cut changes from an unwelcome intrusion to a happy accident to a welcome friend... lost for a long time in the day-to-day "hurly-burly". A long lost friend finding his way back into our life... As children the power-cut meant playing "Hide and Seek" with the neighbouring children.. using hearing and strategies in lieu of direct sight. Today they're few and far between. I guess that's a good thing... I think...
I can somewhat understand why the story "Country of the Blind" by HG Wells had such an ending...
