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| photo credit:rolands.lakis |
I am transported to those days when we were kids,just regular kids in a small town.Internet and even cable television hadn’t eroded our simple lives.Even then our television sets would switch on with ‘KrishiDarshan’ and switch off when the lady finally said ‘namaskar’
ending all telecasts for the day ,on ‘Doordarshan‘ ,the only channel available those days.
Today we blame families not having time for each other due to advent of technology .Trust me even then my family was self-engrossed,with the exception of my mom.Whose whole life kind of revolved around us .Dad was obsessed with his work,we were into our friends and TV and studies.Most of the family time was spent in front of the idiot box.
Until one day our area experienced serious grid failure.The power was shut down,not for one or two hours but for an entire week.I vividly remember,this was the first week of January and we were still having a winter break.
The first day we felt a vacuum in our lives.We could not watch TV,play our favourite music or even read late in the night.It felt like the dark ages.We didn’t know until then what a boon this was.
The next day and the following few days ,we realised we started talking with each other ,more than ever.
My dad would come back home and we would play scrabble and monopoly till there was some light .Once it was dark,we would chat up and get to know how our day had been.We would discuss stories and concepts .Silence would feel extremely odd in the dark ,so each of us did our part in keeping the conversations on .We would sleep early and rise early too .At that age I didn’t understand the concept of healthy living , but it just felt good .We also ended up eating all our meals #together ,which was a huge bonding time.Since it would get very stuffy without the fan ,we would sleep in the balcony .Just put mattresses and bedsheets and sleep.Surprisingly ,I don’t remember ever gazing at the stars before this and being awed by the vastness of the dark but well-lit universe where they belonged.
We started looking forward to when dad would be back from work and mom would finish her chores and spend time with us .The day would be spent reading books ,we liked ,and I must have finished at least three novels in that week .Playing with friends was also maximised in this week .I don’t remember anyone ever complaining after the first day .
After a week when the power was restored in the area and soon we were back to our old habits and got wound in our own things .
This incident ,however ,had an everlasting impression on my life and every time at my home we start going towards an over-obssessed ,self-engrossed family .All I have to do is disconnect the televisions for a few weeks,I guess switching off power is not an option :).And that works wonders too.
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