So, have you guys ever experienced a blackout?

Well, I’m sure some of you have…

But I hadn’t, for some strange reason, WHICH I WAS PERFECTLY FINE WITH.

Up until 4 days ago, when I experienced my first blackout and power-cut.

Of course, it only ran its course for an hour or two, but it was excruciating.

Why, might you ask?

It all started with a drizzle…

(Enter: A busy environment, the house hustling and bustling and worksheets, test papers and homework being completed by the two younger members of the family. The father’s on a call with someone, the mother’s enlisting the help of the older daughter to hang and collect clothes and the younger sister’s fooling around as usual☹. The older daughter, after grumbling about the clothes goes back to her room to engross herself in a captivating series, she’s recently chanced upon to read.)

Mum: MILI! It’s drizzling a bit outside, take in the clothes in case it increases. After all, the clothes shouldn’t get drenched. I know you’re lazy but do this one thing to help…

Mili: DID U JUST CALL ME LAZY AFTER I HELPED YOU WITH THE EARLIER BATCH OF CLOTHES TOO? Some people.(grumbles under her breath before heading out).

Mili: Mum? DAD? I COULD USE SOME HELP…

(Wind picks up and a slight rain begins. Mum heads inside to help and Em buzzes around excitedly and proceeds to offer encouragement in the form of waving a ball aggressively and yelling at the top of her lungs.)

(Wind becomes even faster and the clothes rack automatically moves, knocking over a rack.)

Mum: MILI! RACK.

At that point, I was desperately trying to rescue the clothes from falling over the balcony’s edge, pulling them in and simultaneously trying to hand Em the notebook she’s shoved into my hand. Dropping the notebook, I pulled in the clothes and up righted the shoe rack, despite Em’s protests. The wind accelerated yet again, and my mum rushed around frantically. My dad walked in and simply stared.

Mum: Pulling in the racks and unloading clothes at a superhuman speed.

Me: Laughing hysterically because for some reason, I had the sudden urge to laugh.

Dad: Attempting to help.

Em: Crashing into every other piece of furniture.

I don’t even know what races through that girl’s head.

Anyway, after managing to pull everything inside(the clothes rack sustained the loss of a screw and we had to reassemble the shoe rack☹. At least, it wasn’t THAT hard).

However, the wind was so strong, it felt like we were going to get blown away. We spotted people rooted to their windows, photographing from their balconies and generally seemed used to it. It was a storm, WHICH HAD NOT BEEN PREDICTED. ALSO, THE WEATHER FORECAST HAD PREDICTED HEAT AND THE SUN SHINING IN ALL ITS CRIMSON BRILLIANCE.

The glass doors rattled and shutters swung open and closed, clamoring against the windowpanes. I must admit, I did panic slightly,(actually, for a good few seconds I’m pretty sure I was close to experiencing a panic attack-), but after realizing nothing serious was occurring, I sat by the window and watched the wind and rain sprinting across in vicious sheets.

And then the light went out.

And the Internet,

And the gas.

And the electricity.

AND I WAS JUST ABOUT TO WATCH A MOVIE TOO.

The base line being, I was extremely annoyed and exasperated, without my movie, my dinner, and the Wi-Fi. And since it had been a long time since my parents encountered such a thing and I had never, it was irritating as we didn’t have an alternative for something else to do. It made me realize how unhealthily dependent we are on the Internet, and how much we rely on electricity. It powers our lives. I began wondering about everyone in the United States in the malicious winter snowstorms. They must have gone for days and days without all the essentials they required.

They really are courageous people to have been able to face a phenomenon like that.

Two hours passed, and I remained on the couch, watching the red flashes of lightning in the cloudy, angry sky, the only source of light we had. And then, it all came back.

Lighting up in halos, in stages, from one apartment to another like floating lanterns on New Year’s Day, the lights making their grand return were a beautiful sight indeed. Then, our lights switched back on, and I turned on my phone to discover texts from my friends informing me of blackouts where they were too.

The storm raged on through the night, but thankfully, there was no more of the power loss. Pondering over my first blackout and chattering animatedly with my parents on the subject(which they had to listen to for quite a long time😉), I tired myself out and dozed off.

Has this ever happened to you?

Signing off…