FANNING himself with a handkerchief, my son said: “We should get a second inverter, since this one cannot last beyond 12 hours during a prolonged power cut.” It was the day a violent storm damaged power lines, causing an outage for more than 20 hours. With our inverter completely exhausted, we had no choice but to endure a sleepless night without even a ceiling fan. Our hankies came in handy.
The ordeal took me back to my childhood days, when we knew nothing about air conditioners, let alone an inverter. A hand fan (pakhi) was the norm amid an electricity shutdown — it was portable and cheap.
Power cuts were common even then, but they did not bother us as much, except when it was time for our favourite TV serials. Otherwise, we used to sleep in the courtyard or the verandah (on pleasant nights). This afforded us extended family time, the joy of togetherness, security and a sound sleep sans electronic devices.
We never felt the need for an inverter, generator, or air cooler till terrorism struck in the 1980s, and it became unsafe to sleep out at night. The whole family contributed towards buying a desert cooler. We treated our entire neighbourhood to sweets when it arrived. It was installed at a place where all members of our family could benefit from it.
Our joint family of 14 would take turns every evening at cleaning and filling it up with water. But our trustworthy hand fans were always there when the air cooler could not be used in the event of a power failure. Having connections in the electricity board was as much of a necessity and a status symbol then as it is now. We were among the privileged few, as our acquaintance served on a higher post in the board.
We would make a beeline for the landline phone, call up uncle, and voila, power would be restored within minutes. In short, those times made us resilient and resourceful.
While I can easily cope with a power cut even without an inverter, it’s not so easy for my son. And I partly blame myself for that. But as he says, “At least we’ve got stories now.” Resilience can’t be inherited or purchased like an inverter — it’s learned, one sweaty night at a time. And he will learn it too.
The writer is an Amritsar-based freelance journalist
