Hot, Flat and Crowded
These summers I am staying at a place called Bharwari. It has been my native place since 1991. My father joined as Principal of a Degree College. Since then, I have been staying here.
I studied till 8th in a school at Bharwari after which I left for Allahabad for remaining classes in pursuit of a better career and good academics. I did Engineering and got a job. For more than 2 years, I couldn't come to Bharwari during summers. In winters I did come for my sister's wedding.
I could barely sleep the last two nights. Not because I got nightmares or I was busy thinking about someone or something, but because its Hot, Flat and Crowded.
HOT:
Its so hot here that you would sweat even if the fan is working. Our bunglow is a beautiful place to live in. However, since there is no construction on the roof and Bharwari being located in the plains of Ganges, the Sun rays are direct and non-relenting. Throughout the day the sun rays fall on our house and make it a boiler. So even at night, its barely possible to remain inside and not feel the damn heat.
FLAT:
The condition of electricity is absolutely flat.
If the electricity supply is for 8 hours or more in a day, it is considered to be a good day. The electricity department receives accolades and life is good everywhere.
If the current flows for less than 8 hours, no issues. Its a common thing. Ubiquitous. This happens for maximum portion of the year. People are used to it. Inverters, oil lamps, hand fans are omni-present.
However, if the flow of electricity is for more than 8 hours in a day, which is as rare as horns on a donkey's head, people get restless. It makes them insecure. Its something like this: You start dieing as soon as you take birth. Same is the case here too. As soon as electricity comes, the population starts the pre-defined processes of filling buckets of fresh water to drink, put the inverters and the torches on charging, watch whatever TV serials are coming at that time and so on. They are prepared for the moment the flow will cease and they will go out chatting or do something else. However, when the flow is not discontinued, the daily routine gets affected. Though they want to go out for the normal business, the greed to sit in fan entices them in a different direction. The heart takes them towards the door but the mind forces them to stay in the fan and light of the tube rods.
The good part is, this dilemma is not so long lived since the flow is discontinued after sometime. People are relaxed and go about their daily chorus.
CROWDED:
There is this music going on in your ears throughout the night and biggest part of the day. It goes on unrelenting even if you don't want it to. The volunteers of this irritating music are Mosquitoes. The place is so crowded with them that you can't get away. There is a wide variety of mosquitoes present all around you: small, big, large, huge, black, brown, dengue, malaria, irritating................. Not any coil or liquid or sprays can ever remove this species from Bharwari. The vegetation is huge and so is the number of blocked and open drains.
Bharwari is just one of those thousands of small towns which face all these challenges and fail miserably without even giving a good fight. Residents have got so used to it that they don't even complain any more. If you complain to my mom about all this and ask her why the cooler isn't installed in the room? The answer would come, "Ek to bijli nahi ati aur fir bass 2 mahine hi to hain. Fir to mausam achcha ho hi jaega". (One, there is no electricity and then there are just 2 summer months left. After that the climate would be pleasant.)
If by any means you think this is the worst, you are mistaken. This is merely the tip of the iceberg. There are villages in the interiors where the electricity hasn't even reached. There are places where the poles and wires are although present, they are awaiting the flow of current since years. At many a places, only the poles are left. The wires have been sold off and the money utilized in the marriage of the kids or buying of cattle.
And here we are talking about Globalization, Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal, hoopla of IPL and the reduction of gap between Hollywood and Bollywood.
To be true, even I didn't think much about all this before I came here. I too thought of "bigger" stuff. Average package of 14 lpa, changing lives of kids through Teach For India Campaign, opening my dance school, criticizing IT sector and what not. Horrendous heat and buzzing sound of mosquitoes were good enough to take my mind off those stuff and bring my focus back towards these things.
Lets see if something would happen or I also would continue criticizing the dismal state of affairs and leave in a few weeks in pursuit of dream package and changing lives of others!
I studied till 8th in a school at Bharwari after which I left for Allahabad for remaining classes in pursuit of a better career and good academics. I did Engineering and got a job. For more than 2 years, I couldn't come to Bharwari during summers. In winters I did come for my sister's wedding.
I could barely sleep the last two nights. Not because I got nightmares or I was busy thinking about someone or something, but because its Hot, Flat and Crowded.
HOT:
Its so hot here that you would sweat even if the fan is working. Our bunglow is a beautiful place to live in. However, since there is no construction on the roof and Bharwari being located in the plains of Ganges, the Sun rays are direct and non-relenting. Throughout the day the sun rays fall on our house and make it a boiler. So even at night, its barely possible to remain inside and not feel the damn heat.
FLAT:
The condition of electricity is absolutely flat.
If the electricity supply is for 8 hours or more in a day, it is considered to be a good day. The electricity department receives accolades and life is good everywhere.
If the current flows for less than 8 hours, no issues. Its a common thing. Ubiquitous. This happens for maximum portion of the year. People are used to it. Inverters, oil lamps, hand fans are omni-present.
However, if the flow of electricity is for more than 8 hours in a day, which is as rare as horns on a donkey's head, people get restless. It makes them insecure. Its something like this: You start dieing as soon as you take birth. Same is the case here too. As soon as electricity comes, the population starts the pre-defined processes of filling buckets of fresh water to drink, put the inverters and the torches on charging, watch whatever TV serials are coming at that time and so on. They are prepared for the moment the flow will cease and they will go out chatting or do something else. However, when the flow is not discontinued, the daily routine gets affected. Though they want to go out for the normal business, the greed to sit in fan entices them in a different direction. The heart takes them towards the door but the mind forces them to stay in the fan and light of the tube rods.
The good part is, this dilemma is not so long lived since the flow is discontinued after sometime. People are relaxed and go about their daily chorus.
CROWDED:
There is this music going on in your ears throughout the night and biggest part of the day. It goes on unrelenting even if you don't want it to. The volunteers of this irritating music are Mosquitoes. The place is so crowded with them that you can't get away. There is a wide variety of mosquitoes present all around you: small, big, large, huge, black, brown, dengue, malaria, irritating................. Not any coil or liquid or sprays can ever remove this species from Bharwari. The vegetation is huge and so is the number of blocked and open drains.
Bharwari is just one of those thousands of small towns which face all these challenges and fail miserably without even giving a good fight. Residents have got so used to it that they don't even complain any more. If you complain to my mom about all this and ask her why the cooler isn't installed in the room? The answer would come, "Ek to bijli nahi ati aur fir bass 2 mahine hi to hain. Fir to mausam achcha ho hi jaega". (One, there is no electricity and then there are just 2 summer months left. After that the climate would be pleasant.)
If by any means you think this is the worst, you are mistaken. This is merely the tip of the iceberg. There are villages in the interiors where the electricity hasn't even reached. There are places where the poles and wires are although present, they are awaiting the flow of current since years. At many a places, only the poles are left. The wires have been sold off and the money utilized in the marriage of the kids or buying of cattle.
And here we are talking about Globalization, Indo-US Civil Nuclear deal, hoopla of IPL and the reduction of gap between Hollywood and Bollywood.
To be true, even I didn't think much about all this before I came here. I too thought of "bigger" stuff. Average package of 14 lpa, changing lives of kids through Teach For India Campaign, opening my dance school, criticizing IT sector and what not. Horrendous heat and buzzing sound of mosquitoes were good enough to take my mind off those stuff and bring my focus back towards these things.
Lets see if something would happen or I also would continue criticizing the dismal state of affairs and leave in a few weeks in pursuit of dream package and changing lives of others!
Comments