This is a chapter from my fourth book called When hunger yearns
It is Friday the 22nd of March in 2024 and we have no electricity from 8am to 4pm as scheduled. T&TEC which is the electricity company, is doing maintenance work on the poles for our length of road and side roads. Looks like they are changing out some transformers. From what I understand the transformer transforms the high voltage current from the main supply into a lower voltage that comes to the houses. We were notified a week in advance so we had time to prepare. I woke up my usual time and I went to the mini mart and the doubles shop. I came home and ate my doubles. I took a bath and prepared myself for a day without the comfort of a fan and air condition. Thankfully the morning weather is cool and shady with plenty of cloud cover. I could feel bursts of breeze coming through the window. We had all the windows and the doors open. What I did not prepare for was no internet. I usually survive times of no current and consequently no wifi internet with a fifteen dollar 2 gig mobile data plan. The plan used to expire after 30 days then they reduced it to 7 days. Now they would not allow the data addon unless you have an existing talk and data plan. Basically more money in their crummy hands and more hardships for the poor man. I was not going to give the telecom giant more money that I could not afford. I was going to keep my scraps. The rich get more rich and comfortable and the struggles of the poor continue to grow. The meek shall inherit the earth. The poor shall enter heaven first.
Without the internet I contented myself with things that I could do offline. The night before I made sure that our phones were fully charged. My phone supports over the air radio stations. I found myself flipping through radio stations. Sometimes stopping on Indian music or talk radio or any of the other genres of music. I felt like I had turned back the hands of time and I was living in my younger days when there was no internet. It feels good to be able to disconnect in this manner and live through simpler means. The sound of the radio intertwined with the sound of the hungry birds making their morning rounds and the cars passing by. There was a busy fly annoying my peace and I turned into a fly catcher armed with a used plastic container. I waited for the fly to come close by and I thought I would catch him. I think the fly figured out my intentions and he made a sneaky exit. Two hours have passed by since the current was turned off. Only six more hours to go. There is no microwave to heat up our lunch. We will have to use matches and our gas stove. We have stew chicken and buss-up-shut roti from last night's iftar. I think the fly can read my screen because the mention of food has brought him back. The phrase "like a fly on the wall" echoes true. The play whe draw comes on at 10:30 am. I feel "old lady" is going to call this morning. Not what I predicted. Twenty one or mouth called. Two did call in Pick 2 though.
An hour has passed. The workmen have gotten further. Looks like they are turning a single line high tension into a three line high tension. They are pulling the cable now past my house. It is now noon and the workmen have progressed a further three poles down. Now I am seeing that the transformer was actually taken down to fit an apparatus that allows the pulling of the wire along the poles. I have settled on the more music and less talk radio station (radio 97.1 fm). They are playing a lot of the oldies and slows. I ate my lunch and feel accomplished that half the time has passed without feeling agitated. Tracy Chapman's Fast Car comes on the radio. The feet start tapping and the head nods in support. A classic of classics. I-eee-I had a feeling that I belonged ... I could be someone. I took an hour's worth of napping. I woke up with sweat beads on my forehead and forearms. I drank a big tumbler of water. I looked at the progress made and now I am contemplating if the work would have to be extended through to tomorrow. The workmen are going to each pole with the extended bucket truck and securing the lines. It was really one line added to the other high tension line. The lines are placed on either side of the brackets on the poles. God bless those who do the laborious work to keep the gentile connected and comfortable. And that was how my day went. I survived a day without electricity and internet. An exercise of patience and contentment. A day to disconnect and recharge and rewire my thinking. How was your day?
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Nasif