i hate power cuts...

...and that's putting it mildly. The power just went out earlier for about the 6th time today, and as soon as the lights went out I let loose a barrage of curse words that made the ladies sitting outside chuckle. Scheduled power cuts are one thing. There is such a shortage of power in India that "load shedding" has to be done. I understand that. In the old days we used to have an 8hr power cut on or around the last Saturday of the month. That was way easier to deal with. But now that it is hotter than Hades, they are cutting the power CONSTANTLY and without warning. Recently it happened at 3am and a friend of mine said that in her area it was like a street fair. It was so hot people couldn't sit still inside their house so they either roamed the roads or paced the rooftops. That was brutal. I thought the relentless 1-3PM daily cuts of late were bad, but these daily 6am cuts are killing me. I am still sleeping at 6am, or trying to (I'm lazy compared to the locals, who are already up and stirring usually around 5:30). And with no fan sleeping is impossible. So at 6am I relocate to the floor in the main room, open the windows, spray myself down with bugspray and pray for a humid breeze to seep through the windows. Sometimes when you sweat enough, if there is the slightest breeze coming through the window it will produce a cooling effect. I live for these moments. Well, this morning the power went off at 6am and stayed off until 11am. That was a real treat. Then it went off again in the afternoon and about 3-4 more times after that. I was just sitting down to some notes here at my desk when it went out AGAIN. And when the power goes out after a certain point in the afternoon, I have NO LIGHTS IN MY HOUSE. This is because we are dependent on florescent light bulbs, and they don't work unless they are already burning before the bell tolls 5pm. If the power goes out, forget the lights coming back on. I have no idea why except that it has something to do with people who steal power and make the voltage low for everyone else. And the people stealing power would be just about everyone who lives next to me. So here I am sitting in the dark with just the computer light to illuminate this dump.

Thankfully I have my Rs. 3 fan which makes surviving the April heat possible.

I Google image searched "power cut"
and this pic came up. Curious.