I just survived a power shut down of humongasaurian proportions.. (If you do not know what Humongasaur is then go here.) and I've come up with a list of things you could do to survive a similar occurence. Also this might help people ranging from any part of Tamil Nadu other than Chennai as they have scheduled power cuts. Chennai of course maintains the oxymoron of being cool while hot. So here goes..
10 things to do when power cuts and the summer gangs up on you..
1) Fluids. Make sure you are drinking a lot of water. Anticipate power cuts and make sure you have plenty of liquids in cold storage. Ginger and Lemon with honey is an awesome coolant. This might be the perfect time for you to try the new non-carbonated drinks on offer like nimbuz, lmn and tion. I recommend tiON.. especially the apple and orange flavours..
2) Sleep. This is the time to catch up for lost time and get some serious shut eye.. Try to change your body clock by sleeping an hour late at night.. (I would suggest getting up an hour early.. but that would be sacrilegious and hypocritical)
3) Movies. Now this is a great idea especially if you are like me and don't care much about what film you are going to see. Going to the theatre is preferred (and by theatre I don't mean the western interpretation but the local one) If you are in CBE I would suggest going to either KG Big Cinemas or VR Complex as all others supposedly put off their A/Cs and in some cases don't even put them on. An alternative would be to download some great movies and keep your laptop charged and ready.
4) Exercise. I know it sounds crazy but if you learn to revel in the heat you won't feel it as much. And all the extra sweating is not going to make you smell worse. If in the process you build some muscle and lose some flab, good for you.
5) Swear words. You can go about learning some new swear words so that you can be articulate and expressive when you want to criticise the power cut ministry.
6) Read. Those who already have a figure to die for, you can look at the more sedate pathway of reading. It sure is the next best thing to sleeping. If you haven't run out of excuses so far to read the book you've always meant to read the power cut will surely get rid of that.
7) Bath. Those of you who are just getting out of college, especially the hostel, there is this new invention, which came into being a few thousand years ago called bathing. 3 hours perfect for a long bath.
8) Cook. For all those planning to go abroad as a good for nothing else grad student, power cuts are perfect opportunities to learn new recipes and some experimenting.
9) Discover. Try visiting some new places, make new friends and find old ones. While making new friends, make sure that they live in an area with power cut scheduled at a different time than yours. This, remember, is the most important thing about summer friendships.
10) Ornithology. Lastly and as usual not leastly bird watching is a definite must during these times. The heat brings out all the pretty birds out of their nests making it a pleasure to the eye. The terrace is an obvious choice as a vantage point and remember binoculars are a strict no-no as they drive away birds in India.
So, that's my list. You can get inspired and write your own list. I've tastefully added some links which are interesting and/or instructive. Please go through them and increase your reading pleasure...
