Power Cut

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...

Musings

* IITM Saarang at times, given you were at the right place at the right time and sometimes the wrong time, showed glimpses of paradise... 

*I happened to be so a couple of times and not only thoroughly enjoyed myself, but had an uplifting and once in a life time experience. Vox A capella was one, which for the illiterate(like me) means “A cappella (Italian or Latin "From the chapel/choir") music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way.” 

*Well without much ado, the event showcased some of the best college singing groups that included beauties from WCC, Mt.Carmel, Yethiraj and an all boys band which was an exception in this case performing jazz, blues, light music and songs like the lion king opening song (yes the one with the animal sounds, all intact) and “ In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the Lion sleeps tonight...” And not just performing them but doing so with the ease, accomplishment and professionalism of seasoned musicians on tour and also combining it with the reckless abandon and intense enjoyment associated with amateur singers who sing just for the heck of it. That was Saarang'09 for me. Nothing else came even close.

*I just wanted to share this with you and send out a clarion call for all those uninitiated college goers, who think the world is all they see and what they see is boring; There is a whole new world out there, just waiting to expand your horizons. Go attend Saarang'10.

           Now to my musings; On my way back from Saarang I happened to notice something I had not in all those 4 mornings and 3 nights at IITM : true beauty. Seriously, please don't think that I am saying this to join the group of IIT haters; who do so because they are jealous; I totally am not on e of them. In all those wonderfully dressed or undressed (depends on how you look at it) girls I couldn't find beauty. Anyway to come back, my object of admiration (not attraction) was at the Central, on platform three wearing a pink chudi, looking pretty, but not exactly what you'd call head turning material. Which is the whole point; she wasn't head turning material, if you didn't understand the point. Here I was standing tired, not having slept the previous night, not in a state to appreciate beauty of any start, almost drifting off to sleep while still standing when I was startled from my semi-conscious state by an almighty cry. For the life of me, I was wide awake now, only to find that nobody was paying least attention to the sound. I turned to find that it was a small kid, playing with his mom, pulling at her bag and trying to run away with it. It was like watching the churning of the milky way (by the Gods, if you don't know) and was quiet interesting. But I looked up. I thank my stars, for that epiphany: that something more interesting was just a look up. I looked up to find the girl undergoing a silent transformation. It was like the pati's of cinemas saying “ You look like Goddess Maha-Lakshmi.” The ends of the previously morose, uninspiring lips which did not merit mention, were slowly curving upwards to form a smile filled with so much warmth that India's power problems could have been solved. The fact that the smile was shared by the eyes too, made it all the more enjoyable. The eyes now were full of sparkle and so expressive that I didn't need to see the kid to know what was happening any more. The face was now literally glowing and I now understood what people meant by true beauty. I was overcome by a strange emotion that wanted that moment to be frozen for eternity and that wanted me to just stand there and keep admiring her. Stranger was the fact that nobody noticed this either, not even the person next to her who seemed to be her father. Maybe it's the law of such things. I was struck by the innocence of that smile and the abandon of the emotions those eyes portrayed. Given a paper and pen a second Da Vinci would have been born. Or maybe a Shakespeare, or rather Lord Byron (who wrote better romantic poems??).. But neither happened. The train arrived...