Nights on rooftops to nap in cars — coping with crisis

Gurgaon: “The government had promised to make Gurgaon inverter-free. Look how inverter-free we’ve become. The inverter is totally redundant,” said 37-year-old Neeraj Singh, an IT professional and resident of Sector 15, who spent half of Friday night on the terrace of his rented house and an hour in the car, whose AC was mercifully running, on a day the maximum temperature breached 45 degrees.
His inverter, putting in a shift because of long outages that the power supply crisis in the state has triggered, hadn’t had the time to recharge for the night, leaving him without backup.
Across the city, it’s a similar story for people living in standalone houses, unlike condominiums that have round-the-clock backup. Life has suddenly become a lot more analog. Late nights and after-work hours — OTT time for many — are now being spent socialising on the terraces that have turned refuge from the sweltering homes during outages.
This sudden “rooftop camaraderie” reminded a retired bureaucrat of his youth. “My grandsons keep asking me how I spent my childhood. Thanks to the power cuts, I can now take them back in time,” said the 74-year-old.
Unable to meet the peak power demand, the government has resorted to scheduled outages. Although the discom roster talks of 6.5 hours of outages daily, power cuts are exceeding the time limit by far in their areas, the residents said.
“On Friday, I sat down and noted the number of hours we were without power. It was 13 hours in total. I think there was a typing error in their roster. They must have meant 6.5 hours of supply and not outages,” quipped Kunal Singh, a content writer and resident of Sector 17.
Spending time in parks and on terraces, many have made new friends. “I came to know that my next-door neighbour is actually from my hometown. We went to the same school,” said Jatin Kumar, a bank employee from Sector 14.
These unplanned meetings are also the time for light banter and sarcasm. “Life is a tragedy for those who think, and comedy for those who feel. I’m done with making desperate calls to the DHBVN and waiting for them to respond. I have tweeted enough but to no avail. But somehow, talking to neighbours and seeing that we all are on the same boat lessens your worries,” said Ameesh Das, a social media manager working with an IT firm.
“I told my mother she should be happy now that I don’t spend my weekends binge-watching movies. Rather, I socialise with people on the terraces and sometimes in the park, which, by the way, I never knew was so well-maintained,” he added.
Vijaya, a school teacher, and her husband had booked a hotel in Delhi to tide over the crisis. They never imagined that the terrace of their building could be a spot to hang out too.
“Initially, it was very frustrating for us. We even booked hotel rooms in Delhi to escape the heat here amid the long outages. But it seems like we have to live with this situation for couple of weeks at least. So, we are finding new ways to beat the heat. Our power backup doesn’t last longer than an hour or so. We now spend our evenings on the terrace. We have even temporarily shifted our sofa-cum-bed there,” she said.
A 65-year-old businessman from New Palam Vihar has found a new way to engage himself — cracking witty jokes.
“Haryana was known for a popular political slogan — aya Ram, gaya Ram. This has now become ayi bijli, gayi bijli,” he sniggered.
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