Power cuts are never welcome and 14 hour long ones are despised. However, it’s at times like these when “survival of the fittest” finally comes into play. Fittest here meaning, the one who can face all gadgets running out of power, the heat because the fan stopped working, unavailability of Wifi because of no electricity and so on’ and conquer it all. Mohali recently witnessed such a power cut and people were left to fend for themselves; watching their phones die with hopeless eyes and fanning themselves with the nearest book they could find. Clothes came off and the battle for that last bit of ice from the freezer began. Using cold water from the water coolers to cool down their tired and furious bodies and taking 3 baths in 6 hours, all desi solutions were kept on the table and tried. The theists prayed to their beloved Gods for an hour of power supply to charge their indispensible gadgets.
The battle for that one plug point that was powered by the generator saw blood and sweat and tears from people trying to be the ‘fittest’ and surviving. The lone soldier i.e the generator died after almost 9 hours of providing the people with the saddest fan speed one could see. But Hey! We aren’t complaining. It is ‘survival of the fittest’. Morning arrived and people could be seen walking around like zombies, their arms held an entanglement of chargers, extension chords and phones’ their eyes looking around for any way to bring their life support..their phones back to life, bodies sweaty, minds so close to giving up.
And then it happened. The fan stopped whirring as if doing us all a formality and the lights came on. The sound of the water cooler coming on gave life to everyone around. Rushing to their rooms, to their plug points, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The power was back.
After 14 hours, the apocalypse had ended.
This write-up was submitted by Marvie Magotra (First year)
