Power Cuts

Strangely, I have yet to blog about something that happens every single day in India. Power cuts.

I had never heard the term until we arrived in India. A power cut is, in fact, exactly what it sounds like it would be. I picture it happening like it might in a cartoon... a guy, sitting behind a desk, with a huge lever on the wall behind him, which he can pull down at will and turn the power off to the entire city! Having seen the infrastructure here for 6 months now, this may not be so far from the reality of it! In any case, nearly every day... bam... out goes the electric. Usually for 4 hour blocks of time. The reason behind the cuts is a simple case of supply and demand. The demand for electric power has grown exponentially in the past decade and there just is not enough power to go around!

Now, here in Palm Meadows, we have a massive backup power plant which is fueled with diesel. So our power does "cut", but within 1 minute, the backup kicks in and it is pretty much life as usual. Sometimes this happens up to ten times a day! It used to be quite dramatic, especially when it happened at night. The house just goes dark. Imagine you are sitting at the dinner table, or (gasp) in the shower and you are suddenly in the pitch black! Now imagine this happens all the time. We are so accustomed to it now, that it is quite like a game of red light green light 123. Just stop, wait, and then proceed as usual!