Have you ever lived in USA without power for days? If not, you are blessed. On the other hand, if yes, I can only say it really sucks! I think many who faced this situation will not disagree with me on this. Do you?
The best part in USA unlike in India is, there are NO power cuts, there are NO power break downs (failures) and there is NO power shortage. Then everybody might be wondering then where is the question of ‘without power’? Here power goes off when natural calamities like strong winds, hurricanes etc., struck. In my case it is the former which played its part.
Now the question is why life sucks when there is no power? Because we live happily back home in India without power.
Life sucks because you cannot cook as most of the house holds have electric stoves.
Life sucks because you cannot take bath as the water is either too cold or in some cases water stops coming.
Life sucks because most of the restaurants/shopping malls are closed because there is no power.
Life sucks because traffic signals will not work and as a result there are huge traffic jams.
Life sucks because there is NO internet.
Life sucks because you cannot watch TV especially the whether channel. Yes they have dedicated 24/7 whether channels. People plan their week end vacations/outings based on that.
Life sucks because your telephone line is dead except when you are using AT&T.
Life sucks because life virtually comes to a stand still as almost everything is depend on power here with no back up generators.
Over all, we felt we lived in a stone age, when there is NO power.
The best part of India is we are sort of used to NOT having power and on the top of it we are not so much depend on power for our day to day needs. Also in India the power is restored the very next day even in the worst cases unlike here in USA, where it takes days minimum of 1 to 7 days for the power to get restored as they give utmost importance to safety and to 'human life' before turning on the power in the repaired areas as people might sue them, if something untoward happens.
Now coming to the best part in USA when there is NO power and as a result when your traffic signals are down, there is an amazing 'Traffic sense' displayed by people, who are on roads. Yes, people who drive here in these conditions have amazing traffic sense. Absolutely NO chaos at all. They respect and are concerned about others safety. They stop at every signal irrespective of whether people/vehicles are there are not. Allow the vehicles from smaller lanes to join the main roads even though the main road is cluttered with heavy traffic. In contrast, when I remember about this in India, it is utter chaos. I remember how everybody used to barge in from all sides, when the traffic lights are relaxed after 11 pm in Bangalore. People fight for their places and thus create self induced huge traffic jams, which takes couple of hours to clear off.
Ah, having seen both the sides of the coin, I can say ‘That’s the way of life’ here and believe me even though it really sucks with NO power, on the positive side it is interesting to experience such a thing once in a life time and lot more fun too, to be in a position of not knowing what to do!
-Aaryan
