Talpatar Pakha

I will never forget 2020 and more so today’s date…October 12

Its been a dreadful experience in the heat that Mumbai is experiencing with 32 degrees which feels like nearly 40. I spent the with my best buddy (in picture) though. However, I didn’t enjoy and my arms started revolting after a while. Fanning constantly, my bicep and tricep muscles are tired and sore.

A blame game has started among the power houses in Mumbai. The CM has ordered a probe but I am not too optimistic. The news is not reporting as much that it should report. Yes..it is not as big as SSR death case, its as trivial as the normal human beings.

This talpatar pakha is a staple for a bengali household and personally I can’t imagine my house without it.

Wherever I stay, I keep a talpatar pakha, Boroline cream, a photo of my parents and a photo or mural of Ganpati. Whenever I do the packing, I make sure that these four items are never left out.

Today, my talpatar pakha proved that its my best friend for today. I don’t know what I would have done without it. I hate summer and rainy seasons; and today being sultry and cloudy was probably the worst case scenario for me. With the power out for almost the entire day has made me jittery.

At around 10 in the morning the power went out and I thought it will be back within an hour. I got a call from one of my colleague, 19km away, and he asked about power cut which surprised me and then I checked the news to my dismay that the whole city is experiencing power outage. It’s very strange that on a Monday morning a mishap of such magnitude can happen and put a standstill to the financial capital of India.

I always thought that the city of dreams which never sleeps only bows down to Mumbai Monsoon. However, I found that electricity can also force Mumbai to kneel. The power resumed at 12.30 and I sighed in relief. The greyness of the day begun when the power went out yet again at 12.50 leaving me in utter bewilderment.

I tweeted about the situation tagging all relevant authorities but tweets from normal citizens is often disregarded by the government. If Kangana, which she did just to take on the Maharashtra government, had tweeted, it would have given impact. I constantly fanned myself to keep my away from being a pool of sweat. One silver lining in this abysmal situation is that the water supply was not affected.

My phone battery almost died down when I put it on charging at 7.30 when the power resumed. I was happy and inquired my friends around the city about it and they all confirmed that the power is back. I was relieved that the darkness has passed and I sat to watch Thor: Dark World and my day turned murkier.

At 9.30, the power went out again.