Blackout
“Damn, why is the air conditioner not cooling the room?”
In a half-asleep state, Abhinav cursed the AC for not being able to give him a comfortable sleep.
As a software development engineer at a major MNC, Abhinav is now struggling to find peace in his life. With the advent of the global pandemic, he and many other employees are restricted to working from home, which initially seemed to be a more comfortable thing to do.
But the situation changed quite drastically as there was increased working time (it is now no more a 9–5 work time) and stress. He has forgotten about his hobbies, and leisure time passes and is now only confined in front of a screen all day and night.
Today was another hell-of-work day for him. And now his AC also seems to mess with his peace and sleep.
He reached for his phone to check the time…
“Shit, the phone’s not opening. It seems like it has switched off, but I remember charging it before going to sleep.”
He got out of bed and headed for the refrigerator. It still seems like dawn. The lights, too, are not switching on. The fan too! And the fridge too!
“Seems like a power cut.”
“But why am I getting some different feeling.”
The digital clock in the kitchen isn’t working. So, he went to the main room to check the time on an analogue watch. He initially didn’t believe his eyes on seeing the clock, and his instincts told him that he was half asleep.
But standing still, he continued staring at it. The second hand is ticking steadily, and its sound is resonating in the room. It’s all happening for real!
“Thi…This can’t be tru…true.”
“How is it that it is still dawn outside, and the clock shows it is seven am in the morning!!”
Still in a dilemma he went to his bed to try get some sleep and sort out everything when the first rays of light come in.
He doesn’t know how much time he had been sleeping, but when he woke up, the atmosphere outside was bright and warm.
“The clock is showing 12, so I have slept for four hours. The power didn’t come either.”
He went out of his home to check on his neighbourhood regarding the weird things happening.
“Hey Rahul, Good Morning!”
Rahul is his only true neighbour. They have been living in the adjacent houses and known each other for two years. Rahul is doing his PhD in physics at a renowned university. Whenever they meet in the evenings, they have long conversations regarding anything that comes to their mind or is the talk of the day.
“Good afternoon”, replied Rahul, who was watering his plants
“Wait, why did you say ‘afternoon’? Anyways how are you doing?
“All fine, but all is not fine”
“I never completely understand the things you say. But I do get some of it today,” and without waiting, he continued,
“Now, could you tell me what time it is now, please? I don’t know why but my clock is behaving weird today,” asked Abhinav impatiently.
“The thing is, your clock is working fine, and so do your eyes and mind”
“Ahh, I didn’t get it this time. Please put it out straight without any riddles”
“It is showing the correct time, and so does mine”
“But why? Is this any sign of an incoming apocalypse or an incoming asteroid? Is this the end of the world?” asked Abhinav with a tremble in his voice.
“I think there is nothing like that going to happen, my friend. Just calm down. I, too, don’t have a concrete reason on why this is happening”
“Well, I don’t have any reason to think of ”, replied Abhinav sarcastically.
“Then you can have a peaceful life since the complex conclusions and scenarios shouldn’t bother you much,” said Rahul, and both of them broke into small laughter and then returned into deep silence.
“Yesterday night, one of my research devices recorded huge changes in Earth’s magnetic field. I am trying to retrieve its data but couldn’t able to do so”
“So, what does that imply?” asked Abhinav out of curiosity
“The only ideal reason which can explain thins sudden shutdown of all electronic devices and satellite-based systems is that there must be as a major solar wind occurred in the outer space”
“This wind consists of the sun’s plasma and other radiation harmful to all living beings. But thanks to Earth’s magnetic field, we are constantly saved from it. Yesterday there must have been a much bigger one which could have disturbed the Earth’s magnetic field and, of course, disabled all satellites”
“The Earth’s rotation speed decreased due to this, and now day gets slower. But mechanical clocks are unaffected by this and hence show their regular time”
There was silence again, this time, as they both looked up above into the sky.
“Well, this is one of the perks of having a scientist next door,” said Abhinav breaking the silence.
Rahul laughed at his comment and replied, “I also think many have identified this. Just that there is no means of communication people doesn’t know about this still”
“How much time do you think it will take for everything to restore to normal?”
“Maybe within a few hours…Maybe within a few days…or weeks…or even months”
“Humanity didn’t face any situation like this, so it is difficult to estimate things like that”, continued Rahul
“So how are we gonna survive till then?”
“Same alike primitive human beings. But it need not be completely like that. We still have some mechanical vehicles working. Oil, petrol, food, dairy animals, etc., essentials didn’t vanish right. We can sustain on them or even produce them until the situation gets back to normal”
“Frankly, this sounds more interesting than writing code”
“Sure, it does until put into work”, said Rahul sarcastically.
There they stood outside their houses as more people started to come out of their homes to know what was happening.
Whatever this is, they all need to get along together.
>>> Fast Forward a few hours
“This is actually a great idea”, complimented Abhinav
Rahul has addressed everyone in their street gathered in front of his house about the graveness of their situation. He also suggested forming a camp base in the nearby park with essential shelters for everything necessary.
People seemed to agree with it as they were half-scared on hearing what he said.
“Since there is no electricity; producing fire should be our primary task”, suggested Abhinav
“Bring all things in your houses which can either be used as a flammable material or is used to produce fire”
“Anything from matchsticks to unused batteries gather everything which is a valuable asset now”, continued Rahul.
“Next to the fire, food should be our next priority”
“Now everyone get to work….”
>>> Fast Forward two days
Everyone there worked hard for two days to set up a camp base in the park. Since there is no electricity, people most of the time gathered near the park and talked for hours.
“Did anyone ever imagine a thing like this would happen?” asked Ramesh
Most of the people had just finished their dinner and had surrounded by the fire for warmth.
“What will we do even if we come to know it will happen?” countered Priya
“Maybe we will relocate to mars”, answered Abhinav
“You think that will help any better?” replied Rahul
A burst of small laughter broke among the group. It slowly faded as a faint smile filled with pain on everyone’s face.
“Never imagined technology, a great boon for us will leave our life so void in its absence”
“Why not? Only the greatest good can turn into the greatest evil[1]. There are on the same coin but on different sides. They are just like mirror reflections; one exists on the other,” answered Ram
“What do you think will people all around the world be doing right now?”
“Gathering around fire, eating and sharing in groups, talking random things and asking silly questions. Maybe they all are going the same as we do!”
“Suffering is the common thing everyone is having now”
“Coming to the notion of suffering, the point of living is to struggle and suffer for living itself”
“Past is past and is gone. We can’t change it, nor can we waste time thinking about it. We need to move on and should try to live until our end”
The conversations went on like this for about an hour. In the end, everyone got exhausted, not on the physical level but the mental level. Their hearts are filled with heavy emotions, and their brains are void of any other thoughts than grief and regret.
At that point, they don’t have any other way than to work and wait for everything to settle back to normal if they want to live.
And each and everyone there was aware of this. They were determined to cross this weird path that destiny had put them in.
>>> Fast Forward 6 months
The situation now is much better. Thanks to the bird messengers, there was a significant increase in communication between people from different places. Since there were enough reserves of petrol and gas, aerospace engineers and scientists used to gather regularly and plan to send new satellites and repair existing ones. Travel was restricted only for them since the reserves of fuel were limited. All sorts of pollution on Earth decreased significantly in the last few months. The planet now seems to be fresher and cleaner.
Abhinav was sleeping on his terrace and watching the delightful scene of stars blinking in the night sky. He is now doing farming and also helping in rebuilding the software and computer applications.
He constantly remembered the story his father used to tell him when he was young.
“Long, long time ago, dinosaurs used to live along with many other animals and living creatures in the Jurassic age. They were constantly used to be a lot of quarrels between dinosaurs themselves and with other animals. Many poor little creatures used to lose their lives in these battles.
Children used to lose their parents. They, in turn, on growing, took the life of others and one day lost their own life.
Life used to be very messy, with no peace anywhere. The invisible energy present in the universe was very angry with this kind of atmosphere on Earth.
So, one day, a giant asteroid struck Earth. Due to the collision and its after-effects, almost all living creatures were wiped out from Earth. There was another chance given to recreate a new planet. After many years first forms of life appeared, and gradually we humans originated”
Abhinav recalled this story again.
“Yes, dad! We have another opportunity to recover the damage done to Earth,” he said, looking at the stars.
“Everything will be going to be normal sooner or later but it is definitely for sure”
With this ray of hope, he slowly fell asleep.
Notes
[1] The quote is taken from The Shiva Trilogy, written by Amish Tripathi.
The story, characters’, and the events described are entirely for the purpose of fiction.
