Testing of patience

Heart To Heart

By Dr. Muhammad Hafizullah

It must be one of the most restless nights of my life! The heat was unbearable, the stuffiness intolerable and adventurous mosquitoes most unforgiving.

I kept on changing sides to find some peace and steal some sleep. The solace was nowhere to be found. Ten, twenty and then thirty minutes passed, but the fan refused to rotate and the air conditioner had been on a long leave anyway. The UPS put up a brave face and kept the fans running and provided power to a few lights for two hours but then every thing has its limits. The torture of load-shedding was there to teach us a lesson. There was no Azaan to be carried on the waves as there was no electricity and many missed their prayers. Others could not wake up due to lack of sleep. I always wondered as why do people attack WAPDA installations and that day I felt like doing some thing exciting like that!

My very kind neighbour volunteered to fix up a local UPS for me. Every time that the world will drown in darkness, a few lights and a couple of fans will keep our life on normal track. My wife would brag about in parties and I will shower heaps of praise on this little machine among friends. But this time it let us down. The relentless load-shedding because of destruction of a tower tested the virility, patience and stamina of the machine. And of course at the end of the day we had a UPS which could run only one light and one fan half heartedly for only ten minutes and left us at the mercy of heat and darkness. We kept on reciting a famous couplet that those props which we were proud of let us down.

People have stopped bothering to look at watches! Time is being recorded in reference to load-shedding. "From two to three in afternoon there is no light and this must be ten past three as the air-conditioner is on but the room is still hot," asserts the gentleman. "Time must be seven thirty as it has been a long time since load-shedding started," complained a house wife.

Hameed commented, "It must be close to eleven at night as load-shedding has just started."

In the morning children are made to wake up early as load-shedding starts precisely at seven. Somehow or the other our live have started revolving around load-shedding and we all seem to be playing hide and seek with some thing which we had taken for granted. Load-shedding shook the very basis of life! House officers started coming late to hospital, appearing shabby in morning, and being unable to concentrate on the job - blame load shedding. Nurses cannot focus on their duty because of sleepless night for which load shedding had to be blamed. Car is dirty because there is no water to wash the car. Flowers are not smiling in the garden and the grass appears yellow due to scarcity of water due to hide and seek of electricity.

In out patient department of a hospital, patients are made to wait for their turn. During load shedding tempers start running very high. Doctors are fed up with heat and suffocation and patients are exhausted with high temperature and wait. Patients become very sensitive and the relatives are even worse as they are being punished for uncommitted sins. Paramedical staff runs low on patience and quick to pick up fights. Perhaps same is true for every trade as all are exasperated - the shopkeeper escorting empty shops, barbers struggling in dim light, and tailors with idle electric sewing machines and all for not being able to follow their time schedule.  As soon as load-shedding starts our medical centre starts humming with the most annoying noises of generators. Some clinics go back to the darker ages and use candles to examine patients. Imagine the unbearable heat produced by the sheer load of heat generated by human beings and then add on the heat produced by the candles. Some use rechargeable lights and patients are examined with light coming from left side with long shadows. Patients have an eschewed view of the doctor, imagine a person with light under his chin. This starts a game of 'scare' and no wonder children and women with tender hearts break into tears.

Most clinics have generators, some use small Chinese toys and other utilise large professional Japanese machines. In clinics with small toys, only lights are working but fans refuse to blow any air where as extravagant clinics have all the machines running. Different generators produce different noises and emit annoying aroma. The chorus of all these machines is an auscultatory trauma which is no treat to ears. I fear that among our coming generation many will develop deafness - thanks to humming monsters called generators.

Walking in heat and fed up with not finding a transport for some time generates special sentiments of disgust, frustration and worthlessness. But then if a big car passes by in which passengers seem to enjoy air-conditioned ride and seem oblivious of the sufferings of surrounding people, ignites special feelings of jealousy   and resentment. Similarly in the middle of night or heat in the afternoon, the gentle sound of a generator, specially a large automatic gas operated one, evokes intensely jealous and covetous emotions. In the guise of load-shedding life has been made easy. There is a ready excuse for every thing that goes wrong or is made to go wrong- load-shedding. Suddenly people have found an answer for every thing. When someone enquires why is it hot. The answer is load-shedding. Why is it cold? Air-conditioner has to run on full throttle because of load-shedding. Clothes are not washed due to load-shedding. People cannot go to a party as the suit could not be ironed due to load-shedding.

Students cannot go to college because of load-shedding and cannot come back home because of load-shedding -as the college has a generator.

The reason for being angry is load-shedding and the excuse for being happy is load-shedding as it means no home work. Operation cannot be performed because of load-shedding. Tyre cannot be fixed due to non-availability of electricity. Mobile is being switched off for running out of charge. Load-shedding has become an excuse for every wrong doing!

Load-shedding has also brought back the little pleasures of life which we had so conveniently forgotten. In the coolness of air-conditioner, we forgot the fun of fans and water coolers. When we were young, we used to sleep in open air and wait anxiously for our turn of cool air coming from a revolving fan. During hot nights we used to find some respite in beds cooled by ice cold water. Load-shedding brought back those memories and led to adoption of same old time tested tricks to beat the heat. Confined to the air conditioned rooms we forgot the fragrance of flowers and freshly mowed lawns. Glued to idiot box we were led to believe that there is no concept of life without TV and computer. Deprived of light and its luxuries people learned how to utilise time without wasting it on TV and internet.

There has to be some thing good about load shedding! There is a slim hope that the electricity bill may be lesser than before. But that may not be true; the amount of money spent on alternative sources may turn out to be a lot higher. Businessmen dealing in generators and UPS must be very happy to rob the hapless people. At least some one is benefiting from our misery.  The people who are really happy are the mechanics who have loads of electrical equipment - victim of sudden unannounced repeated cessation of electric supply.