Let there not be light!

I know people in Karachi are fed up of load shedding. They stopped having it in Islamabad quite a few years back, but even when it did happen it usually was in the winters, as far as I can remember. Even if this does sound a bit odd, I remember rather enjoying it when it did happen especially when it was during the night. No electricity meant no television, no computer, no nothing. But it also meant that I wasn’t told to do my homework, or was required to do any chores… heck with the lights out the only thing that you could do was sit down by the blazing heater and munch away on some dry (or not so dry) fruit. Peace of mind is what you got; a great amount of tranquility and silence. The only sounds that may be heard would be of the sporadic movement of traffic nearby and that too was very insignificant. It would be just you and your thoughts.

For someone who likes to think a lot, I don’t have much to show for it. Or maybe I’m thinking about all the wrong things. Maybe what I’m writing (and hence thinking first) right now is of little consequence to future events in time. This may mean that if I were to be erased from the present, the future of the universe would have very little bearing from my absence. But how many of us are really making a difference to the future of this world? I may be a lazy bum sitting at home and not contributing to the GDP of the country but how is that different from someone who is? Yes that person is earning money, probably will get married in some time, have kids, get retired and then, in all likelihood, will kick the bucket. That’s the lifecycle for your average joe. If joe thinks he’s making a difference for future generations he’s mistaken. If it weren’t him, there would be some other joe (lets call him jack) in his place. As far as I see it, me, joe or for that matter jack are all just taking up space in an overcrowded world moving aimlessly on the temporal dimension of existence.

Coming back to load shedding, there were times when it did become frustrating especially when the time clashed with the airing of “Guest House”. But I must admit that was a very long time back (as people familiar with the mentioned program would have realized). My later days were however free from such mind corrupting and moronic hypnosis by state governed broadcasters (meaning I had moved on from PTV to more interesting foreign channels). I can’t even imagine how people in Karachi have to live with load shedding; television would probably be the last thing on their minds. Even during winter Karachi still is flaming hot. But the people do have the benefit of a nice sea breeze blowing away most times of the day. Plus most of corporate Pakistan is in Karachi, so air-conditioning and generators are very common. Not common enough for the common man though.

This has become a particularly digressing post and I don’t think I enjoyed writing it as much as I generally do. Maybe next time I’ll close the lights and think more before I decide to write something…