A rather tongue-in-cheek yet entertaining account of an Indian visitor's experience of the recent blackout in New York City, in the Mumbai edition of MidDay this evening :

It was kind of neat to be a part of a piece of history.” History? A power cut? I guess. Worth a T-shirt if you weren’t there for the ‘65 or ’77 ‘blackout blockbusters’! I guess. We make history everyday too. Except, rival tabloids do not incessantly debate on which came up with a better coverage (New York Post or Daily News) and no one scoffs at the International Herald Tribune for missing out on the ‘cover story’ completely!
In fact, ‘lights on for a few hours’ may make it to Indian small town ‘n’ village dailies (Malgudi Times, for sure).

And I’ve just pressed ‘Control + S’ on the keyboard the nth time (like most of my colleagues), lest a power cut wipe away all I’ve muttered so far. Mr Basu in Kolkata or Chadha Saab at Delhi meet ‘blackouts’ with a daily yawn, “Oh load shedding? Bring out the ‘Good Knight mat’ or ‘Katchua Chhaap’. Turn on the inverter, damn I’ll miss the 9’O Clock news…”

And here was me, a ‘Third Worlder’ in a dark, sweaty, yet swanky New York, revelling on how Thomas Alva Edison, not death, is the world's (or indeed, life's) greatest leveller. And it is really that simple.

Einstein, quizzed on what weapons was World War III likely to be fought with, admitted, “I know not with what weapons WW III will be fought. But World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Before, I never fully grasped what he meant. Now I do.

And here was me, a ‘Third Worlder’ in a dark, sweaty, yet swanky New York, revelling on how Thomas Alva Edison, not death, is the world's (or indeed, life's) greatest leveller. And it is really that simple.

Einstein, quizzed on what weapons was World War III likely to be fought with, admitted, “I know not with what weapons WW III will be fought. But World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Before, I never fully grasped what he meant. Now I do.