I have a yearly planner calendar pasted on my wall. Beside the important plans noted down on the planner, there are other important markings in red which I never fail to check daily. It is the electricity load-shedding plan. Tabee would carefully count the days on the planner and make the markings accordingly. If today, power is scheduled to go off at 10 pm, the next day would be marked as till 10 pm. Or there is one in four days time when the power would be available the whole night. So, like the change of season or the tide splashing against the rocks periodically, our Electricity Department routinely schedules its load shedding without fail. I suspect that the officials who operate the power stations must be having a planner just like mine. Otherwise, one cannot explain the accuracy in which they shut down or put on the power with precision to the last seconds.

Well! Life was easy and peaceful as long as the load shedding schedule was dot on time. But then, since last week, we have started suspecting if the officials meaning the power station have gone nuts. The power came and went off defying the sanctified schedule. The first day, the power did not go off right from early morning until late evening. It was a miracle.

Tabee phoned me at the office to break the big news. I was also flabbergasted and had to ask her twice to make sure that I heard right. She offered to explain that the chap who was at the station must have gone drunk and might have forgotten to switch off the mains. Aizawl, my pet dog was also nervous, jumping up and down and even lost her-appetite under the glare of the tube-lights!!

Mother was getting really worried as if the sky will fall down on her head at any moment then. With a big confusion written large on her face, she sighed, “Why is the electricity not planning to retire today? What the heck is happening? Seems the end of the world is near.” My neighbour who heard her retorted, “Why are you so worried? Now you will be able to watch your favourite Manipuri Pao on Doordarshan daily without interruption if the electricity continues to be like this!”

Well! From that day, our load shedding schedule on the planner pasted on the wall has gone haywire. Sometimes, the current would go off at odd hours or come at the most unexpected time. It has completely made our lives run amok. We cannot make any scheduled programmes which involves power. For instance, I am not sure whether I should watch the DVD, which I bought recently; for I fear the electricity might go off in the middle of a climax scene and ruin my whole mood. Otherwise, I used to watch the movies after consulting my planner and knowing that the power would not go off until the end of the movie.

Or take the example of washing clothes. We used to wash with the machine after making out the time when the power will go off. With busy schedules, now we are even afraid to wash clothes with the machine; lest the power goes off in the middle of washing. Mother who cooked dal on the electric stove, got it burnt since she thought the power will go off automatically at 8’O Clock, of course according to the load shedding schedule. But she had forgotten that the schedule had gone hay wire and hence the burnt dal on the dining table.

To go a little further, electricity is even essential to make love in the middle of the night with your better half. You cannot imagine a humid night without any fan or air conditioner, making love like two hungry sweating pigs. However, if you have a planner like one you can know if electricity will be on your side with the fan humming to the rhythm of your dancing bodies.

But I know that the fantasy of having electricity 24 hours a day in a State like ours is like chasing pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. Even the current trend of giving power the whole day surprising consumers like us is not being taken seriously. It is because we have lost our faith in the Department that is responsible for supplying electrical power to us. Like any other Departments, the Electricity Department today has failed to live up to the expectations of the people. It has become a den of corruption, nepotism and what not.

I have heard that the transformer which are being installed in the neighbourhoods often crash down due to overloading. I have also heard that the transformers which are marked as 100KV load capacity actually have a lower capacity inside. A new trend has started where leikai/clubs donate from their inhabitants to repair the knock out transformer. If the transformer is not repaired by themselves then waiting for the Electricity Department to repair it would be like waiting for eternity.

This is ridiculous. Such low quality transformer or transformer, which does not have carry sufficient voltages, are often tendered and bought on the sly. It is nothing sort of corruption and understanding between the suppliers, middlemen and the Government employees. There have been also allegations that the Engineers and top rung officers of the Departments often often the cables and hire-tension wires with themselves and later sell them at exorbitant rates. There is no proper meter system to gauge the units of power, a household consumes. For some faulty lines or connection, we have to grease the palm of lines-men. I mean with such dirty dealings even inside the department and its employees, we cannot hope for a good electrical connectivity in the next ten years.

With the Department indulging in petty matters, the public, on the other hand, feels that the electricity we consume comes for free. Like a birth certificate. Sorry, even a birth certificate has to be bought with a small fee. We tap the lines, ignore the bills and grease the palms of lines-men when they come to disconnect the illegal lines. Therefore, the Electricity Department which should have been a money-spinning one is, today, bankrupt and the Government is forced to buy excess power from other States to meet our demands.

I believe if the Government can check illegal tapping, collect bills in time and maintain transparency, then there will be no shortage of power supply. For this, the public has also to chip in and contribute their mite in paying off electric bills in time and saving energy at the same time. In short, the Government should make extra efforts to usher in transparency in the department concerned . On the other hand, the public should also realize that electricity is a public property and that we should extend all possible help and assistance in making the department fulfil its duties.

As for the planner on my wall, we have stopped making any entries with regard to power supply. I have also stopped checking it, just because the Electricity Department has chosen to change the load shedding timings. In the meantime, I miss those good old days when we would ring up the Complaint Room at Keishampat and call the line-men for repairs. I wonder if the Complaint Room will ever buzz with chaos and confusion as the old days within the next five years. As for now, forget everything else, even making love in the middle of a summer night cannot be pre-planned. You never know if the fans will work or not.