Life without lights

I woke up with my mom yelling at me. I looked into my watch. It was 7 in the morning. I was grumpy for being disturbed. It's quarantine period, I don't even have college to attend. My mom's voice continued in the background like an old music. I opened the draves. What a sunny day. Soon enough I was lost in the world of my imagination.

I was in the paddy field, the cool air touching my skin gently. I could feel the breeze against my face. The sky was clean and so blue. The sun was shining radiantly. My feet had tickling sensation while stepping in the soft green grass. I could hear bird chanting, even the sound of flowing stream near by. The aura of wild flowers were mocking me. I was walking by when I saw a vague image of something or someone, a shadow. I tried to approach it but the closer I got the farther it went. I started taking quicker step. Soon enough I was running, chasing this shadow in front of me. I was about to catch up when I heard some loud noise in the back. 'Sanu, Sanu how long are you going to stay there? Get up now! And for God's sake, clean up your room!' Was I day dreaming again? I am counting the days when I can finally go out and in open.

I lazily got up from my bed, did my morning business. I switched on the lights, to check, no electricity. Again. I looked at my phone Low Battery. I went downstairs. It was sizzling. I switched on the fan, but of course there is no light. I had my breakfast, went to water the plants, helped mom with preparing lunch and then laid down in the couch. My life has been going on in this pattern for past 10 days. I wake up, eat, do chorus, lie in the couch, eat again, go to bed and repeat it all over again. There's never light, I can't watch TV, we don't have internet connection, I can't go out to hang out with friends. There is really not much to do inside these four walls. Minute seems like an hour, hours seems like days and days seems like year in here.

With 16 hours of load shedding in a day, my life feels like I am being imprisoned without any cause inside my own house. We have our supper always in the darkness. The only time lights are on in our house at night is while doing kitchen chores, that too only for an hour. Because inverter doesn't hold up for long. Sometimes I just crave for a little light. I crave for nights where I can go to my room and turn on lights and everything was perceptible. I was about to drift into sleep when I heard my phone ringing.

I look at my phone. There were 20 new messages in messenger and viber. Was I dreaming this entire time? I turned on lights to check, checked my phone again. What an odd dream to see. I went downstairs, mom and dad were watching news in TV. Brother was playing online game, sister was watching a series. I looked at my phone, it showed 'connected to wifi Home124'. I started thinking how miserable the quarantine would have been if there really was 16 hours of load shedding and no internet.

Thank God for the electricity!