'Mumbai Unplug: Batti Bandh' is a youth movement that aims at raising awareness on global warming. It has urged citizens to switch off electrical appliances in the city from 7.30 pm to 8:30 pm on Saturday 15th December 2007.
I have been hearing a lot about this since the last one month or so. Newspapers have been covering articles on the same..about how people can be a part of this cause..also at the same time giving ideas as to what they could do during this 1 hour..I just really can't understand what the big deal about this 1 hour..is..We people living in Mumbai are really not aware of the situation faced by our colleagues staying in the distant suburbs of Vasai and beyond on the Western line or even beyond Thane on the Central line..People staying out there are facing load shedding for about 7 hours on an average daily...That's almost 1/3rd of the day..While this movement which is talking about shutting down electrical appliances for an hour seems to be getting too much of unnecessary coverage...
The founder member of this movement states that “There's a lot one can do during Batti Bandh. When was the last time you cleared your throat for a round of antakshari or brushed up your acting skills? When was the last time you played dumb charades in a dark room? ". Some people are even planning to have candle-lit dinners. What excuses we need for voluntarily switching of power...a cause for global warming..
In that sense my fellow colleagues in the distant suburbs are doing so much in regards to global warming...Though not voluntarily...they are still not using power for 7 hours a day...And they don't get so much publicity either.
I still remember the 6 years i stayed in Vasai. Each day of our lives was planned according to power. Mom waking up early and grinding masala in the mixie, so that she could face no problems in her cooking if power went off later...Updating all our relatives to not give us surprise visits coz we might not be able to cook non-veg food for them ..coz the electrical appliances would not be of any use for grinding the masala and other stuff ..
It's really a terrible situation out there....Parents wake up their kids at 6 A.M ..and suddenly when they tell them to wash their face in the bathroom..the power goes off..When the working parents have to cook for their kids for the afternoon before they leave for work ..there is no power..Coz if the power goes off at 6 or 7 am..it would only come after 3 hours..And when the parents return from work travelling in those nightmare trains..what do they see..No power yet again...Power goes at 5 P.M and comes only at 8 or 8:30 P.M ...and believe me this is not fixed either..7 Hours of power cuts keep on changing daily..2day power might go off at 5 P.M. , 2row might go an hour earlier or later...How do you plan for all this?
Do the people staying in the distant suburbs want to sing Antakshari daily or have candle light dinner daily...NO....I really don't feel we need to give such silly and stupid reasons for a one hour voluntarily power shutdown..There are people living in difficult and worse situations close by. I really don’t think I would like to be a part of such a movement.. I have already had my share of Antakshari’s and Candle–Lit dinners over a period of 6 years when I happened to be a resident of those distant suburbs..:-)
I have been hearing a lot about this since the last one month or so. Newspapers have been covering articles on the same..about how people can be a part of this cause..also at the same time giving ideas as to what they could do during this 1 hour..I just really can't understand what the big deal about this 1 hour..is..We people living in Mumbai are really not aware of the situation faced by our colleagues staying in the distant suburbs of Vasai and beyond on the Western line or even beyond Thane on the Central line..People staying out there are facing load shedding for about 7 hours on an average daily...That's almost 1/3rd of the day..While this movement which is talking about shutting down electrical appliances for an hour seems to be getting too much of unnecessary coverage...
The founder member of this movement states that “There's a lot one can do during Batti Bandh. When was the last time you cleared your throat for a round of antakshari or brushed up your acting skills? When was the last time you played dumb charades in a dark room? ". Some people are even planning to have candle-lit dinners. What excuses we need for voluntarily switching of power...a cause for global warming..
In that sense my fellow colleagues in the distant suburbs are doing so much in regards to global warming...Though not voluntarily...they are still not using power for 7 hours a day...And they don't get so much publicity either.
I still remember the 6 years i stayed in Vasai. Each day of our lives was planned according to power. Mom waking up early and grinding masala in the mixie, so that she could face no problems in her cooking if power went off later...Updating all our relatives to not give us surprise visits coz we might not be able to cook non-veg food for them ..coz the electrical appliances would not be of any use for grinding the masala and other stuff ..
It's really a terrible situation out there....Parents wake up their kids at 6 A.M ..and suddenly when they tell them to wash their face in the bathroom..the power goes off..When the working parents have to cook for their kids for the afternoon before they leave for work ..there is no power..Coz if the power goes off at 6 or 7 am..it would only come after 3 hours..And when the parents return from work travelling in those nightmare trains..what do they see..No power yet again...Power goes at 5 P.M and comes only at 8 or 8:30 P.M ...and believe me this is not fixed either..7 Hours of power cuts keep on changing daily..2day power might go off at 5 P.M. , 2row might go an hour earlier or later...How do you plan for all this?
Do the people staying in the distant suburbs want to sing Antakshari daily or have candle light dinner daily...NO....I really don't feel we need to give such silly and stupid reasons for a one hour voluntarily power shutdown..There are people living in difficult and worse situations close by. I really don’t think I would like to be a part of such a movement.. I have already had my share of Antakshari’s and Candle–Lit dinners over a period of 6 years when I happened to be a resident of those distant suburbs..:-)
12 comments:
well... i cud pretty much relate to this blog bro... one of the reasons im refraining from visiting vasai,even after spending most of my life there... made lotta sense to me... keep up the good work... i think this piece needs to reach lotsa more ppl...
I agree....
so true cedric! It sounded interesting but yeah i hope their 1 hour power shut off if anyone did that helps to give an hour of power in the suburbs.
Hugs babe.Long time no? How you been?
@ rosh: exactly...i donno for some reason whenevr i think of vasai i just look for excuses for not going there..
@ denzil: :-)
@ shrew: i wish if that could happen then everyday we should have batti bandh ...:-) i am fine..how r u doing? seems u have been very busy ..not seeing much on ur blog..
Cedirc, I won't say your thoughts are wrong, but the idea of 'Batti Bandh' is also not that regretful as you have put in.
In the city like mumbai, to make people aware what's happening out ther in the middle, one really need to make a drastic change in there daily routine, otherwise people in mumbai would have never come to know what somebody did and for what purpose?
I think this Idea of 'Batti Bandh' atleast made people aware of what's happening in the world since it directly affected them in their daily routine.
peace, veiky
@ veiky: Hope that happens sooner than later..:-)
Good one cedric....
Hey,
This space is getting interested. Looks great when people come up and raise their voices, whenever the country demands it!
Though the organizers of ‘Batti Bandh’ pulled the idea from the Sydney Light out Campaign (SLOC), but we Mumbaikers never understand these things. In SLOC, more than half of the city switched their power off.
However, I completely agree with what Vieky said. Though the impact of the Batti Bandh campaign was negligible, but it created a psychological effect on the minds of people in Mumbai and other places too. It created awareness within people from higher level to lower level. If this continues, then soon people will know the effects of global warming and the reason of climate change.
I know that people are facing a lot of problems in Virar and other suburbs, but Batti Bandh doesn’t aim to solve the problems faced by them. The aim was to create awareness about global warming.
Hope people of Mumbai come up with these wise ideas, and create awareness among people.
Cheers!!
Altaf
@ Altaf: wish it made a difference...
Agreed Bro
cedric786.blogspot.com is very informative. The article is very professionally written. I enjoy reading cedric786.blogspot.com every day.
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Compact fluorescents, like their tubular fluorescent precursors, contain a small amount of mercury—typically around five milligrams.
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Link 1:
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Link 2:
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Link 3: http://scentofpine.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/faq-dangerous-cfl/
:-) CFL - use at your discretion.
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Vinay
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