The social power of the power cut

School bells ring at 5 p.m. I run out of the school as the evening short prayer is said, wondering what I can eat once I get home.

Having refuelled and snacked a bit, I join my friends on the street for a short game of tag before coming home to do my homework.

Writing my homework was a painful experience. As a saviour, the power goes off. I used to jump for joy when the lights went out. It was my time with friends, not just for me but for everyone.

Usually, the whole colony hangs out in the streets. Ladies and gents in their own group talking their stuff sitting under the trees, sometimes the galaxy gives us the bliss of a full moon. Small houses in the colony offered us a great view of the sky. Our sounds echoed until the end of the street when I played with my friends. We then gathered around an elderly woman who would tell us a story. We burst into shrieks once more when the power returns, running to our homes to blow out our candles.

The generators today thankfully took away the struggles during the power cut, but didn’t we give up our real social interaction?

The solution is not to take away the generators and inverters, but to create interactive urban spaces in which people feel motivated to gather. I'm not talking about going to restaurants or watching movies, where we pay to socialize. Think of a city with mini amphitheatres where local arts are performed, avenues with benches, parks around every corner, lakes with running tracks, and long pedestrian roads to walk safely at the night.

In this pandemic during the never-ending lockdowns, we longed for social interaction. Now that we can socialise, how can we make our cities more interactive.?

#power#urbanplanning#smartcitiesindia#sustainability#powercut