Running life on batteries
When we came home on Friday evening, it was darkness inside!
I forgot to pay our Rs. 118 electricity bill outstanding. The BESCOM guy came and gave a new bill and disconnected our power connection. Venkat had to pack his luggage and this should have irritated him. “Pay the bill, call the guy on this number, you will get the connection back” was the message on the notice board. If I had access to the Internet, I would have paid at the moment. “Somebody give me access to Internet” was my cry that time. My GPRS was not working at that time, thanks to Airtel.
I searched for wireless networks if something was available, found an adhoc but couldn’t connect. Then, I decided to give up. From then till next afternoon, I was running on batteries: my laptop and my mobile phone – no Internet. Laptop battery is a good timer, if you do not want to spend too much (waste) time at night, don’t connect your laptop to a/c power, you will sleep happily.
Finally, I woke up at 11 AM on Saturday, went to office and paid the bill online. After we called the guy, he told his office time was over and he could come only on Monday. In India, there is a second route for everything. My apartment got power at 6 PM finally.
It’s fairly easy to get around this – what BESCOM does is like client-side validation
Just replace the fuse yourself. If you can’t find one – pull out the fuse from the meter
of any of your neighbours – preferably an unoccupied flat
Been there, done that – many a time!
Ha ha, I don’t have access to the switch room, otherwise I would have done that. The secretary of the apartment is too paranoid.