The morning yesterday was Sunny but it started raining in the afternoon and continued to be wet. At around 3.30 p.m. I went to the terrace for a minute and my attention was caught by a fire in front of me, in the army institute. I thought they were doing some torch carrying exercise. But the fire got bigger and made an ominous hissing noise. I looked closely. A branch of the jacaranda tree on the boundary had caught fire! The fire was getting bigger. It started raining and it was extinguished. I came inside.
The drizzle stopped and I heard a bigger sound, the branch had fallen. Some young people on the road were shouting but there was no letup in the continuous traffic.
Something had got to be done. I called the fire brigade station nearby. A person sought the details and then advised me to contact the power distribution company. It had three helplines. All were busy. I kept calling. Got through and was met with a prerecorded message. It was repeated in Marathi, English and Hindi. I waited patiently. Then I had to feed my 12 digit consumer number. Then the service got stuck. I fed the number four times but to no avail.
I could not quite turn back now. Kept calling the number. Reached the call center staff and the phone was stopped. Two more tries. Nothing happened when I pressed the option for power supply off (power was discontinued by then) and so next time I chose the option of emergency. Finally got through. Gave the details of what I had observed and told them that the fire was now out due to the rains. Added that I was stuck on their helpline and that at the beginning of the rainy season, I had contacted them to tell them about tree-cutting but I was pooh-poohed.
Nothing more could be done and so I got busy with my reading.
When power supply was restored after two hours, I checked outside. The tree had been pruned. After half an hour I got a message saying that the problem I had reported had been resolved.
3 comments:
The author has obviously shows her concern and tenacity while trying to deal with the incident of fire that she saw. But then she gets stuck into a technological web and can't wriggle out easily. We are making huge progress in the field of internet websites etc but many of them are poorly designed. She ends up wasting time and energy which should have been done in a matter of minitues. A common experience I guess!
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The power distribution company has done it again.
I got a message saying that due to system maintenance, there was going to be a big shut-down from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in our area. So we finished the morning chores fast and postponed washing clothes to evening. I first ran downstairs to alert the substitute watchman about filling water in the society tanks quickly.
8 o'clock came and went. At 9 o'clock I reasoned that the electricity people wanted to say that the shutdown would be any time between 8 to 6 but did not know how to say it properly and I started the washing machine.
No shut down till 12 noon, 2 p.m. and finally not at all!
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