wooE finally came to America in 2022 to visit our granddaughter born in 2020. Although the pandemic turned many things upside down, at least we were lucky to meet him after a very long gap.
For retired parents coming to the US from India, life is mostly indoors as most of us will not be driving a car and unless you are in a place where public transport is available, you will be completely free to live in any place. will depend on who is driving you for each trip. So it is mostly mobile and smart TV which is busy from morning till evening and can spend time with grandchildren later in the evening.
One fine morning, when we woke up, it was coming out of the blue when I found I had not received my morning quota of good morning messages with flowers. My immediate reaction was to check my phone for WiFi. I was not able to connect to WiFi even after doing my due diligence with the expertise I have acquired in WhatsApp. Meanwhile, my wife, when she got up, cursed her phone for not answering her order. It took a few more minutes to realize that there was a lack of WiFi in the apartment complex. And we were confident that such a breakdown would be contained in the US immediately. Well an hour later, we came to know that the disruption was due to an underground cable fault and it would take time. As usual, the signal time to return to normalcy was anywhere between a few hours to at least a full day.
Grandchildren went to school and daycare and others to their workplaces. We were left at home without wifi and it also ran on the internet since the consequent absence of using mobile or TV. The daily recommended morning dose of soap operas was not available and mood changes were evident in my wife. And my disappointment with the unavailability of cricket. With no newspaper or channel news, no way to talk to anyone other than your spouse and no way out due to lack of vehicle, it was a day that will be etched in my memory for a long time. Will stay I was surprised that technology has produced miracles, but disruption can be very painful, especially when completely dependent on it. If this were the case in India, we could still watch TV via cable and even take public transport or the ubiquitous autorickshaw to pass the time. With the lack of public transport in many developed countries, many car owners exclude a section of the local population and visitors from affordable free movement.
On my part, I must have checked the repair work several times that day. The best part was that although it was a major breakdown, they rapidly brought mechanical equipment to the excavator with minimal manpower and complete silence. Required cables were replaced, tested and power restored by afternoon but WiFi could not be fixed. It took till evening to restore normalcy, almost 15 hours without any important feeds, whats the time we live in!
We finished our lunch and to beat our boredom, we were forced to take a long walk, as the weather was favourable. Moving on, we again thought that while living in India, small disruptions in daily life could be easily handled because of extended family and social support from neighbors and adequately connected public transport. All these were lacking in the western world and so sometimes you were left alone to protect yourself.
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