When the lights came on ...

My parents moved to Sakleshpur from our Yelwaal farmhouse when I was in the fourth standard. Since there were no good schools at that hill station back then, I was sent off to live with my grandparents in Mysore city . Every holiday - summer and christmas, was out there in the hills, with Pappa and Mamma. For the first three years, they didn’t have electricity... Pappa however adapted and his missus followed suit - I have strong memories of how the bungalow looked back then.. White candles, beautiful wild flowers , gaslights and torches and battery operated cassette players that played a great array of music, from Boney m (mamma) to Mohd Rafi (Pappa).. Reading books and cookouts and bonfires were how we spent evenings n nights! For me, from the world of mtv and Cartoon Network, bollywood movies in theatres, kings kourt and southern star dinners in mysore, I was suddenly introduced to my parents world. Listening to music, going trekking with picnic baskets that mamma took great interest in making,n then looking at the glorious sunset from up the hill, walks in nature, light candles when dusk falls and then stare at the fireflies in the jungle, play board games, read books, watch wild elephants silently pass through the front of our house , go swimming in the lake the next morning after breakfast … I was bored. Mind you- I am talking about the 90’s , 94- 96 to be precise . I marched upto my father one afternoon and announced that I was bored, in this coffee estate nestled in the midst of a jungle- that had ‘nothing’ to offer. His reply would always be ,”when i was a kid, I dint know a word called ‘bored’ existed , we used to invent new games and entertain ourselves back in the day, go do the same “ . Eventually , by 96, we had electricity. We had a fridge that would store everything from milk to readymade soups and condiments ,to frozen meat. Our boardgames and cards went back to the book shelf and a fancy tv took its place that would now air channel v and sony. Our candles were stacked away for that occasional power cut. We didn’t listen to music on our stereos cos entertainment was available 24/7 in the form of cable tv and vcr’s. We didn’t gaze at the starlit nights and the firefly filled woods cos, the lights had come on...