What were you doing When the lights went out?
We don't realize how much we depend on electricity.How often do we think how wonderful it is that we can have lights when the sun goes down?Or, that we can keep our food cold in the refrigerator? We take all things for granted---we don't even think about them.
On July 30,2012,a power outage in northern India left 670 million people without electricity. The extremely hot summer caused the demand for electricity to reach record levels. Also,27 percent of India's power is lost because of bad transmission or because it is stolen.
Traffic became chaos,and hundreds of electric train stopped running. Cities like New Delhi turned DARK,and people suffered in the terrible heat. Here is what two people said about the blackout.
Raj (37) : I was driving my car when the blackout happened. The stoplights went out,so cars were blocking the intersections and traffic wasn't moving. I was waiting in traffic for hours. But,at least,I was running the car's air conditioner.
Asha (21) : I was working in my family's restaurant when the electricity went out. Power failures are common, so my family has a generator. It provides power for our refrigeratot. So,we were selling food throughout the blackout by light of candles. It was very romantic.