Incidentally, when I saw a picture in the same paper of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, sitting with a young usher and riding a “man – powered” rickshaw at its inaugural ceremony in Dhaka yesterday, I wondered what response it would draw from the world community that has been pressing over the past few years for the abolition of this form of demeaning transport which is almost the trademark of life in Bangladesh and which still persists in many parts of our country too.

Although the unnamed CESC official, who has been quoted may have thought that he has made an earth - shattering statement, that informs us all about how technologically advanced we have suddenly become with just a swing of the cricket bat, I think he has only saved himself from a most shameful kind of personal humiliation by not letting his name be printed alongside his claim.

When his organisation has not been able to provide the much needed uninterrupted power to our exam - going students over the past so many years and has not been able to change its style of functioning or the quality of its service despite changing its name more than once, can we expect it to do any better now just out of its reverence to the Gods of the English game?

What he has said with so much of pride would only have suited the status and stature of some obscure warravaged republic, ruled either by a tin - pot dictator or by an armed junta, which our country is certainly not. I do not think any official of any developed country would have even dreamt of making a statement as shameful as this in the twenty - first century.

Has he paused to ponder what the rest of the developed world will think of our abilities and priorities when we who have plans of putting our men on the moon are not able to provide uninterrupted power to our people here on the earth? Even countries like China which are more populous than ours and which have been showing a more rapid rate of industrialization than what we are seeing do not have any problems related to power simply because their officials are held accountable for their lapses and shortcomings.

Not having corrupt politicians which is the bane of democracies like ours certainly seems to have helped. And, by the way, don’t you think we should ask ourselves if cricket is the most important and compelling reason why we should try and have uninterrupted power when a large majority of our students are forced to still depend on the centuries - old candles and oil lamps like our ancestors from the dark ages did?

Let us not forget that it is only the few rich amongst us who are able to afford expensive devices like generators and invertors that are stop gap alternatives to round – the - clock electric supply that is a commonly available commodity even in countries which are not half as developed as ours?

Over the past few years we have all seen how unscheduled and unpredictable even “scheduled” power cuts were which only prevented our overworked children from planning their hours of study and rest during the preparations for their examinations. We have also seen how frustrated housewives and working women, between their hurried washing and ironing to beat the power cut, had to invent alternative breakfast recipes that did not require the help of a mixie or a grinder.

The power scenario was so bad last summer that even the people who managed to save their precious money to buy the power invertors that sold like hot cakes could only curse their fate because there simply was not enough power to charge the batteries for the required time.

And lastly, when the CESC is only an agency that transmits and conveys electricity to households without having any control over its production, I wonder with what confidence it can make any tall claims about uninterrupted supply this summer. Thomas Alva Edison must certainly be having the last laugh at our expense in his grave.

Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD
e-mail: kjnmysore@gmail.com
Courtesy: Star Of Mysore

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