Fuck you Philippines.

So as soon as I decided to become a regular on the blogging market, this too was snatched away from me. Wow, this town does suck. Notice the fact that I call this place I am stuck in a town, not a city because plainly because it refuses to qualify as one. I was close to calling it a village but I somehow held myself back. See? I can be kind too.

It’s been six days without electricity. And no, I do not mean the two-four or maximum six hour power cuts. Nope. I mean the last I saw of electricity was Sunday night when a ridiculously insignificant typhoon hit this island names The Philippines. I call it insignificant because it lasted precisely a day. A day of heavy downpour and tree-falls everywhere you turned and wind strong enough to uproot you and blow you away. Classes were suspended for Monday and Tuesday and it only made sense that electricity went off in the morning. But the second day itself the sun shone right back at us bright as ever and yet, no sign of current. “Be patient”, I was told. And patient I have been. But how much more? From what I heard the last typhoon was bad, one of the worst the country ever saw so the whole power cut for a week made sense but now it’s just ridiculous. Having had to carry my laptop and phone to college everyday in order for a little battery to be recharged has been a pain. Moreover, we all have been having candlelight dinners everyday. Yes, as much of a romanticist as I am, I am not psychic enough to have wished for this. Because this involves not just dinners but cooking too. Oh and let’s not skip, sleeping. Minus  fan, minus so much as a trace or hint of a distant breeze.

I am usually not selfish but I find myself wishing that the typhoon had lasted longer. As much destruction and damage as that would have caused, it would have at least led to better climatic conditions and made this whole week slightly more bearable.

Did I forget to mention that this was my last week before the much awaited semester break? This meant two things. First, that this was exam week which meant having to read and learn by the candle which made me feel somewhat like Ishwar Chandra Vidhyasagar minus his dedication or zeal but just the compulsion. Second, that all the planning that I needed to do this week with anyone and everyone as to where to go and what to do during this break, was put on a hold too. We’ve been forced to be cut off from everyone, not something we had any power to change or do a fuck about. 

My father, the darling that he is, called every single day to be updated about the developments. And sadly enough I informed him each day that there hadn’t been any whatsoever. There was still no sign of a returning typhoon or electricity. Do I sound like a drag whining endlessly? But that is what life without power is! One big fucking drag. The moment daylight starts to run out on you, you find yourself holding on to it with dear life. Because once it’s gone, you’ll be drowned in an ever-lasting darkness. You can’t read, write, type, sit online, watch anything. Conjure up anything you do to kill time on a day to day basis and you will in some way or the other find yourself requiring light to assist you through it.

My mother helped me fall asleep once in between this typhoon struck week since that too proves an impossible task for a dreadful insomniac like me. But this is international distance we are talking about and that did seep in eventually. I found myself singing in the dark in the hope to fall asleep, only to be woken up drenched in a new batch of sweat. The restlessness of the night was reflected in the morning chores and the general irritability all through the day.

I was told that the typhoon passed over to Vietnam within a day. If that was the case, our conditions did nothing to prove it. Suddenly I found myself face to face with assignments which were due and no google to help me through them since WiFi not just at our campus, but all over town had been affected. Also I found myself feeling increasingly like a tribal early man with no scope of improvement. There is not a damn thing you can do since filing electric complaints is also not an option here. Welcome to the Philippines!

Welcome, my ass. These people are astonishingly dumb to say the least. This typhoon business is a yearly recurrent problem. And yet, they take no precautions or preventive measures or set up any sort of back up at all. I mean, are you kidding me? I think a five year old would have as much IQ as to come with a solution to a perpetual problem. But no, this is an oddity of a place indeed where brains are as scarce as wheat flour.

Their stupidity and negligence makes me want to tear the hair off my head and scream and scream and scream until there is no voice left in my throat. Maybe then they will hear me. What the fuck happened to underground wiring? What happened to back up grids? Whatever happened to waste water management? No, they not only have no back-up electricity, they also do not believe in using all this water to their benefit. Water here remains a more expensive commodity than soft drinks. The roads are equivalent to muck long before the typhoon so you can just imagine what this level of rain and wind does to them. It’s like wading through mud with a few pebbles on the way.

Another thing the typhoon taught me was stocking things up. You never know what you’ll run out of and when and whether or not it’ll be available anymore. From fags to candles to chips, biscuits, bread, milk, you name it, we stored it. The only thing which continued to free flow was of course alcohol since that is one thing this country never runs low on or out of.

And all those people who think that this is a good time to bridge distances and spend quality time with each other due to the lack of technological distractions are highly mistaken. By the end of this week, I was so frustrated with my two pretty perfect flatmates that I wanted to run out the door and keep running until the murderous intention of killing them didn’t fade away since I had seen way too much of their face in mine! We all were in dire need of the one thing we did not have, light and its substitute was a common frustration and boredom that continuously built up (at least in me) until it didn’t occupy every pore and inch of my very skin and flesh. We spent days in the lobby and evenings in the balcony, trying to get even each other’s non-existent share of breeze and light. We spent nights by the candles and I personally ignored every churn of my stomach made once I felt I had fed it enough.

For the first time in my life I feel a part of the third world countries, something which I never had to feel back home. And it's still on. Nobody has the slightest idea as to when we'll be blessed with electricity again. Some say tonight, while others say a week more, and there are still others who say it may take upto a month.

Damn you all who call me a NRI. Only I know the price I have to pay to be one.