Kids at Mora Bandar, a nondescript hamlet 12 km off Mumbai near Elephanta Caves, are a disgruntled bunch after electricity arrived at their village for the first time last month. No light once meant they could ditch studying the minute the sun set. No such luck now
Kids at Mora Bandar, a nondescript hamlet 12 km off Mumbai near Elephanta Caves, are a disgruntled bunch after electricity arrived at their village for the first time last month. No light once meant they could ditch studying the minute the sun set. No such luck now
When you see a 65 year-old man, hunched at the shoulders, standing frail in a lungi, tug non-stop at a string that hangs from a bulb fixed to the ceiling of his hut, you can't help but giggle.
Mora Bandar, a tiny hamlet located near the Elephanta Caves, a UNESCOu00a0 World Heritage Site 12 km from Mumbai, received electricity for the first time on December 20, 2010, as a result of a scheme launched by Sydney-based Solar-Gem in association with MMRDA.
Late to bed and early to rise
The LED lamps that run from panels that soak up the sun's rays and store it as electricity in battery units, made adults and even the elderly behave like kids, choosing to leave the lights on even when they were sleeping.
Resident Suman Bhuvad says it has meant a rewinding of their daily clock of chores. "My forefathers have lived, and never have we seen light in our homes. We were forced go to bed early since oil lamps weren't that effective. Now, we stay up late."
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| Hari Vishnu Patil puts on a solar lamp in his hut by tugging at a string attached to it. PIC/BIPIN KOKATE |
Waking up early had little meaning for them because darkness allowed restricted movement. The one unusual advantage of the arrival of electricity is that working men and kids now get to have a healthy home-made lunch. Bulbs and tubes allow women of the village to wake early and prepare home-cooked meals that they pack in tiffins to send off with family, says resident Bharti Panehal.
Saas bahu soaps for women
For the last three years, Mora Bandar received electricity for just three hours a day thanks to diesel-run generators.
A short window meant urgent chores like cooking had to be knocked off first; entertainment could wait. The all-day supply means the hamlet's ladies can enjoy their daily evening prime time viewing while enjoying a meal with family.
Kids have to study longer
But for some of the kids 24-hour power supply means more time spent with their school books. "Now there's light late into the night, so kids who'd earlier use darkness as as excuse and run off to play, have to now spend additional time studying," says Sadhana Patare. And for Patil, the reason for his childlike mirth is that 'it's all free'.
Streetlights next
In the past few days, Mora Bandar's residents have been experiencing a problem with miscreants who take easy shelter in the thickets around Elephanta.
Streetlights, say the locals, is the answer to safety. "We need streetlights because the entire stretch that we walk to get to the Elephanta jetty is deserted and surrounded by forest land. We have electricity back at home but it would be good to have a well-lit street for us to get back home from work," says a villager.
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