Social Unreality

   Two months ago, we had three days of very heavy rains and thunderstorms here which led to widespread disruption of power supply. The mobile communication towers also stopped working and, being a low priority rural area, there were no diesel generators to keep them running.
   I live in Sawantwadi, a small town in the Konkan region of the western ghats. For a day and a half, there was no power here, but in my village which is some 20 km away, there was no electricity for more than three days. No electricity and no mobile data network for three full days. And after three days when the network resumed, my sim card for some unknown reason stopped working and it took a while to be replaced.  

 The result of all this was that I was without a data network for more than 12 days. I was in my farm, busy the whole day with regular monsoon activity. But before 8.30am and after 6.30pm, I was glancing now and then at the mobile screen, drawn to it by some invisible force. Soon, it became very troubling.