Power Holiday

In India, power failure is called load shedding. At the moment, we're having 1 1/2 hours of it every day; the Chennai suburbs three hours a day; the rest of the state five hours a day, for an indefinite period.

Today I saw in the paper a new (to me) word for it: 'power holiday.'

The government's explanation is interesting. According to The Hindu:
The revised system of intensive load shedding... has been designed to ensure that there are no unscheduled disruptions in power supply.
i.e., we're having scheduled outtages (I think this word is also local?) so that we don't have unscheduled outtages. Further,
... the main cause for the frequent interruptions in the supply is the under-frequency relay factor...inadequate capacity addition... poor rainfall ... substantial reduction in the State’s share of power from Central Generating Stations that are hit by the shortage of lignite and uranium... [and] ... sudden loss of wind energy...

Opposition leader, Jayalalitha's response to this was succinct: she was quoted as saying that the reasons cited by the government for power shortage are "strange and ridiculous."

6 comments:

Nautankey said...

Seems the power cuts are gonna be the curse for current govt's hold on (political) power...

Anonymous said...

ah, i see you don't have your indian english quite right... "loadshedding" is something planned and scheduled for in advance; "power cut" is when the light outage is unscheduled.

Distinguishing between the two is not easy...so, for homework, the next time the lights go out, determine whether it's a power cut or loadshedding. Should keep you occupied, if nothing else :-)

Ramesh Gandhi said...

:-D

Tarun Goel said...

A good article....and your poems are beautiful.

Ramesh Gandhi said...

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Disingenuous euphemism is either endemic to all political/commercial systems or this delicate rephrasing is another remnant of colonialism!