Powercuts that helped connect

Recently saw a wall post on my kiddo cousin's FB profile that read 'Pissed off by powercuts..'
It can be very frustrating for people especially in the hot summer without their fans and air coolers/conditioners. Music/TV/studying , a slew of activities get disrupted, true! But somehow thinking back about powercuts brought back a lot of fond memories of my growing up years. Whenever we lost power, as much as it rankled us, it provided relief moments when we sisters and cousins chatted, mostly played antakshari. We shared funny anecdotes about happennings in school or college and sometimes my mother, or aunt also joined in the fun. We imitated our teachers and their accents and would be laughing hysterically. Gathering in one room in that candlelight , laughing and just being silly - I am overwhelmed by nostalgia.  In this age of ipods, laptops, cellphones and blackberries - Gosh! There was a time when apple, blackberry were simple fruits, palm was a tree (or the inside of one's hand)
 24 hour TV, youtube, facebook, twitter we're so well connected to far off people and events, but so detatched from those who are around us.
When I was in college I always commuted by public bus. I used to strike up a conversation with anyone sitting beside me, and such interactions have led to a couple of wonderful friendships. Today it's hard to see any young boy or girl not immersed in their cell phones- talking, messaging or lost in their musical world with a pair of white wires attached to earplugs, travelling down their ears and disappearing into a pocket or bag. The ability to work round the clock and remotely from outside office is the worst bane to hit our generation. The good old days when a siren signalled the start of the day at 7:30 or 8 am and another one at 5:30 when everbody had to wind down and leave, makes so much sense to me now. Weekdays, weekends, holidays; night and day - is all one big blur.
My most recent experience with power outage was when I was in Toronto, the east coast lost power for a day and a half. With traffic lights gone, public transport halted, we could not step out. Stores were closed, our electric stove was useless. Our kind landlady who lived in the basement urged us to bring our pressure cooker down to cook some rice on her gas stove. My colleagues and I had a nice candle light dinner - a simple menu of rice, some curry and spicy powders tasted so good with happy, unhurried and uninterrupted conversations.
A friend suggested to go on a 'digital diet' where you discipline yourself to stay away from the electronic monsters all around you. If only I could do it ! I'd welcome a power cut every now and then to break this maddenning pace of life, to close out all the distractions and have some good time with friends and family.