The Muezzin's call to the faithful over the loudspeaker came, according to the old timetable. Prayers are regulated by (apparent) rise and setting of the Sun. The Sun would not adjust its "clock" in line with the government's Quixotic directive and it was not alone.
Qari sahib, who comes daily to teach the children to read the Qur'aan came at the usual time with respect to the sun. His activity schedule is dictated by the prayer timings and he would not be bothered with the hour forward decision.
The driver reported later than usual according to the new O'clock. The Massis, however, came an hour earlier than before. For a change, their watches (yes, many Massis wear watches now) were in tune with the times! I had a prior appointment with the dentist for 5.30 pm on 2 June I wondered whether the dentist would see me at the old 5.30 or the new 5.30. Fortunately a phone call clarified the matter. The dentist, like the Massis, had moved with the times. It was another matter that power went out just as the dentist arrived and I had to be content with verbal consultation, hoping for better luck next day. In short, different people reacted differently and there was confusion.
Schools schedules are another problem, or soon will be, since they are now closed for vacation. My grandchildren leave for school at 7.15 am (old time). The school starts quite early at 7.40 am. The children must now leave at 6.15 am (old time). Therefore they must get up at 5.00 am (old time) when it is still quite dark. Lights must be put on early. The result is opposite of daylight saving.
I see two general problems with the idea. We are still, 60 years on after independence, a nation of illiterate people as they number around 70% of the population. The other problem is that variation of daylight hours with seasons is not so significant in low altitude countries like ours as with countries to the further north where clocking back and forth with change of season is routine.
What can be done to at least reduce the size of the problems on a self-reliant note? I think we should get the people into the habit of shutting down unnecessary lights, fans and power consuming appliances from time to time. How do we achieve this? I have a dream. A popular political leader comes on screen on a TV channel at prime time. The location is a power house switchboard room and, next to the leader, viewers can see the Power Meter whose needle is on the move to clearly show the Megawatts being consumed from moment to moment.
The leader appeals to the people to look around their homes and offices and close the lights, fans and other appliances they didn't need just then. Within minutes, the needle on the meter (so goes my dream) slowly swings back to show that say, 10 Megawatts less are being consumed now, so that power supply could now be resumed to some areas where load was being shed. Constructive, people power will have been demonstrated for all to see and be proud of. The scene should be repeated in different cities, with other political leaders and celebrities like Abdus Sattar Edhi, Abdul Qadeer Khan and others making the appeal.
Hopefully, if the message is strong enough, people should get into the habit of switching off unnecessary load from time to time and we may be able to get the power of 100 MW, do the work of, maybe former 120 MW. Dare we try? ([email protected])
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