DIGITAL INDIA
I, a 70 years old pensioner, live in Gurgaon, touted as the millennium city of India. All around high-rise buildings, posh offices, dazzling malls, two metro railway networks and bad roads. At night one can get drunk in one of the mini-breweries and may indulge in the dream that one is in Europe or in Shanghai. So much so that the other day I encountered one Facebook posting from a senior ex-colleagues of mine, expressing his satisfaction that Rajarhat near Kolkata is fast becoming another Gurgaon. I wish him all the best!!!
So far so good. Now the reality.
For quite a few days I was suffering from acute pain in left shoulder and neck region. My children had been insisting that I should go to one of the five-star hospitals, of course, at their expense. I was, however, adamant that I would go to the CGHS (Central Government Health services) wellness centre (dispensary) because I had made prepayment to them for life-long services.
So, one morning, after dropping my wife at her school I proceeded to the CGHS dispensary, located at a distance of about 10 km from my residence. When I entered the CGHS building I was delighted to see that there was no queue in front of the doctors’ chambers and, blissfully unaware of what was awaiting me, I straightway went into the room of the Doctor In-charge for registration. I felt that the room was a bit dark but I was in an appreciating mood thinking that the doctor is preserving electricity by not switching on the lights.
When I told the Doctor in-charge that I intend to consult with a doctor for my shoulder pain, she told me that since there is no electricity she cannot log into the system and I would have to wait till the power is restored.
“Fine. How long will it take, can you please tell me?” I asked the doctor politely.
She said that power would be available in another 5 -10 minutes as she had already informed the concerned department. Assured, I went out and sat on a bench in the waiting hall.
There were already about half-a-dozen persons in the hall. A large broken inverter was standing in one corner, silently indicating the shortage of fund or lack of will for its repair. Understandably, there was no generator. Healthcare is not an important sector for the government.
After sitting there for about 30 minutes or so and having gone through all the emails on my smartphone, I started getting restless. As I had left home early in a hurry, I did not take my breakfast and so was a bit hungry also.
To assess the situation I asked the gentleman sitting next to me, “Sir, can you please tell me for how long have you been waiting here?”
“I am here for more than an hour”, said the gentleman. “I was in the room of the Doctor-in-charge when the outage took place. I’m stuck up because my papers are half-done”, he continued.
I thought it would be prudent to clarify from the Incharge once again about the possible time by which we can expect electricity back. So I went to her room again and asked, “Will you please enlighten me about the latest position with respect to restoration of power? What does the electricity department say?”
“The electricity guys say that it may take another half-an-hour or so”, she replied.
“Is the power outage frequent here?” I persisted.
Now she was visibly annoyed and snubbed me, “Why do you ask? Don’t you know the power situation in Gurgaon? Power outage is frequent here, but today it is taking unusually long time for restoration”.
Dejected I came out of her room. Since by then I was pretty hungry, I decided to give up the idea of consulting with a doctor and started back home. I was cursing myself that I asked her about the power outage. That was definitely silly of me. Do I not know? In the condominium where I live, power outage is a frequent and regular phenomena. The only irregular thing is that there is no fixed timing. The outage can happen at any time and may last for any duration - from half-a-minute to half-an-hour. The outage takes place so many times a day, that I never bothered to keep any account – may be a dozen times in a day? Thankfully, there are enough number of diesel generators for back-up power supply; so, we don’t feel the pain of long outage.
However, every time there is an outage the router and the wifi connection at home gets disrupted. The laptop screen displays the message – You are not connected; try later. Actually, whenever I am in the process of downloading a vital document or in the midst of an online monetary transaction or in the elevator, I always keep my fingers crossed and pray that there should not be any outage right then. Having known all these and having being constantly in the midst of frequent power outage I should not have asked the Incharge that silly question and got snubbed. I deserved it!!!
I was already in the car and Hemant, my driver, was taking me back home. Suddenly, I got a WhatsApp message from friend of mine, describing in details how our dynamic PM has roped in, among others, Zuckerberg of FB and Nadella of Microsoft to usher in digital age in this country. All villages of the country will be connected with all cities; we shall have free wifi in railway stations, bus stands, and even in CGHS dispensaries. I was elated. Now we shall be constantly online, no more returning empty-handed from the CGHS and no more crossing of the fingers while making an online transaction!!!
But only if power does not play the spoil sport.
So far so good. Now the reality.
For quite a few days I was suffering from acute pain in left shoulder and neck region. My children had been insisting that I should go to one of the five-star hospitals, of course, at their expense. I was, however, adamant that I would go to the CGHS (Central Government Health services) wellness centre (dispensary) because I had made prepayment to them for life-long services.
So, one morning, after dropping my wife at her school I proceeded to the CGHS dispensary, located at a distance of about 10 km from my residence. When I entered the CGHS building I was delighted to see that there was no queue in front of the doctors’ chambers and, blissfully unaware of what was awaiting me, I straightway went into the room of the Doctor In-charge for registration. I felt that the room was a bit dark but I was in an appreciating mood thinking that the doctor is preserving electricity by not switching on the lights.
When I told the Doctor in-charge that I intend to consult with a doctor for my shoulder pain, she told me that since there is no electricity she cannot log into the system and I would have to wait till the power is restored.
“Fine. How long will it take, can you please tell me?” I asked the doctor politely.
She said that power would be available in another 5 -10 minutes as she had already informed the concerned department. Assured, I went out and sat on a bench in the waiting hall.
There were already about half-a-dozen persons in the hall. A large broken inverter was standing in one corner, silently indicating the shortage of fund or lack of will for its repair. Understandably, there was no generator. Healthcare is not an important sector for the government.
After sitting there for about 30 minutes or so and having gone through all the emails on my smartphone, I started getting restless. As I had left home early in a hurry, I did not take my breakfast and so was a bit hungry also.
To assess the situation I asked the gentleman sitting next to me, “Sir, can you please tell me for how long have you been waiting here?”
“I am here for more than an hour”, said the gentleman. “I was in the room of the Doctor-in-charge when the outage took place. I’m stuck up because my papers are half-done”, he continued.
I thought it would be prudent to clarify from the Incharge once again about the possible time by which we can expect electricity back. So I went to her room again and asked, “Will you please enlighten me about the latest position with respect to restoration of power? What does the electricity department say?”
“The electricity guys say that it may take another half-an-hour or so”, she replied.
“Is the power outage frequent here?” I persisted.
Now she was visibly annoyed and snubbed me, “Why do you ask? Don’t you know the power situation in Gurgaon? Power outage is frequent here, but today it is taking unusually long time for restoration”.
Dejected I came out of her room. Since by then I was pretty hungry, I decided to give up the idea of consulting with a doctor and started back home. I was cursing myself that I asked her about the power outage. That was definitely silly of me. Do I not know? In the condominium where I live, power outage is a frequent and regular phenomena. The only irregular thing is that there is no fixed timing. The outage can happen at any time and may last for any duration - from half-a-minute to half-an-hour. The outage takes place so many times a day, that I never bothered to keep any account – may be a dozen times in a day? Thankfully, there are enough number of diesel generators for back-up power supply; so, we don’t feel the pain of long outage.
However, every time there is an outage the router and the wifi connection at home gets disrupted. The laptop screen displays the message – You are not connected; try later. Actually, whenever I am in the process of downloading a vital document or in the midst of an online monetary transaction or in the elevator, I always keep my fingers crossed and pray that there should not be any outage right then. Having known all these and having being constantly in the midst of frequent power outage I should not have asked the Incharge that silly question and got snubbed. I deserved it!!!
I was already in the car and Hemant, my driver, was taking me back home. Suddenly, I got a WhatsApp message from friend of mine, describing in details how our dynamic PM has roped in, among others, Zuckerberg of FB and Nadella of Microsoft to usher in digital age in this country. All villages of the country will be connected with all cities; we shall have free wifi in railway stations, bus stands, and even in CGHS dispensaries. I was elated. Now we shall be constantly online, no more returning empty-handed from the CGHS and no more crossing of the fingers while making an online transaction!!!
But only if power does not play the spoil sport.
