The End of the World
nathanpillai01

“Turn off the lights when you leave the room!”, mum called out. Everyday   she yelled at me for wasting electricity, saying it would run out one day. I did not believe that. She was probably just worried about the cost. Why did she have to act as if it was the end of the world? 

It was August 19, 2031. That was the day it began. A life without electricity. As usual, I woke up at 7am to freshen up and get ready for school. The light in my room did not turn on. I checked the other switches in the house but nothing came on. There was no electricity in the house. I walked down to my neighbors to check. It turned out that no one in our neighborhood had power. I was shocked as this had never happened before. Somehow, we got ready for the day. 

At school, I realized that the problem was more widespread and the whole city didn’t have power. School was no fun. None of the projectors worked and neither did the computers which was a bummer. Classes were quite boring, duh! After the worst day at school I headed home. 

My parents were unusually still at home and not at work. They narrated scary incidents from all over the country that were coming in. Phones were running out of battery power and were no longer working as the mobile towers were not functional. E-vehicles, including ours, could not get charged and were not starting up. A few flights had crashed, metros and trains had come to a stand still, as all communication necessary had ceased. Some people were even dying in hospitals when their ventilators and life saving equipment stopped functioning. Dying! My family could not withdraw money from the ATMs and the banks were closed as their systems were not working. Rumors were spreading that this was going to be forever so people rushed to get any food and grocery items that were in stock. The city water supply had stopped and I had to rush to a water truck to get some buckets filled. Carrying water back home in buckets was back breaking work. Sweat flowed freely as there was no fan or air conditioning. At home, I could not watch TV or play video games. Ugh! We rationed birthday candles for light. There was absolute chaos and I felt that the world was really ending. 

My parents were right about asking me to save electricity. I wished electricity would come back. It was costing people their blood, sweat and tears [literally!]. I would never waste it again. I prayed earnestly. I felt someone shaking me. It was mum waking me up for school. I realized that this was all just a dream. Phew! Well, I don’t want my dream to become a reality, so I am not going to take chances. I want to urge you too, to save electricity before it is too late.

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