Vandana, my friend in Foster City, shared with me this generous story about how power is embedded in our office walls.  Thank you, V!

It was around 6pm on a Friday evening when I was still working in my office in  Burlingame. Suddenly all the lights went off. It was quiet with my laptop screen glowing in dark showing a few error messages about network connectivity issues. One of my colleagues yelled "that’s a sign to go home!" It took a few seconds for the emergency lights in the hallway to turn on. We realized that there was a power cut in all the buildings in the area. Most of us started to pack and leave because it didn’t seem like the power was going to be back soon. I was frustrated since I was in the middle of something and wanted to finish that work. To add to it, we realized that our laptops that were docked on desk stations cannot be removed without power! So we had to leave our laptops in office for the weekend. I didn’t think the elevators would work but strangely enough they did.

I came up to the front door of the building and tried to push the door open. It did not. I thought let me try the other door because one of them is heavy. It still did not open. Then I remembered that the doors in my office building get automatically locked in the evenings and even to exit you have to push an exit button next to it. So I tried pushing the exit button, but it still wouldn’t open. After trying it a couple of times, I realized that the exit button is not working without power. I thought to myself, am I trapped? Then I thought of trying the backside door of the building. That did not work either. I was about to call 911 for help when I thought there must be at least one more door, the fire emergency exit. I found it on another corner of the building. I was able to open that, with the fear however, that the fire alarm will go off. To my surprise it did not. For a moment I thought does the alarm also need power to kick off? No, can’t be. When I was walking out through the cold winds, to get to my car that was parked in the front of the building, I thought what if there was an actual fire? It would have taken me a good couple of minutes to search for the right door to exit the building. May be they did not design it well for a situation with fire and without power?

With the moon in waning crescent phase and the street lights off, it was pitch dark and I could not even see where my car is parked until I pressed the remote. As I was driving back home though the dark street, I wondered how would life be without power? We almost take it for granted. Just about everything uses power, from clocks to computer networks to exit doors. How did people used to live without power? With earthen lamps, probably  5pm dinners and perhaps 7pm bed-times? I guess it’s all relative to what one is mentally prepared for and used to. It’s a rare event here. But in countries like  India where power cut is a common phenomenon, people are prepared for it. For example, they keep candles and matches handy, that you can find easily in dark. They use mechanical clocks rather than the ones that need power and they do not have power dependant door exits. This incident and the subsequent thought process reminded me once again of the fact that everything is relative to what’s in your mind. Relative to what your expectations are. The exact same circumstance can be difficult or easy depending on what you are mentally prepared for. Convenient or troublesome depending on what you are used to. Happy or sad depending on your expectations. Colorful or faint depending on your perspective. Achievable or not depending on your confidence. And seem optimistic or pessimistic depending on how much you believe in yourself.