Power situation in Bangalore goes from grim to "whatever is worse than grim"

Bangalore, according to our correspondent, is so dark during night that the sale of telescopes has shot up 160 percent in the city in the last two days alone. This is not to mention the mushrooming of many astronomy clubs in the city. With little light, the night sky appears bright with many constellations visible to the naked sky like never before and astronomy buffs are lapping it all up.

How did all this happen, you ask and here is the story. Bangalore is the only metro in India that has to bear over 5 powerless hours every single day. The situation is so bad that a few days back, a few Bangalore citizens promised to be more civic minded, if they were given more electricity and less powercuts.

People celebrating the return of power after a powercut
in Bangalore on Monday

"I admit the power situation has gone from grim to whatever is worse than grim. But I assure you, the situation will improve soon as we are negotiating purchase of 8000 MW of power from North Korea. Once this power arrives, powercuts will be history and I will be able to watch various spiritual programs on TV and my tablet as I have always done," said Karnataka's Kharief Gowda, Minister for Powercuts, Traffic Signals and Bovine Intervention.

"Yesterday, I had to go to my neighbor's place to sleep as I was scared of sleeping alone in the dark," a 'techie' who works for a mineral water company said,