All work and less play

Updated On: 16 January, 2011 08:39 AM IST | | Varun Singh

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Kids at Mora Bandar, a nondescript hamlet 12 km off Mumbai near Elephanta Caves, are a disgruntled bunch after electricity arrived at their village for the first time last month. No light once meant they could ditch studying the minute the sun set. No such luck now

When you see a 65 year-old man, hunched at the shoulders, standing frail in a lungi, tug non-stop at a string that hangs from a bulb fixed to the ceiling of his hut, you can't help but giggle.

Mora Bandar, a tiny hamlet located near the Elephanta Caves, a UNESCOu00a0 World Heritage Site 12 km from Mumbai, received electricity for the first time on December 20, 2010, as a result of a scheme launched by Sydney-based Solar-Gem in association with MMRDA.

Janabai, a resident of Mora Bandar, was once used to cooking in darkness. PIC/PRADEEP DHIVAR

It aims to provide three villages with round-the-clock electricity for the first time by harnessing power from sunshine. For Patil and the thousand odd villagers of Mora Bandar, it's been a month of change. Locals here, who are used to operating fancy mobile phones charged with electricity from the diesel run generator, had been alienated from the experience of electricity until now.u00a0

Late to bed and early to rise
The LED lamps that run from panels that soak up the sun's rays and store it as electricity in battery units, made adults and even the elderly behave like kids, choosing to leave the lights on even when they were sleeping.

Resident Suman Bhuvad says it has meant a rewinding of their daily clock of chores. "My forefathers have lived, and never have we seen light in our homes. We were forced go to bed early since oil lamps weren't that effective. Now, we stay up late."