Takde Karen

I was driving back home around noon, when suddenly Mix FM went dead. I switched to Hitz. Static. Light & Easy. Nope. Hmmm....?? I thought I lost my antenna or maybe my radio is out. 988 Chinese station, eh? OK lar.

Then the traffic lights. All the lights I passed through were out. It was havoc, cars and lorries from all directions were not giving way. Everybody tried to squeeze in. Surprisingly, the Touch & Go is working. So I got home about 1/2 hour later.

At home, my auto-gate didn't work. I honked for Mami. "No eletric" she shouted out to me.

"Are you sure it's not our fuse?" I asked.

"I think so"

We prepared to go out and send Yiyi to my parent's house. Along the way, more un-powered traffic lights. "Looks like the whole neighbourhood is affected" I said. When I reached my parent's house, their auto-gate wasn't working either. "Looks like it's something more serious" I thought to myself.

"Johor and Melaka also affected" my dad said.

"Is it?" I asked.

"Ya, your uncle called, saying Johor also no electricity"

"Yayy!! No need to go back to work!" Mami shouted, excitedly.

I called back to the office. Yup, no electricity alright. It was at this point of time that we realised how dependant we are to electricity, and technology. I started to think I could check out what's wrong on the Internet, maybe through PPS or The Star. But wait, no electricity lar, how to check. ha ha ha... ok, how about a radio? A battery-powered radio. If only we could find one....

However, we did found one, in my mom's toilet. But it was broken. With nothing to do, and eager to know what's going on, I opened it up and tried to fix it. Oh ok, just a broken volume dial. Fixed it back, and began to listen to news over some stations. Selangor, KL, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor were affected by the power failure. Traffic lights is most places don't work, as well as lifts in high buildings.

My dad got a call from a friend, asking for help. "Aiya, my fish all turning belly up lar. You got a generator ah?" he said. He runs a restaurant. Looks like the 3-4 hours blackout is going to cost TNB some money!

In the news, when asked when the power will be restored, the TNB official replied "Saya rasa dalam 3 jam" (I thnk in about 3 hours). Moments after hearing that, Mami's got a call from her boss.

Papi : What your boss want?

Mami : The power is back in the office.

Papi : Is it?! (Surprised!!) So how? What did he say?

Mami : Nothing lor.

Papi : Aiya, he wants you to go back office lor. If not, why bother calling you, right?

Surprisingly, TNB is quite fast to restore the power. So here we are in the office, Mami is doing some work and I am typing this post.

takde karen: Malay loosely translated as no current or no electricity