I am under house-arrest and so are you
I am under house-arrest and so are you
I, or anyone for that matter, was not under any house-arrest, until some years ago. The situation did not arrive at that time. Things were very different back then after all.
I still remember visiting an aunt some 20 years ago in a remote village, which was her home then. The routine was the same every day: she and the entire household woke up around 4 am, carrying on with the daily activities of rural life. The day ends with the dipping sun and dinner being served at 7.30pm. This was actually a ‘late’ practice for village standards of that time.
As a kid of 9 or 10, I remember frowning at not having electricity in that household as I had nothing much to do after the sun went pink far west. Eat at 7.30, sleep at 8 pm. Duh!
That was again, some 20 years ago.
Virtual House Arrest
Things haven’t changed much in rural belts even today. However, there is now a drastic change in how people are conducting their lives. They do not necessarily go to bed as early, as they did for years until now. Not even my humble old aunt. Now, they also have modern-day entertainment sources available, like television and smartphones, to indulge. Good enough to keep them up till late at night.
Most parts of the world are now getting powered, hence there is a dramatic shift in our experience of the time after dusk. If our uptime at night is getting stressed for long hours, our days are now spent strictly indoors. The outdoor conditions do not feel comforting anymore. We have mastered the art of energy efficiency indoors and can control the thermostat settings as per our requirement. Be it heating or cooling. Again, as the internet gets most of our chores done these days, we have voluntarily put ourselves into a house-arrest like situation. Venturing out under the sky is now an occasional activity