Memories of blackouts

A civil defence mock drill, including a blackout, is being conducted nationwide today. A section of the media claims that such an exercise has not been carried out since the 1971 Bangladesh war. This is incorrect, as we shall soon see.

My first remembrance of blackouts is from the 1965 India-Pakistan war. We were in the interior of the country — Bhopal. The orders came for windows to be darkened, which was not a problem since there were curtains to hold back the light. But what to do with the glass panes of the ventilators above each window? So, we kids (I was in Class V) were sent to the nearest typist’s shop to bring carbon paper used in typewriters (for Gen Z, it’s is a manual printer with a keyboard!) to put on the ventilators. And, as the sun set, the lights in our house were brought to a minimum with curtains drawn tight and we children having the time of our life roaming the street to check if any light was visible outside.

At 8 pm, All India Radio newsreaders Lotika Ratnam or Devki Nandan Pandey would come on air with the latest war news — their serious rendition of the goings-on at the border still resounds in my ears. The only catch, as I realised after joining the IAF, was that Pakistan had no combat aircraft with the range to strike Bhopal!

Then came the 1971 war — and the babudom had perhaps become wiser. We had no blackout drill in Bhopal, though I distinctly remember gathering carbon paper again to be kept as reserve. Well, the setting was different and we had an edge in all aspects of the war. I remember keeping abreast of the war news and preparing for the entrance exam of the National Defence Academy.

Fast-forward to January 2002, and I found myself heading the Air Force Station at Jammu, even as Operation Parakram was in progress. We worked furiously as we went about getting ourselves in top operational preparedness for the war that was just ‘round the corner.’ Our links with the civil administration were fine-tuned and regular communication exercises conducted.

One day, the young Deputy Commissioner of Jammu, Rohit Kansal (who later rose to top positions in the bureaucracy), called up to ask for an aerial assessment of a blackout exercise that he was planning in the town. He asked if the IAF could do a helicopter recce and give an assessment to him. It was ‘wartime’, literally, so I told him to come with me in the chopper and assess for himself. So, up we went with Kansal and a police official to see Jammu spread out below us — the darkness that descended at the ‘lights out’ time and the temple town coming back to life when the lights came on again was a visual treat!

So, folks, our last tryst with blackouts was in 2002!

Musings