TheBlackout

ByKanikaG

EditedbyPellG

Copyright2015byKanikaG

Website:

https://sites.google.com/site/kanikagebooks/

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The Blackout

Tania was enjoying her after school snack. Mamawas reading a book. All was quiet, except thesound of the fan. Suddenly the fan stoppedworking.

There was plenty of sunlight coming through thelarge window. So, the fan was the onlyelectrical appliance on, in the room.

"It is probably the fuse, but I wonder whattripped it". Mama went to check the fuse box.The fuse box was fine. Mama opened the apartmentdoor and saw the lifts had stopped working."Seems like there is a power outage." Mama saidas she closed the door.

Tania had experienced the occasional poweroutage. It typically lasted for about a quarterof an hour and was usually maintenance related.But half an hour later, there was still no sign

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of the power being restored. Baby Sonia hadalready woken up because of the heat. Mamapicked her up and went down to find out what wasgoing on.

The lifts were working on emergency power. Manypeople were out trying to get information. Somewere looking anxious, while others lookedannoyed or upset. Mama found out that, a workerat a near by construction project, hadaccidentally damaged a few power cables. So thepower would not be restored till the nextmorning. There was going to be a blackout forthe entire area.

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Mama returned to give Tania the bad news. Taniawas worried but also excited. "No electricityall night! What will happen? Has that everhappened before?", asked Tania in awe.

"When we were kids, power outages like this,were common." Mama said, laughing.

"Really?" Tania asked wide-eyed. "What did youdo? You can't read or play board games in thedark. You can't watch TV. The laptop and cellphones may work for sometime on battery, but youdid not have those when you were kids. Whatabout the fridge? Will the food all go bad?"

"Actually you can read or play board games incandle light. We also told each other ghoststories, because they sound so much scarier inthe dark. Wait.. I just thought of something,that is great fun to do during blackouts"

"What is that?" asked Tania intrigued.

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Mama rummaged through one of the storagecupboards and pulled out a very old book, thatbelonged to grandpa. It was about hand shadowpuppets. She showed it to Tania.

With the sunlight streaming in, Tania could readthe book. She was fascinated by the number andvariety hand shadow animals that could be made.Tania got a torch and drew the curtains. Thenmama and Tania tried out a few of them together.

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The bird was easy, but the elephant was moredifficult. It was great fun getting suchrealistic representations of the animals withshadows of the hand.

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Mama showed Tania how she could make theelephant big by keeping the torch close to herhands and the bird small by keeping the torchfar from her hands.

Suddenly, Tania had an idea. She shared her ideawith mama. Mama thought it was brilliant andagreed to help.

Tania gathered together all the members of herreading club The Bookworm Babies in theclubhouse. The clubhouse had large windows and

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the last couple of hours of daylight poured in.Tanisha, Karishma, Sonali, Rajiv, Nikhil andVivek were, curious to find out, what Tania wasup to.

Tania showed them the book about the shadowanimals. "I think we should do a shadow puppetshow. We can make up a story with animals fromthis book and then do a show for the entiresociety." Tania said beaming with excitement.

Before anyone could respond, she continued "Mamais setting it up with the society chairman. Thewatchmen will go and inform everyone about it.Mrs. Desai, from the first floor, has agreed tohang a large white sheet from her balcony. Thewatchman will nail it to the walls of the garagebelow to make a screen. We can use a torch andstand behind the screen to make the shadowpuppets. So what do you think?"

To Tania's relief, all her friends respondedwith enthusiasm. What a great way to spend ablackout! They leafed through the pages to makea list of possible animal characters. It did nottake them long, to come up with a simple story.Each kid chose to play one or two of the shadowanimals. They worked on perfecting their chosenshadow animals and the voices for them. Tanishawas going to be the narrator so she worked on

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improving the script of the story. Once thelight faded they all went home to have dinner.The show was scheduled for 8:30 p.m.

At 8:00 p.m. The Bookworm Babies, all gatheredin the garage behind the screen. They had 4powerful torches with them. Mama was helping thewatchman set up the mats and chairs for theaudience.

There were no street lights or glowing signs inany of the neighbouring areas. So it was pitchdark. Tania spent a few moments admiring thegorgeous night sky in the absence of the usuallight pollution. Soon the chairs and mats werefull.

Tanisha announced, that the show was about tostart. There was applause followed by silence.Tanisha introduced herself as the narrator andexplained that all the characters would beshadow animals appearing on the white sheetscreen.

Tanisha as Narrator: Elle the elephant is out onher morning walk.

Tania made the elephant shadow puppet move alongthe screen.

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Narrator: It is an uncomfortably hot summermorning. After 5 minutes of determined walkingat a brisk pace, sweating and panting, Elleswitches to a stroll. She is very thirsty. Soshe walks over to the forest pond.

Tania playing the role of Elle: Oh my goodness!The pond is more than half empty. There was alot more water, when I was here yesterdaymorning.

Narrator:Oh look the bunny twins Bob and Bobetteare here.

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(Bunnies Bob and Bobette appear on the screenalongside Elle)

Elle: The water is getting depleted much fasterthan usual, isn't it? What do you think Bob andBobette?

Karishma playing Bobette the bunny: Yes. It isso hot. We need to drink twice as much as usual.

Nikhil playing her brother Bob: And because thesun is so strong, the water is evaporatingfaster too.

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Bob and Bobette bobbed their heads up and downin agreement and then scooted off. Tania broughtElle back on screen.

Narrator: Elle looks worried. A water shortagewould be a disaster. All the animals would fightfor water.

Hey, look, it is Bubbles the blue jay. She hascome for a sip of water.

Sonali playing Bubbles in a chirpy voice: What'sup Elle? Why do you look so glum?

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Elle: I am worried about the water situation.

Bubbles:Yes that is worrisome. Some of the treesare drying up too.

Elle: May be us herbivores should eat morefruits like water melons, so we need less of thewater from the pond

Narrator: Now Pemberly the pig is here. Lets seewhat he has to say about this issue.

Rajiv playing Pemberley: That's not a solutionany more pal. The monkeys have already polished

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off most of the melons, over the last few days.May be it will rain soon. That is our only hope.

Narrator: Scruff the mutt just arrived. He lookstired. It is quite a long run from the nearesttown, where Scruff is a stray. But this lovablemutt has lots of friends everywhere. How couldhe not? Look how cute he is.

Vivek playing Scruff: Not much hope of that,Pemby. I just heard the weather forecast on theradio. They said that, the rains are going to beeven later than usual. The humans seem worriedtoo. I heard a couple of the village elders

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discussing water rations for each house.

Pemberly: (Produces a magnificent snort ofdisdain) Those humans use too much water. Theyshould have water rations everyday. Anyway, it'sbecause of them, that we are in trouble. Wecan't get to the river, because their town is inthe way. They make it too dangerous, for us toget water from the river.

Elle: (Nods in agreement) They set traps for usand hunt us too. Such uncivilized barbarians!

Narrator: Geegu the goose has startled everyonewith her dramatic entrance. She swooped in, tooka sip and flew out all in one continuous,graceful motion. Now, much to Elle's annoyance,she has parked herself on Elle's broad back.(giggles)

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Sonali playing Geegu: I have been listening toyou for a while from that tree there. You arepretty loud, you know, when you complain. And afine lot you are! What good is complaining aboutthose humans going to do? Do you have anysolutions?

Narrator: Elle and Pemberly are turning pink.They obviously don't have any solutions tooffer.

Geegu: I have a far-fetched idea. It probablywont work, but it is worth a try.

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Everyone except Geegu together: What is it?

Geegu: These humans are not all bad you know.They can be smart, sometimes. Many years agothey lived in the forest. In those caves towardsthe west.

Scruff: (In an awestruck voice) They did? Noway!

Geegu: Yes they did. At that time, they figuredout a dance. They believed, if 6 of them gottogether in a circle and did the dance, it wouldrain. I don't know if it works, but I know thedance. They made pictures on the walls in thecaves, that tell you how to do it.

Elle: So, what is the problem? Just do the danceand see if it rains.

Geegu: I think, it would have to be 6 heavieranimals. We geese are too light.

Narrator: Donald the deer is passing by, andwait, it looks like he has heard Geegu. He isgoing to join in the conversation.

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Donald played by Nikhil: Geegu, I just heardwhat you were saying. My herd has half a dozendeer and we love to dance. We can give it a try.It is a worthy cause.

Narrator: Geegu spent the afternoon teaching thedeer the dance. By late afternoon, they finallyunderstood all the complicated steps. Some ofthem were difficult for 4 legged animals butDonald's herd was talented. Look they are readyto start their performance right next to thepond.

Six dancing deer played by Tania, Tanisha,

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Vivek, Nikhil, Sonali and Rajiv appear on thescreen along with Bobette played by Karishma forabout a minute

Narrator: All the animals have come to watch.Bobette is beating two stones together to make arhythmic sound that Geegu says is an essentialpart of the process.

(Abhijeet helped out by making loud rhythmicsounds by beating together 2 cricket bats.)

Narrator: What a beautiful dance. But it isalmost over. Will it work? I sure hope it does.

(Abhijeet startled everyone by emitting a fairlyrealistic thunder like sound.)

Narrator:Yikes was that thunder? Oh yes it israining. The dance worked. Oh wait now ! That isfunny. It is raining only for a little distancearound where the dance was done. The animalshave never seen anything like it. They areamazed and thrilled. Now they will have enoughwater for the rest of the summer.

All the animals celebrate together shoutingHorray and Yay and the shadow animals are allseen running around on the screen for a fewseconds.

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Elle: May be these humans are not so bad afterall. At least those old tribes developed somesmart tricks.

Scruff: Yes. But I don't think the modern humanswould believe this.

Bobette: Don't tell them. It will be our secret,to get through draughts. Those humans use morethan enough water, as it is.

Narrator: That's the show. Hope you enjoyed it.

(All the shadow puppets took a little bow onscreen and then the Bookworm Babies and Abhijeetcame and took a bow in front of the screen.)

There was great applause from the audience. Whatan ingenious idea for a blackout. Papa came backstage and gave Tania big hug. He told her, thathe was very proud of her for coming up with theidea. Then he congratulated all The BookwormBabies for a thought provoking story and alovely performance.

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Abigthankyoutoopenclipart(openclipart.org)formakingtheirpicturesfreelyavailable

TheshadowpuppetpicturesaretakenfromhepublicdomainbookonshadowpuppetsbyHenryBursill.

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