Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “cozy.’” Use it any way you like. Have fun! (And Merry Christmas if I don’t come back before then!
A few evenings ago, we were in our town searching for gifts. In one shop we saw a wooden candle stand. But it was not very appealing. The sales-person said with a smile that no one uses a candle these days. It is true. Most people have invertors in their homes. When there is electricity outage, the invertor takes over immediately.
I remember those days about thirty years ago. Every year in summer, our children and I spent almost a month with their grandfather in our village. There was no invertor then. Before dark, my father-in-law made the hurricane lamps and lanterns ready by filling them up with oil. We never knew when there would be a power cut. There was something very cozy about the light of the lantern with silence all around. There were no houses nearby. Those were also the days before the internet. We sat talking, there was nothing to distract us. It was a different world, quiet and cozy.
Writing about lanterns I remember what my grandfather wrote about travelling with other family members going to his wedding. Those were the days of bullock carts. They did not travel by day. It took them four nights to reach their destination. All the bullock carts had lanterns hanging in the front. I love to read what my grandfather wrote about the journey, sit back imagine those times 😊.
In those days firewood stove was used for cooking and my son used to stand in front of it. He liked its warmth. My father-in-law baked sweet potatoes and large plantains called ‘nendra balehannu’ on the embers. They were delicious to eat. These days I bake them in the oven. The taste is good but something is missing 😊. We were in Amritsar in January 2020. We saw sweet potatoes being baked on embers by roadside vendors. They were very popular.
My husband remembers his childhood when there was no electricity in their village. Different types of lamps were lit in the rooms. They had dinner early and went to bed when it became quite dark.
My mother used to recount an incident that happened when my brother very small. They had stayed the night in my father’s sister-in-law’s parent’s home in the village. This was in early 1960s. My brother was just two or three years old. After sunset there was complete darkness till the lamps were lit. He started crying and would not stop. He was frightened by the dark never having experienced the like. My mother said it took a long time to console him.
But all said and done, having become used to today’s amenities, I would not want to go back to those days.
Mukhamani 
Comments are welcome :)