There wasn’t anything unusual that night.
There was heavy rain. That was normal here, in the city of Ruganuleb, during this season. The bustle of traffic had slowly faded as the night crept in.
But there was something unusual the next morning.
 |
| AI-generated image |
As always, I switched on the Wi-Fi and mobile internet on my phone. Neither worked.
Had someone switched off the router? No. But not all the lights on the router were blinking.
For all the 5G connectivity that internet service providers boast about, this is what I get in the morning! Hopefully, it will be fine soon.
Perhaps yesterday’s rain had wreaked havoc overnight. Let me check the news channels on TV.Oh! The TV runs on Wi-Fi. No hope there.
Radio? None of the stations were playing.
What’s happening? It looks like some real havoc.
My first thought was to call someone on the mobile, but that was out of the question.
I opened the apartment door and stepped out. A few of my neighbours were already outside, looking puzzled.
Everyone had the same question: why is nothing working? No one seemed to have an answer.
THE FIRST DAY OF BREAKDOWN
One of the engineer-neighbours called it a major CTF (Connectivity Tech Failure). It looked like all connected devices had stopped working.
There was electricity, but the voltage was low. Water was still flowing in the taps.Could it be a cyberattack?
No one knew whether only this city was affected or if the whole country was under the same shadow.
A few people with landlines tried calling friends in other cities. The calls didn’t go through.
By 9 a.m., when I was about to drive to the office, I was warned that none of the traffic lights were working, and that there was chaos on the roads. Better to stay at home.
But what about office then? What about the project I had to send to Helsinki?
Work from home? Impossible — no way to inform my colleagues, my manager, or anyone at all.
I parked the car back. People were gathering outside on the streets, still whispering about a possible cyberattack. But by whom?
By evening, the situation was clearer — and grimmer. Still no mobiles, no radio, no television. News travelled only by word of mouth.
Children stayed home. Parents didn’t risk sending them to school.
A college student in our building walked the 2 km to his campus. He reported chaos on the streets. Offices were open but not working.
No trains. No flights. The city had virtually come to a standstill.
AFTER A WEEK
Friends and relatives showed up at our doorstep unannounced (no way to contact us). They were curious about the strange blackout. From them we learnt the truth: the “connectivity tech failure” was only in Ruganuleb. The rest of the country was unaffected.
Their mobiles too stopped working the moment they entered the city.
One friend showed me a news clip from YouTube he had downloaded. It said engineers were trying to restore the network, but each time one section was fixed, another went down.
It was as if a virus had invaded the system, one they could not trace or neutralise.
This was a pandemic of a different kind.
During Covid, people kept apart out of fear. Now, there was no fear — but plenty of confusion.
At least during Covid we knew the cause. This time, no one knew why Ruganuleb alone was suffering such a collapse. Even the best global experts had failed to fix it.
TWO WEEKS ON
A friend drove five hours to his company’s branch in Nehncai. He couldn’t find space in the office, so he worked from his friend’s house instead.
 |
| AI-generated image |
Traffic lights still didn’t work, so policemen stood at busy junctions, directing vehicles — like in the old days.
Radio and TV stations were trying to revert to older systems. Not easy, but maybe in a few weeks.
Newspapers returned. That was now the only source of news — even old news was welcome!
Ruganuleb had become the biggest story in the country; and the world.
Rumours spread — a cyberattack, nature’s way of restoring balance, it was supposed to happen as predicted in a “What the Stars Say” column.
AFTER A MONTH
They say every adversity is an opportunity. During Covid, we discovered remote working and institutionalised WFH. This time, the breakdown pushed us in the opposite direction.
People met face to face. Families sat together for meals. Children played cricket, football, and badminton outdoors, even basketball with improvised hoops on trees.
No UPI payments. Only cash.
Banks brought cash in from other cities. Special counters opened, with queues forming from 7 a.m.
Cinemas were shut, as there were no projectors or reels. Some even began searching for old 70 mm projectors.
The good news: landline phones began functioning again, in phases.
AFTER TWO MONTHS
 |
| This post is part of the Blogchatter Blog Hop |
Tourists began arriving, curious to see life without devices. They stayed with friends, relatives, or in hotels, and went back with tales of wonder and resilience.
Word of mouth became Ruganuleb’s new advertisement: Come here to experience life from 50 years ago!
But was a solution found?
No.
The Head Minister of the State held a press conference, not to promise restoration but to celebrate Ruganuleb’s new global fame.
For the first time, a city’s population decreased because people left in search of better opportunities.
Here, tourism replaced technology as the government’s top priority.
Plans were even announced to give residents identity cards and to introduce visa-like permits for outsiders, to preserve the city’s new “non-tech” environment.
SIX MONTHS LATER
The Head Minister and the the city's Chief Administrative Officer declared that all efforts to restore connectivity had officially been abandoned.
A new city had been born.
Even if there was a "virus" in the system, they said, it would have “starved to death” by now.
“This may or may not have been a cyberattack,” the Head Minister announced. “But it is surely a change for the better. And we are glad for it.”
Welcome to Ruganuleb — the city that turned back the clock.
Wow, what a story, makes one wonder if something like this actually happened how would people cope, who would embrace it and who wouldn't
ReplyDeleteThank you. It would surely seem to be a whole new world.
DeleteWould that be a good thing or a bad thing? I wonder...
ReplyDeleteYeah! That's an interesting angle. My take is that while we have gained a lot by way of seamless connectivity, we have lost a lot too. We got something, but we lost something else. So, it all depends on whether we have been able to maximise the gains and minimise the loss or not.
DeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteFantastic - in all meanings of the word! I love how you scrambled the letters of the real cities, and the concept is something that could, in fact, take place. Whether efforts would stop in returning the tech to the city might be a debatable point. I think you have the kernel of a greater, fuller story here... YAM xx
Thank you. We are so dependent on connected devices, even a slight disruption can be so disorienting and frustrating. We now realise how different a life we all lived in the pre-internet days!
DeleteOne can imagine this happening and how everyone would have to rethink and reorganise their lives. Sadly, we cannot go backwards. Lovely story - I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much. If at all such a scenario unfolds, even to a small extent, adjusting to it would be a huge challenge.
DeleteWith mammoth will, it is possible to live without the Internet, even in a city, today. No one attempts it..
ReplyDeleteHi Rajesh - We will have to just go back to many devices that we had discarded earlier. Not impossible, like you said.
DeleteA scary situation indeed,God forbid!
ReplyDeleteI thought the town would be deserted within a month or two.
Who would like to continue to reside in an outmoded obsolete
place that reminds a return to stone age!
Hi KP - May not be exactly stone age, but definitely back to how we lived some 30 or 40 years ago.
DeleteThis story shows how fragile modern life really is. When the Chief Administrative Officer announced the end of recovery efforts, it felt like hope itself had been shut off.
ReplyDeleteConnectivity is all good when it works to our advantage. But it's very vulnerable. And, if and when it breaks down, we are all frustrated.
DeleteI would be more scared by not knowing what was happening, than knowing to stay away from others during COVID! I am currently without electricity in the living room and one bedroom, and waiting to hear back from the electrician. We have extension cords all over for the internet, fan (a.c. shorted things out I think), and computer. We do rely on things.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are all so dependent on devices. And, when they don't work, our life sort of comes to a standstill.
DeleteYou have gone into the details and made the post more enjoyable and structured. The ending is awesome. By God's grace, where I live, we do not suffer power outages. It's a once-in-a-blue-moon thing. But even then, it gets very uncomfortable. More than the fans and light not working, it's the non-functioning wi-fi that irks. Getting off the internet now and again is a practice we need to build on.
ReplyDeleteHi Marietta - Thank you. A lot of people do consciously go offline. I am told there are even holiday resorts where you don't have internet connection.
DeleteThat was a fun read. I would like to visit the city, but not stay overnight. I will need to bring cash including coins to make telephone calls (no, even the landlines are down), and paper maps. Re Yam's comment, I can't work out the city name. Wait, I just did. It is now the spelling of the name that has replaced Bangalore.
ReplyDeleteThank you! You got the place name right. A lot of people do go offline for some time either every day or once a week. A sort of "detoxification". It has its benefits. But to be totally cut off from the internet (like we all were some 30 or 40 years ago) is quite a disconcerting thought.
DeleteWow, Pradeep. I thought this was a true story for a while. It’s so realistic! Yes, the panic of not knowing, and of wondering how to cope. Excellent!
ReplyDeleteThanks Vallypee! We all want to reduce our online presence. But when we are cut off it can create quite a bit of panic.
DeleteHi Pradeep - that all sounded so real (your journalism writing skills) and quite believable - I often wonder how quickly chaos would descend if the power or the internet connection went down permanently. We're so dependent on both and it would take a major re-ordering of normal life to cope with it all.
ReplyDeleteHi Leanne - Thank you. I sometimes switch off my internet connection on my mobile for a long stretch of time. On a few occasions, that has resulted in me missing some important information!
DeleteWhat a smart story this was!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Suchita.
DeleteNice read, Pradeep
ReplyDeleteThank you, Preeti.
DeleteWill such a future be dystopian or utopian, I wonder!
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question, Bindu. I hope it would be utopian and not transform itself later into dystopian.
DeleteI have lived in such times. There were no mobiles, no landline phones, no television. The only sources of information about what was happening in the outside world were transistors and newspapers that would arrive two (or more) days late.
ReplyDeleteBlackouts were not uncommon; and when it rained, there would be no sight of the sun for 5 to 7 days.
News of all students of my class XII batch passing the board exam was brought by an officer who had returned from a tour to Delhi. The results formally came to our school days later.
But life went on.
You should write about these!
DeleteThanks for the suggestion. But won't it seem 'this guy is living in the past'? In fact, I myself get irritated by people talking only about the past.
DeleteLooking at the way technology of all sorts is taking us, I won't be surprised if some such scenario does indeed happen, at least in some form. And if it does, we all would surely get used to it, and like you rightly said, "life went on"; similarly, life would go on.
DeleteThere is a recent English movie that follows three families as they choose to return to a time when there was no technology. The film is Leave the World Behind (2023). It shows two families who are affected by a cyberattack that disables all technology. It is on Netflix.
DeleteGood one!
ReplyDelete