Till last week, if someone mentioned "Dry day" to me, the one and only thing that would
have come to mind would be no availability of liquor. But some events this week changed that.
Monday 30-Jun-08 : Am driving to work in the morning, when I see a huge line of cars
and bikes waiting to fill up at a petrol bunk. Am surprised, but have no clue why.
Usually when people get an inkling about a possible hike in prices, there is a rush to fill up
to save a few bucks. But then we had just had a steep 10% increase in price recently and
there is no chance of another hike anytime soon. So, wonder why the rush ?
Get to work and hear about shortage of fuel due to tanker not reaching Chennai port etc.
While driving back home, see huge crowds at all petrol bunks. Hmm. Looks serious.
But I had recently tanked up the car and have 1/4 tank fuel in my bike, so I am OK for now. Given that even my 13-year old bike returns 250 odd kms to a gallon, I am OK for a week or
so. Decide not to use the car this week and stick to the bike.
Tuesday 1-Jul-08 : Situation is pretty grim. Most petrol bunks have closed shop due to
having run out of fuel. The few that have stock, are rationing out fuel. Only Rs100 worth for bikes, Rs1000 worth for cars etc. And this is about Petrol. Diesel is not even available.
One good thing about this was the drastic reduction of vehicles (mainly cars) on the road.
You might have the best car money can buy, but without fuel in the tank, it is pretty much
as useful as a broom stick, as far as transportaion is concerned.
People I know start parking cars in the garage and taking out their motorbikes, which they
did not use in a long time. Some even start cycling to work. Ofcourse many opt for public transportation.
Schools/Colleges think of declaring holiday since they cant source diesel for their buses.
Meeting called in office to discuss unavailability of diesel to power the genset and how to
handle situation. By evening the airconditioning is switched off at work and it is hot / stuffy.
Wednesday 2-Jul-08 : Situation still grim during first half of the day. Government says
it will step in to ensure fuel availability. Roads are still relatively less crowded due to people
not using cars. Commute to work is so much less stressful. Thank God for small mercies.
By evening, things start getting back to normal. Petrol bunks start dispensing fuel. Even
though the bike has not yet hit Reserve, I fill up some 4 litres. Just in case ...
Even though a short duration shock that gave a brief taste of what an oil-less future would
look like, I think this incident has opened our eyes to what would happen when something
that we take for granted is no more available. Petroleum stocks are diminishing by the day
and in the near future (no one knows for sure when, but maybe 20-30 years max), we will
run out of supply.
And the increasing use of the resource is not helping matters. Judicious use of petroleum
coupled with initiatives to explore alternate sources of energy to fuel the growing demand
is the need of the hour.
I dread to even think of the day when my car would just lie in the garage because there is
no fuel available to power it. :-(
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