Where is the power?

I got up this morning to an alien stillness in the air. I wondered idly what it was while brushing my teeth, then going to my customary chair with some reading and writing material (I am on recuperating holiday and cannot and don't have to rush with work). But what is this silence? It stupefied me since I can hear birds chirping, a dog barking somewhere, the noise of the pressure cooker from the neighbour's house... It is not that my husband has already left for work; he is a rather silent and softspoken man anyway and so it could not have been the absence of his voice.

I sat on my chair and tried to apply all my powers of heuristics to the problem. I slowly realised that I could hear a sound that I had never heard before, it must have been a bird calling but I had never heard it before. I went to the window and started looking out for the birds. I could hear crows cawing of course. But gradually to my utter delight I distinguished at least six different bird calls and NOT squirrels, which were also squeaking by the way. (Some mistake the squirrel's repeated squeaking for a bird call). I also spotted a couple of them - the sun bird, the woodpecker, and seven sisters.

After the treat, I came back to my chair a few feet away from the window still listening carefully to identify newer bird calls. I gradually started hearing occasional vehicle sounds from the road. I live in a green campus, and slightly away from the road. The sound of bikes zooming or the horn of a bus is common, but now I could hear noises that were further down on parallel roads. Since I was into investigation anyway this morning, I started listening to those sounds as well. I could make out when a car was nearing, and on which side of the road it was, ie in which direction it was going. In a while I realised that I could make out whether a bus was slow or fast even as the sound came nearer, became louder and then slowly went farther away, and faded into silence. I fancied I could hear angry horns as people rushed to work, and a stray leisurely one.

Time went by and I still hadnt figured out this silence, a silence despite all the sounds around me. I realised I could feel and hear my breath.
And felt it s-l-o-w-i-n-g.
I...n and o.....u....t.
I....n a.n.d o.....u.......t.
The air in me seemed to be still. I wondered whether I was going to stop breathing any moment now, my time had come.

I was distracted by the curtain at the window flapping and after less than a minute felt a gentle breeze on my face and shoulder. I was fascinated with this and waited for the next flap. The curtain flapped and I counted the seconds till the breeze reached me. While I waited for the next flap, the curtain blurred, and the sight of the trees out in the backyard sharpened. The branches and leaves on the tree top waved at me madly and sure enough in a short while, the curtain flapped and I counted the seconds till it hit my face. So I knew that this morning this was the direction in which the breeze came. I made a mental note to ask my husband about these directions of the breezes here (He is rather closely connected with them and knows them well). Meanwhile I went back to playing with the breeze. The tree top moved, and when I whispered "Now!" it hit me - I stopped short of jumping in glee; thankfully, because my poor injured knee would have waged permanent war against me if I had tried that kind of stunt. I now started timing whether with every instance, the time that the breeze took to reach me from the tree top was the same. Then I also realised that the speed also seemed to reduce as it reached me inside.

I felt a movement near my right ankle and acting on instinct I slapped on it. A mosquito. Me?!! I caught a mosquito?! How is that possible? I have made history - I could never get them, I didnt even manage to get the one that gave me chikun guniya. As I was ruminating on this, I felt the air next to my left cheek change and slapped - a mosquito again?!!! I was flabberghasted. What was happening to the world today? And I swear that I felt it coming even before it sat on my cheek. How did I feel this air next to my skin move? Did I really? I have never felt this before, unless I am anticipating a movement. And as tiny as a mosquito? But it was unmistakeable, and twice. It was something to do with the silence. I was certain by now.

The shaft of sunlight coming from the hall window through the curtains, a good 15 feet or so away was now at a sharp angle to the floor. More perplexity. I hadn't even realised being aware of it, but I had been. I knew that it had been at a gentle angle to the floor a while back. When had I noticed it? I was by now ready to bang my head in frustration, it was to do with this confounding silence and stillness....

when all of a sudden, clacking, whirring, buzzing, humming, jangling.... the power came back. And the stillness shattered. I am still wondering, why do we call electricity 'power'? It feels like an oxymoron to call electricity, 'power'.