Egerton Road after first rain of the season - Lahore, December 30, 2010

See more pictures here: Mystic Misty Lahore

Egerton Road skyline - Lahore, December 30, 2010

I took a stroll a few minutes ago  to determine what the weather is like on the last Friday of January twenty ten. And the verdict? Fantastic! We finally have a breeze in Lahore, and not some weak  ‘ruffle-some-papers’ breeze,  a true-blue winter breeze that demands sweaters and makes trees physically sway side-to-side.

Now, a humble request to the Weather Department in the sky; what us Lahoris would really appreciate is some rain showers. To be specific, as I am aware there were some parts that received some drizzle action last night–we would like some proper downpour.  You know, like Islamabad got some and everyone knows Lahore is way cooler–so spread the love!  *grin*

Watch your step!

Resistance is Futile--You are completely surrounded!

Well dear readers, these are some of the clearer photos I was able to capture for you earlier this morning.  I hope they get the point across–as they say–‘a picture is worth a thousand words’.   :)

(the fine print: All photos taken by myself  with the aid of my trusty cellphone camera)

Rather dramatic blog post title, no? Actually, if you have been traveling on Lahore’s roads this morning–I’m sure you can relate–as the city has literally been consumed by heavy layer fog. I’m talking cinematic proportions!

To our readers who are about to head out–please be safe, drive slowly, use your fog lights and most importantly, your common sense.

For those lounging at home, in a sea of woolly shawls and sipping on Kashmiri chai (tea)-enjoy the weather!

By the way dear readers– Doesn’t it seem like a scene out of a paperback mystery novel? Hah! I simply can not help being intrigued by the fog. :)

As a usual January every year, Lahore is currently under heavy foggy conditions; commuters & daily life is suffering quite badly with lots of flight canceled and motorway M2, M3 closed down every now and then – So there I was and an idea just kicked into my mind that there should be real time temperature updates for Lahoris from the city – so I managed to build this thing out today and we have live temperature updates going out to Twitter after every 30 minutes :) So if you are into twitter, please follow the tag #Lahore or Follow LahoreTemp to get updates after every 30 minutes. Even if you don’t use twitter, you can still logon to http://twitter.com/LahoreTemp and read the latest temperature from the beacon.

Enjoy the weather, keep your distance on the road, and be safe out there and let us know how you feel about this service :)

For those not in Lahore, Pakistan today–something special happened–it rained. Correction, it rained like cats and dogs today.  We loved it–as it was a welcome change from the oh-so-muggy weather we have been dealing with.  Raindrops splashed down with comet-like intensity–washing away every particle of summer dust that had settled on the city’s greenery.

However, the prolonged loadshedding schedule and additional outages ensured that Lahoris came  back down to earth.

Lets take for example the community I reside in–where on average we experience ‘schedule loadshedding’ for 10 hours a day. This translates into not having electricity in our homes about every hour or so–throughout the day–without consideration for weekdays or weekends.

With such a situation, all our basic electrical appliances have either died or been sent to the local repairman. List includes the washing machine, refrigerator, microwave, so and so forth. This is ridiculous, to say the least.

In the wake of this major rainfall today in the city, our local trusty LESCO bunch added another hour of loadshedding. Yes, ADDED!  When we called to ask whether this was due to a fault in the local grid network, a rather disgruntled LESCO employee said that an hour had been officially added to the schedule–and that we will probably face another increase in our monthly electricity bills–as well!  When we expressed our disapproval, he said that the higher-ups are the ones making the call and that the location he went home to often did not get electricity for 8 straight hours!

Navigating our way through the LESCO complaints directory, we got through another LESCO employee–this time a bit higher up in the pecking order.  According to LESCO employee number two, the higher ups believe that there are not any complaints and that people are okay with the current situation of power supply (wow that is an ironic phrase–‘power supply’). 

Umm, Lahoris, are we OK with what is going on? Are we OK with our hard earned money going down the drain every month–when we pay for a service that we barely recieve?  Are we OK with spending hours listening to whirring generators/ups ?

I doubt that.  But what I think the problem is that somehow, the complaints are not getting through. Is there not enough media coverage? Possibly. Is there not enough public outcry? No, people are making their point.

 I know this sentiment is not new, nor is the situation unfamiliar to those residing in Pakistan–but the point being, something must be done.

My recommendation:

Call the SDOs, the XENs  responsible for the electricity supply in your neighborhood. Here is the LESCO website link. 

Keep tab of the scheduled loadshedding–everytime unscheduled loadshedding takes place, try to lodge a formal written complaint.

Get the neighbors involved–have them do the same.

Communicate your plight, your problem, your discomfort with the current electricity loadshedding schedule. Write an email, a letter to the editor, or to a member of the provincial assembly.  I am sure there are those of you who have family members relying on vital life support machines, or even breathing aids such as nebulizers–all which are run by electricity.

If you have more ideas, please share with us in the comments section.

Remember, this an essential service that you are paying for and that you deserve customer service.

With temperatures averaging around 42 degree centigrade, Lahore’s experiencing its hottest times of the year. And if sun’s not taunting enough, loadshedding will make you cry for sure! :P

It is really interesting how artists and copy writers pick, from the changing social fabric of a society, ideas for creative writing. The day before yesterday, I saw an advertisement from Servis Shoes titled ‘Loadshedding Sale’ with amazing discounts on a complete range of shoes at their stores.

Maybe loadshedding is not that bad; especially when someone’s talking about shedding the load of sky-high price tags. So, head for it. *toot parro!*

well it must not be a big thing for many readers but we had a rainbow in the city after a full week of rain. I’m sure it was after a long long time that it was widely seen all across Lahore.

Express News has spotted it very well, it shows the second rainbow but kind of dim :) Enjoy the shot –

En-Lightened Lahore!

Image Source: Abid Nawaz at Daily Times