Miracle on the solar front

The solar panel installed in my house seemed to usher in an era of clean energy with no carbon emissions. After installation, I did not get my electricity bill even after it was due. I sent a few emails to the electricity department and got a bill which did not adjust the units produced by the grid solar unit. When I enquired from the official dealing with the matter, he said I had committed a ‘blunder’ by asking for the bill. Now, the units produced by the solar panel would remain unadjusted as I had disrupted the normal ‘bill cycle’.

Perturbed, I decided to knock at the doors of the bijli board. After somehow finding a place to park my car in a flooded area amid a downpour, I waded to the office to find many lost souls like me wandering in the corridors.

People were frantically searching for their ‘dealing hands’. Many like me got the directions to go to such-and-such room number in another building. But there was no room number displayed.

With great effort, I found the room. The JE had gone to another room. I didn’t have the energy to launch another room search to find him. So I decided to sit near his table on a vacant seat of his colleague. Engineer sahib came and told me that my file had to be searched in the record room. After a futile effort, I was called on another day. Telling myself the value of patience, I went away.

On my next visit, the JE mercifully recognised me. ‘You are lucky,’ he smiled, ‘your file was found intact under the stacks of old electricity meters.’ He was busy with his PC, asking about steps from someone to get my solar unit linked. ‘Just joined here,’ he said. Jotting something in the file, he told me to go to room number 24 to one Ram Bharose. He gestured to go out towards the left and then right and go into the room with a jamun tree near the entrance. I tried the suggested turns but found no jamun tree. I asked another lost soul who told me to go towards the room behind the broken wall. I followed the directions and went into the room even without noticing the said tree.

Ram Bharose got my bill rectified. I thanked him. It was a miracle of sorts. I was elated, much more than when my solar unit produced the first 20 units on a sunny day.

I came out of his room and went to meet the SDO sahib. My hassles melted away. The sun shone bright outside, uneclipsed by clouds. I thought of my unit actively working even while I was away.