Smartphones rescue Noida Fifa fans from power cuts

NOIDA: The frequent power cuts that Noida is notorious for attempted to disrupt the final match-watching experience too, with cuts extending from a couple of hours to almost the whole night. Football fans who were counting every minute to the final match, then turned to smartphones to ensure that they did not miss the action.
“The whole day, we dealt with a power cut that lasted several hours.At night also, there were constant disruptions. Jab light aati toh voltage kam hota, inverter bhi discharge ho gaya ek ghante mein, even though we didn’t use it in the afternoon because we wanted to watch the match. The inverter ditched us, but we didn’t lose hope. Jahan chaah hai wahan raah – and my smartphone just made my day... er, night,” says Pranab Arya, a resident of Sector 50.
Surpreet Kamal, a resident of Sector 5, said that the power supply was not restored till Monday morning. “For the past week, there had been unscheduled power cuts lasting one hour. Kal to hadd ho gayi – maine apne phone pe poora match dekha because I just couldn’t afford to miss the finals. So straining my eyes in the dark was totally worth it,” he says.
“Due to continuous voltage fluctuations in the afternoon, my TV burned out. I tried watching the match on phone, but it doesn’t have a big screen. So I kept asking my friends for updates. Aur unhone live update diya WhatsApp pe,” says 15-year-old Manish Kumar. If teenagers were WhatsApping each other, then the older generation was calling. KN Ahuja, a retired bank official, said, “We planned it out two days back. Hum saat dost hain jo alag alag sectors mein rehte hain. Humne socha tha, agar bijli ki samasya bani rahi, toh hum ek dusre ko call kar ke pata kar lenge, is tarah jab tak mere ghar mein light thi maine dekha, phir maine phone pe match live sun liya.”