Electricity Breakout, Candle Business Electrified
By Chronicler
Islamabad
Pakistan witnessed a worst electricity or power breakout on Sunday in its history which was observed throughout the country and it badly disturbed other routine businesses of life.
What they say every cloud has a silver lining, at the same time this electricity breakout electrified the candle business out of blue throughout the country especially in Rawalpindi.
The power breakdown started early in the morning on the weekly holiday which remained in place till almost midnight. The citizens had no clue as to what was the cause of the breakdown and they started inquiring on WhatsApp and other social media platforms about the reason behind it.
As it took many hours to restore the light in the country, even the batteries of cellular phones of the citizens died in this process.
A citizen Fakhar-e-Islam made a comment on Twitter about the breakdown of the electricity with the following remarks.
“No Electricity, No Gas, No Signals Aj Family Ko time diya hy, achy log hn ye bhi (today I passed the time with the family. They (family members) are also good people).”
According to Khurram Dastgir Khan who is Minister of Power in the federal cabinet, as an economic measure, the power generation system was temporarily shut down on Sunday.
“When the engineers tried to turn the system back on, a fluctuation in the voltage was observed, which forced the engineers to shut down the power grid stations,” he remarked in response to the power breakdown in the country.
When the country was witnessing this breakout of the electricity and the power minister was explaining its causes which were perhaps distantly understood by the majority of the citizens, a business started flourishing. This business was nothing else but that of candle. The citizens had the least idea as to when the electricity would be restored. So they started thinking about what would be the source of light if the breakdown of the electricity continues to prevail even during the night.
This phenomenon forced them to purchase candles as a substitute to the light which is generated through the electricity.
Before the advent of the electricity breakout, a candle of standard size was available at the general stores at Rs10. However, a massive boom in the price of the candle was observed and it swelled to Rs30 to Rs40.
The stocks of candles even ended with some shopkeepers and they approached the wholesale market to get new stock.
Mani Khan, a shopkeeper at Arya Mohallah, Rawalpindi, told this scribe that he had dozens of candles in his stock before the power breakdown.
He said generally it takes more than a month to sell candles in such a number as fewer people purchase them in normal circumstances.
However, he said, approximately around 4pm, the people started purchasing these candles and within the minutes his stock ended. He said he sold a piece of candle at Rs10 which was the retail price of it but there were some shopkeepers who sold them against Rs30 and above.
Meanwhile, a shopkeeper of the same area realized the massive demands of the candles, so he went to the wholesale market and purchased candles in a large quantity.
It is learnt that he loaded these candles on a mini truck and took this massive stock of candles to his shop.
He had sold a few candles when all of sudden the electricity was restored in the area. This shopkeeper is perhaps the only person in the city who is cursing the restoration of power. He had purchased these candles to earn a hefty profit on them but now it would take a couple of years to sell this merchandise. Maybe another breakdown may help him to turn his dream of hefty profit true.
Ends
No Electricity, No Gas, No Signals ? Aj Family Ko time diya hy, achy log hn ye bhi. ? #ElectricityShutDown #ElectricityBreakDown pic.twitter.com/QyhMsTzRSb
— Fakhar E Islam (@Capt_Fakhar) January 23, 2023
