Nine minutes of voluntarily-imposed darkness has changed 19-year-old Mehul Ramakant Bhatt’s perspective on use of electricity. “Earlier I used to keep my computer on all day, even when I didn’t need it. Now, I don’t take energy for granted,” said Bhatt, a first year B Com student from S N College in Bhayandar.

He was one of the hundreds of residents, students and commercial outfits from the city and suburbs, who turned off all lights and stepped out to watch a 9-minute street show on energy conservation and global warming at 9 pm on Wednesday. The show was a part of a unique campaign called 99999 Lights Out — short for 9 pm 9 minutes on 9th day of 9th month (Septemer), 2009.

“Our entire area had plunged into darkness — all housing complexes, shops, colleges and schools switched off their lights. Nearly 150 people gathered near our college in Bhayandar where the road show was organised. Volunteers staged a skit on climate change and the July 2005 floods, and urged viewers to conserve electricity to mitigate climate change,” said Bhatt.

Besides Mumbai, several people from other major metros like Chennai and Delhi also joined the Lights Off programme, said Parag Awasthi of Exnora International, the NGO which organised the event. “We are still in the process of calculating the total participation and the amount of electricity saved. However, residential complexes of suburban stations like Bandra, Kandivali and Bhayandar saw great cooperation with the streets going pitch dark for 9 minutes,” he said.

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