Last evening’s island-wide power outage was the longest in 20 years. Coupled with the unbearable heat, it was a very uncomfortable six hours indeed to millions of Sri Lankans from all walks of life (barring the 1% with generators and air-conditioned homes). Unlike 20 years ago, however, this time people were blessed (or cursed?) with a platform to vent on and air their frustrations and a lot of people took to the interwebs to complain. We’ve rounded up a few of the wittier tweets from last night.
කරන්ට් එක ගිය නිසා අපේ ගෙදර මිනිස්සුත් එක්ක කතා කරන්න චාන්ස් එකක් හම්බුනා.ඇත්තටම එයාලා හරිම හොද කට්ටියක්
තාත්තා දැන් අලුත් ජොබ් එකක් කරනවලු— Sinhala Please!! (@SinhalaTweets) March 13, 2016
What better way than a 6.5 hour blackout to bring us all together.
— awad! (@big_roof) March 13, 2016
Never seen so much interest in current affairs in SL
— Deshal de Mel (@deshald) March 13, 2016
Unconfirmed reports that the power cuts are due to a Transformer having to be replaced. Optimus Prime has stepped down and is in hiding.
— Beardikins (@the_RMT) March 14, 2016
This is me right now. #LightsOutLK #PowerCutLK pic.twitter.com/nTqlXx7nSJ
— Budu™ (@BuduMalli) March 13, 2016
Selfie with chairman of CEB 😂😂😂(ceylon electricity board) #PowerCutLK pic.twitter.com/DUCTsoAe5a
— Single Romeo (@riyaj_mhd) March 14, 2016
CEB engineers today #PowerCutLK pic.twitter.com/1XuoPq83Ul
— ℙodi ℳalli™ (@PodiMalli) March 13, 2016
Economists predict a boom in the phone powerbank sales in #SriLanka subsequent to #powercutlk powerbank industry hopeful
— Senel Wanniarachchi (@Senel_W) March 13, 2016
Make the most of #PowerCutLK give the candle light dinner your family / loved ones deserve. #lka
— Kaveen Rodrigo (@EnigmaMaker) March 13, 2016
#CEB be like #PowerCutLKpic.twitter.com/XueZWz1NUp
— Kaveen Rodrigo (@EnigmaMaker) March 13, 2016
Looks like the National Day of Mourning officially began only after the power cut started
— Senel Wanniarachchi (@Senel_W) March 13, 2016
I think the government took the Earth Hour program very seriously yesterday!!! #lka #powercutlk 😁 😒
— Kala Weerawardana (@kala_cw) March 14, 2016
I will not pay this month’s electricity bill. I’ll tell them it’s due to a ‘technical failure in my wallet’ #ceb #fail #powercut #lka
— Amitha Amarasinghe (@Amisampath) March 13, 2016
The CEB Chairman & MY3 walk into a bar – *bump* – can’t blame them, there was a power-cut and it was dark. #PowerCutLK
— just another guy (@Dhivaagar) March 13, 2016
CEB Chairman is a Bernie supporter! That’s why he making us #FeelTheBern, literally too! #PowerCutLK
— just another guy (@Dhivaagar) March 13, 2016
The best of them all was a Facebook post from the official Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) account. Not a shred of irony here, folks.