- A Navi Mumbai woman protested late-night power cuts by visiting the electricity office with a pillow
- She reported power outages nightly from 11 pm to 4-5 am, disrupting her limited sleep hours
- The woman broke down in a viral video describing her exhaustion and ignored complaints
A working woman from Navi Mumbai's Ulwe area has gone viral after staging an unusual protest against persistent late-night power cuts - by walking into a local electricity office carrying a pillow. The protest, captured in videos widely shared on social media, has struck a chord with many urban residents struggling with unreliable infrastructure and the exhaustion that comes with it.
The woman, a resident of Sector 8 in Ulwe, said she returns home from work around 11 pm and leaves again by 6 am, leaving her with only a few hours to rest each night. However, for nearly two weeks, recurring power outages reportedly disrupted even that limited window of sleep.
According to her, electricity in the area was being cut almost every night between 11 pm and 4 or 5 am, leaving residents without fans or air conditioning during humid summer nights. The repeated disruptions left her physically drained and emotionally overwhelmed.
In one of the viral videos, she broke down while describing how the outages had affected her daily life. She said she had not been able to sleep properly for days and felt ignored despite repeatedly raising complaints with the authorities.
Frustrated by the lack of response, she decided to take her pillow and visit the local electricity office late at night. In a sarcastic protest, she told officials she had come there to sleep because it was one of the few places nearby where electricity was still available.
The woman also responded to online suggestions that she should simply purchase an inverter, explaining that it was not a practical option for her due to financial constraints.
Her protest quickly resonated with social media users, many of whom shared similar experiences from other parts of Navi Mumbai, including Taloja, Kharghar, Nerul, and Belapur. Residents complained of frequent, unannounced outages and questioned whether infrastructure development in rapidly expanding areas around the upcoming Navi Mumbai Airport was keeping pace with basic public services.
One user wrote, "When basic services fail, people are forced to protest in ways that shouldn't be necessary just to be heard." Another commented, "She should have been supported by another 500 people to sleep in electricity board office. We need such protests."
