I miss the night. Growing up, our village used to get just a few hours of electricity in the day, and mostly not after it gets dark. Electricity is still not reliable there but most people got inverters and recharge lamps etc.

When it got dark, you'd light the kerosene lamps and talk. Sometimes an uncle would come to give us company. I used to sit somewhere and do nothing mostly. Now, a couple decades later, I get extremely restless and anxious when left alone with my thoughts without my phone.

When people couldn't sleep at night because it was too hot inside, the entire village would just come outside with handheld fans and walk on the streets for an hour or two in the moonlight. I can't even see any stars today because I live in a city now.

One day I told one of my cousins that once I woke up at 8 am. He said he'd woken up at 9 before. I remember thinking that was insane. Nowadays I go to sleep at 9 am sometimes, after pulling an all nighter.

I am technically Gen Z. But I have spent a longer time without the internet and electricity at night, then with them. Every time there is a power outage at night, it makes me feel warm and giggly inside, and I go outside to look at the sky.