On Thursday, all the streets in New York City were filled with people, strange people.

On a normal day one would not see them.

But then Thursday was not a normal day for the residents of Big Apple. The entire city was facing a blackout.

The poor, the ordinary, and the labour class suddenly mixed with the supposedly elite. The richest city looked as if it became a city of ordinary people.

Power slowly being restored in US, Canadian cities

The Rolex clocks on the Fifth Avenue in Manhattan stopped at 4:10 pm. Soon the mad rush began through the streets. 

It was very hot. So there was no point sitting inside the skyscrapers. By 4:30, Manhattan stood stand still.  Shops and establishments closed. Only the street vendors were selling soda and pretzel.

Subways, the lifeline of New York, did not function.

So those who could go to their homes only by train were trying for other arrangements like walking, or staying at other places.

When I reached New York City bus stop at 24th Street and Madison Avenue for an express bus to the Bronx, the queue was serpentine.

The bus took as many people as possible. But the traffic was heavy and there was utter chaos. No policemen were seen on the streets. On some crossroads volunteers tried to control the traffic. By the time the bus crossed the 74th street, more than two hours had passed. It usually took only 15 minutes.

The jam and the multitude on the streets might not be strange to Mumbaikars, but was something unusual for the Americans. People who have lived in the city for a quarter of century said they had not seen such chaos before.

But there was a similar incident in 1988, when the loss of power meant widespread looting.

People were expecting a repeat this time too.

But in my part of the Bronx, power returned by 8:40 pm. But Manhattan and the heart of the city was still in darkness. President George W Bush and New York Governor George Pataki appeared on TV by 9 pm and said they will enquire about the power outage that caused the power failure.

Reports of people trapped in elevators and trains were heard. The power failure also affected TV, radio and news agencies.

Even the ATMs in the banks were not working.

The good news is that it wasn't a terrorist attack. But America is tasting what a majority of world regularly undergoes.