5 minutes to thaw a piece of bread

Jim stayed home from work on Tuesday due another intestinal bug. Fortunately, those normally are not too serious and he feels better the next day. This one was similar. He did feel better today and went to the office, though he felt very tired all day.
While home yesterday he went to thaw a small loaf of bread in the microwave oven by setting it on defrost for about 90 seconds. It took about 5 minutes to actually complete because the electricity kept going off and on, off and on, off and on for that long. This is, unfortunately, not a rare occurrence in Bangalore. The power goes of almost every day for periods of a few seconds to a several hours. The newer buildings and almost all offices and stores have backup generators to keep lights and essential things running. Our apartment has a diesel generator which comes on about 30 seconds after the power goes off, so its pretty handy. Of course, the landlord is not happy because he pays for the diesel fuel. The problem is that any electronics- like our modem and wireless router and VOIP phone take awhile to come back up again each time the power glitches. So, we bought two UPS' to keep those running when the power glitches come- they have been very valuable in keeping us "on-line". With those extras- backup generators and UPS' it seems almost like home most of the time.
However, those periods like yesterday when the power was going off and on multiple times in an hour or so period can be very annoying. One has to think that the appliances do not last as long when they are subjected to such frequent power glitches. It seems like most of the appliances have mechanical timers rather than electronic so that they can still function with frequent power cuts.
The bread Jim thawed is from one of a few bakeries on the city. This one specializes in European and American breads and desserts and is quite good. However, breads tend to get moldy quickly here- no more than 2 days or 3 from the date of purchase, so we have to eat fast or freeze it. Since we have backup power, the refrigerator - freezer here works pretty well. (Except for the times when the circuit breaker for the kitchen goes off when the generator comes on!) So, we have pretty good bread available. there are also a few places that make very good pastries and other dessert items. Like many other places, Indians also like sweet desserts, so there is a good market here.