Pictures From The Largest Blackout In History

India suffered a near complete blackout earlier this week and affected nearly 670 million people. To give you some idea how wide that is, we are talking nearly 10 percent of the entire population of the planet was stranded in a blackout.

Power is starting to come back online, but here are some photos that were collected showing what life for Indians was like during this time.

A man gets a haircut by candle light. Careful with that thing!

(Bikas Das/Associated Press)

India's power grid is not only out of date, but thanks to theft and unauthorized wiring, it looks like this. And when you have a system that looks like this, your system bleeds power like a thug in a back ally brawl.

(Manish Swarup/Associated Press)

More examples of pirated wiring in the slums of Jammu.

(Channi Anand/Associated Press)

With no electricity to run stop lights, traffic grinds to a halt in a new Delhi. The only thing that could be heard at this particular intersection was the constant blaring of horns.

(Rajesh Kumar Singh/Reuters)

Studies continue inside a Madrasa in Noida by candle light.

(Parivartan Sharma/Reuters) 

In India, trains run on electricity. With no electricity, trains sit frozen on the tracks.

(Rajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press)

Even though the blackout has lasted for hours, passengers on commuter trains are unwilling to give up their seats. They sweat in the heat, and just wait.

(Kevin Frayer/Associated Press)

The wait continues for a boy on the tracks in New Delhi.

(Kevin Frayer/Associated Press)