Sunday, May 5, 2013

My elusive friend...

Sleep – A wonderful pleasure that most of us cherish. Many a times there is nothing that brings more joy than the very thought of being asleep soon, or waking up at night and finding out that there are couple of more hours before the alarm rings.

Quick flashback….. There used to be a time when I abhorred the idea of sleeping. Weekend or holiday afternoons during our childhood in Germany used to be preceded by a stern warning from Dad that if we do not sleep, then there would be no TV for us in the evening.
 I even remember this particular occasion that bro and I had been looking forward to watching this movie (Valhalla). As usual, Dad told us that in the event that we do not sleep, he’d not show us the movie. Being the obedient son that he is, Bro went ahead and slept, while I spent couple of hours tearing off the wallpaper on my side of the room, counting minutes as they went by. When I heard Dad approach our room, I quickly climbed under the covers and pretended to sleep. I waited patiently, listened to my Dad bending over Bro and then over me to check if we were sleeping and then I heard the door shut. I immediately jumped up to find my Dad standing inside the room – He noticed that I wasn’t asleep. And guess what? I didn’t get to watch the movie. Part of his parenting style, there were no empty threats. However, he recorded the movie (unbeknownst to me), and surprised me with it after 2 days and after he made me promise never to try and cheat again.

Since Bro and I shared a room, we also had the habit of telling each other made up bedtime stories. He would tell me stories of wars, machine gun sounds and bombs and everything to which I had to audibly nod every 5 seconds. The next day, I would narrate my story of fairies and princesses and unicorns. If asked to acknowledge that he’s listening, he’d assure me that he was….only for me to find him snoring by the time I finish my story.

Fast forward. We reached India and I discovered the joy of sleeping. Afternoon siestas on weekends and holidays and sleeping in really late during holidays (and I mean really late). Bro had a tough time waking me up every morning at 5 o’clock during my 10th standard to ensure that I study (only to find me asleep on my books, or in the midst of a suspiciously long personal prayer half an hour later J).

Hostel life was a wonderful time. I used to get up at 5 on weekdays, but on weekends, I would get up only to eat and to attend calls from my parents.

I’ll cut short a long story, but I am sure you get my drift. I love to sleep and even having kids changed nothing about that. If the boys try to wake me up on weekends, I pull them into bed and scratch their backs and encourage them to sleep with me for a while.

Coming to Germany, I was really concerned about my sleep. What if I overslept? There’s no one to wake me up here…. And sleep, is one thing that I have not done after coming here. I go to sleep early (by 9 pm – so that I definitely get enough sleep) and I started off by waking up to the alarm at 5:45. Slowly, I started waking up earlier and now, I wake up at 5 or 5:15 even on holidays!

Now the reason I am writing all this? The time now is 23:20 and I actually went to sleep an hour and half ago….but was (obviously) unsuccessful. So I thought I’d put my thoughts down and that I’ll hopefully be yawning by the end of this (not a yawn so far). Maybe I will be like those grandmas who love telling their visitors that they just can’t sleep because they are so old. Well, I think I will head back to bed now and will myself to sleep….maybe I should try counting sheep….or ask Morpheus or the sandman to visit me…

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