Early to bed.......naaah..!!!!!

FATHER ‘I’ THANK THEE FOR THE NIGHT...

But not for the EARLY morning light.

I am a late riser. Every night I love staying up late and every morning I realise it to be a bad idea. I promise myself silently to be in bed on time and rise up early the next morning but neither that night comes and nor the morning. At the cost of repeating myself I promise myself again but the story remains the same. Early morning you remove my blanket and you are dead.

ONCE, on a very usual night, when I was still a school goer I managed to finish all my works on time and somehow kept myself away from late night orkutting. I was so very happy. Finally I had taken a step towards my every morning’s promise which was yet unkempt but the day had finally arrived when I was about to keep my words. I went to bed at around 11pm and smiled within for my new achieved success. I again promised myself to be up early and do some early morning studies.

Time passed slowly and I was still awake. How on earth can a habit change so abruptly? I reassured myself that it will take time and I will be successful in my attempts one day. It was 11.30 and I was awake. The clock stroked 12 and yes, I was awake. 12.30, awake. But gradually sleep entered my eyes and they began closing. Yes..!! Finally I was sleepy. I was going to sleep. I was going to sleeeeep. I waaas goinggg to sleeeeee......p. I had slept. As I sunk into a deep sleep I saw my Hindi teacher with a whip in her hands asking for my assignment. I was standing numb and my mind worked at a great speed trying to figure out an excuse for my pending work. I was busy thinking of a reason when she slapped me hard and I woke up startled. Thanks God it was a dream. But wait, had I done my assignment. My mind raced back to the previous class when the teacher had assigned us work and I could not think of myself doing it that night. This meant my work was I-N-C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E. It was 2am and I realised I had to submit that assignment tomorrow morning, by hook or by crook. GOSH.!!

I switched on the lights, searched for my books and started with my assignment. It was a tormenting series of questions based on some Dohas in some ‘illegible’ language. I tried hard to decipher the meanings. It was 4am, the world outside was quiet and asleep and here I was struck with Rahim and his creations, struggling hard to complete the work. Time passed slowly and my hands moved as fast as they could. Finally I had done it. Yiiippyyyy. I HAD DONE IT. It was 5.30 and I just had 2 hours to sleep. I immediately jumped back into my bed when I realised the lights were still on. Grrrr..!! I swiftly moved to the switchboard, put off the lights and got into my bed. Few seconds passed by and I was THIRSTY. Damn this thirst. Initially I ignored it and tried to sleep but the fact here lies is the more you try to ignore a fact the more you are bound to be attracted towards it. Finally I decided to quench my thirst before I sleep. I hurriedly had a glass of water and went back to my bed without wasting even a second. Aaahh..!! Finally. Now all I could hear was the tick tick of the clock which had just stricken 6.

I tried closing my eyes and sleep for the remaining few hours. I had just sunk into a mild sleep when my mobile vibrated. It was a call from my SWEET friend who did not seem sweet to me right now. She was struck with one of the Dohas and wanted me to interpret its meaning for her. Well, after again a short meeting with Rahim ji I was back in my bed.

6.30am : one hour to go. I desperately wanted to SLEEP. My eyelashes seemed heavy and went on being heavier with each passing minute. I gradually fell asleep. After God-knows-how-many-minutes I heard some kind of noise, more annoying than my alarm clock and I opened one of my eyes to take the toll of what exactly was happening. It was my younger brother yelling at me to get up as he needed help with his Physics graphs. Refusing him meant my mother getting upset at me and a long lecture on family values and ethics. I opted for the former one and helped him out with his graphs. And now it was time for me to be up, the clock did not realise I was already up and the alarm went on at top frequency adding salt to my wound.

It was this day when I realised that it wasn’t I who was responsible for being up late but it was the way I was meant to be. I was meant to be a late sleeper and eventually a late riser. And this is clearly perceptible from the fact that its 2am now and I am still up penning down the memories of the night when ‘I was enlightened by the Almighty.’

And I know you must be dying to know what appreciations I got for completing my work on time. So here it goes: my Hindi teacher had fallen ill the other night and was on leave for 3 days. ^_^ L L