One of the most beautiful things in this world...

What do you think could it be? Love?..that's a cliched answer! But I am not talking about it. This is one thing that everyone needs, everyone hopefully has, in small or large measure, everyone pines for when there's lack of it. God must have created it in sync with our nervous system otherwise, the latter, which controls everything that we do, would have gone for a toss! One of the web definitions reads "a natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is suspended". If you have now guessed it right, I am talking about "SLEEP". The very fact that I am writing a blog on it, indicates that I love this phenomenon/activity and specialise in it.

If you ever happen to meet anyone who knows me through school/college, he/she would tell/demonstrate to you my impeccable gestures while I slept in the class right beneath the nose of a professor. I have been told that when tried to awaken, I have fluttered my legs in dissonance and in pretence that I am listening :-). With no offence meant to the professor/lecturer/presenter, I really sleep well. I do not feel drowsy, I just sleep. For anyone who sees me doing it or is sitting next to me, it is a cause of utter embarassment. At that point in time, even if I am thrown out of the class, I would still sleep. While most of you would consider it as imprudent or daft behaviour, I would explain to you briefly what I go through while exibiting such behaviour. Due to my 'not-so-high' level of intelligence, it often happens that I do not follow what is being taught or maybe, my attention span is so low that I don't allow my nervous system anytime more than this span to absorb what's going on around me. My free, hence restless nervours system, then switches itself off (to save my metabolic energy for other vital causes ;-)). Hence, sleep is triggered by a complex group of hormones, and that respond to cues from the body itself and the environment. I pity and adore people at the same time, who can stay awake even when they are completely passive to the environment, I really am a failure in this regard. (But have no regrets!)

On other occassions, a drowsy summer afternoon, a cosy winter morning, a breezy monsoon all, my bed after a day's hard work, trigger in me the same set of hormones, the aftermath of which I have no control over. I don't consume alcohol, but those who do have told me that they are better off after drinking than me, just before getting sleep. If I try to resist, I get a very irritating sensation. It feels that a fistful of granular chilli powder has been rubbed on my retina and the sensation ceases only when when the eyelids meet each other. Whenever I have tried ensuring vision at such times, the onlookers get horrified as my eyes turn red and either look like a dracula or an alcoholic! ;-D (Please do not get scared, I am a very amicable human being otherwise :-)) Also, yawning is not an acoompaniment when I feel sleepy, I just fall asleeeeeeeep!..in a fraction of a second, the way people feel unconciousness. If I yawn, I am not sleepy, I might be generally bored or have nothing better to do.

There have been hillarious incidents, reasons for which all have been my irrestible sleep. Once, my roommate, on a day before the exam, tried throwing different baits to make me study on that scorching summer afternoon which had induced droopiness in everyone. After the whole day passed, I promised her that I would do justice to this exam during the night. While everyone had a nice laugh at my promise, she was still planning in assumption that I was lying. At around 4 am on that auspicious morning, she brutally kicked me out of the bed into the hostel corridoor (She's otherwise a very gentle human being) and yelled at me "Fail ho jaayogi!". I then, gathered myself, to turn a few pages of the book scripted in Greek & Latin, still retaining the greyness in vision.

Please do not ask me the results of that exam. I am blessed that I passed.

A few occassions where I slept unperturbed can't go unmentioned- In a crowded Mumbai local, while I was standing on my toes and people were resting on me from all sides. Someone whose shoulder i unintentionally used to rest my head on, shoved me off in disgust. Another time, I slept in the hall of fame/shame, the exam hall... Since my grey cells had got worked up enough yet couldn't render any solace to my teary answer sheet, they decided to reconcile with the goddess of sleep and drag my head down on the table.

I am sure that I will have enough stories even in future to keep updating this blog. Actually my pride and weakness for sleep is much higher than my ability to articulate it in writing, otherwise I would have offered you a more interesting read.

I request people who are insomniacs, to get treated as best as they can because I sincerely believe that they are missing out on a very beautiful feeling in this world. It's a state of being with oneself, completely oblivious to what's happening around. I love that state when I don't remember what happened before I fell asleep, that gives me a feeling that I would be held less accountable for anything that went wrong in this world during that time. No pain, no fear, no joy, no sorrow, no anger nothing...For me, that's the only way to attain 'nirvana'. ;-D If I am sleep derrived, I lose control over myself completely. I normally am not so fond of the dreamy/nightmarish sleep because that means my brain is still functioning and I love putting it to rest. Only then, I wake up with a very positive feeling, a sense of completeness, a sense of 'no loss'! I believe in quality over quantity sleep.

Very often, my sleeping habit has been misconstrued as misbehaviour, but I swear I would pay any money to get an 'anti-sleeping' pill or anything that helps me check that irritating sensation on my retina.

At the same time, I feel, it's better off to sleep when one is passive than pretend to be active. And I am sure the number of people who derrive pleasure out of this activity in this world are not any less than those who love eating, listening to music, reading etc as the number of members in the "SLEEP" community on Orkut are over 1,30,000.

So, take a chill pill whenever you are upset with life and have a wonderful sleep!