Two minutes please....

sujathaumakanth · Aug 12, 2010

"The BEST part of waking up? Hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep.”
- Anon“

[Beep Beep Beep Beep…………SNOOZE]
- It is 6.45, are you not getting up?
- Mmmm, 2 more minutes…..
[Beep Beep Beep Beep…………SNOOZE]
- It is 7.00 !!! It is your turn to go early to work, remember !!!
- Yeah, yeah I do……..just 2 more minutes please….
- It is getting late, you don’t want to be late….
- I know, I know……..I am getting up….soon…
[Beep Beep Beep Beep…………DUH NO MORE SNOOZE………SIGH ]

[JUSTIFY]This is how my mornings begin, with almost an identical conversation every single day……..well and truly I can never boast of being a morning person.

I gather myself groggily from bed and with all the longing a mother has for her newborn, I turn back and give a yearning look at my still warm bed. I envy the slumbering family, their few extra minutes of sleep while I trudge slowly towards my shower. The cold manages to seep through, despite my heavy layers and I shudder at the prospect of getting ready for work. I am tempted to get back into the bed and snuggle under the covers but work beckons.

Even as a child, waking up early used to be the bane of my existence. My dad was fond of repeating the well-worn phrase “The early bird catches the worm”. I ended up pitying the worm for waking up early and getting caught but yeah try telling my dad that……..as a result, I used to bid a tearful farewell to my beauty sleep every morning and fervently attempted to master the art of sleeping with my eyes open. The moment he stepped away from the scene, I used to sneak back into my bed and slip into an uneasy but nevertheless welcome slumber……my ears sensitively attuned to the sound of the bathroom latch opening, an indication that my post at the study table has to be resumed. Passing years have not made much of a difference……I now sleep with my ears tuned to the alarm tone on my mobile. What can I say, I am totally powerless under the mighty spell of sleep incarnate, Somnus.

I have come across people who not only have an in-built alarm system but are totally immune to the captivating charms of the snooze button. The concept of a sleep-in on a cold wintry morning under a warm blanket is totally alien to them. Come rain or shine, they are up at the said hour every single day. To these friends, I can only say that they are missing out on something so delectable an experience. Despite the heavy pounding the snooze button receives every morning at my hands, we are best buddies and it is only fair I elucidate the nature of the tenacious hold the button has on me.

On a deeper and somber note, sometimes I wonder if I am hitting the snooze button on my life too. Am I afraid to step out of my comfort zone….. am I wary of tilting the fragile status quo in my life and embracing change? At the crossroads of life, am I taking refuge in the familiarity of the past, putting away major decisions that I ought to take rather than face the dark unknowns of the future? I am reluctant to find the answers for my question or facing a truth that has been staring in my face too long…….perhaps I ought to put a snooze on this question as well.

The hot shower wipes away the remants of sleep from my eyelids and puts a spring back into my step. I now proceed to wake up the kids and well no surprise, I hear my daughter giving me “the two minutes” routine as well. Ha ha, there is no escape from my slumber genes, is there? I give her a warm hug, happy to have spawned another “snooze” addict into this world and proceed to wake her up gently to face a new day outside the barricades of sleep.
[/JUSTIFY]

Arunarc · Aug 12, 2010

Dear Sujatha
After a long time a snippet from your side..hope all is well
Oh waking up early in the morning the most dreadful thing in life....hahaha
During my school days I had to go for language tution classes and the teacher use to stay the very next door she use to come early in the morning at 5 30 am and knock at my window, shouting Aruna sa wajaley uot(it is 6 wake up) I use to say :rant cover my blanket fully and go off to sleep...she was my snooze who use to come every 10 minutes to wake me up...hahaha. She is no more but that time I use to curse her and mom and dad use to laugh at me.
As far as I know i never used alarm clock to wake me up. In case I need to wake up in the morning I just pray before going to bed and i have no idea someone wakes me up 10 minutes before the time.
But this waking up in the morning never left me, poor me who loves to sleep in the morning till late morning, but I fulfil this wish of mine only during the weekend....hahaha
Let them run loud music or bring a big stone and hit on my head...hehehe anything but I will never get up during holidays and weekend.:biglaugh
During school days had to wake up for tutions, then for college we had early classes so again wake up, then got married Oh noooooooo......here too I had to wake up early becoz DH had to take lunch so cook something for him before 7 am. And this continues even today.
I urge for that 2 minutes during the week days but don't know when will I get it.:bonk

Srama · Aug 12, 2010

Sujatha, I love the way you start your snippet with a quote!! Needless to say beautifully written and enjoy reading thoroughly.

Well, as a early morning riser, I do seem to be looking at the bird than the worm most often. Now after decades of waking up early, I am one of those people who on most occassions donot need an alarm....yeah sure I am missing, so delectable an experience, and the days I have tried to get the same expereince, I have always landed with a throbbing head that feels like a hangover but have the privilege of gaining the same expereince when nothing in the world will keep me up past 10 every night!

However, when I see my family sleeping in (they have inherited their genes from their, dad, grand dad or who knows may be even their great grand dad!!), I always let them as more often than not feel happy seeing them all asleep with no care in the world, especially during the summmer break!! So you see, I do appreciate people who can sleep in, more so because that is something I cannot do!

Wonderful wondeful writing :thumbsup

Cheeniya · Aug 12, 2010

Dear Suja

Little was I expecting such intense pathos to hit me in the very opening lines of one of my most favourite writers of IL. I was felled by this pathos of your being wrenched away from Somnus, the lover of all lovers so badly that I came under his influence instantly! Right from my elementary school days, I have rebelled against the tyranny of alarm clocks. My dad had a vintage piece which he loved more than his own life. It had a sweet ring and every time the alarm went off, he would become as ecstatic as if he was listening to a rendering of Pancharatna Kritis at Tiruvaiyaru! To me it was almost a death knell! I have on four occasions dismantled it piece by piece but my dad was able to put it back in shape like a seasoned Swiss craftsman.

A question may arise from this early bird catching the worm story. Why is that the early bird gets the reward while the early worm ends up in an avian grave? Some even suggest that while the bird was an early one, the worm was just staggering home after a whole night binge! This is the explanation offered by Alcoholic Anonymous!

You send me into waves of shudder describing the guys who jump out of their bed as if stung by a scorpion from Mars! These are ruthless guys who I would never recommend getting married to! Don’t forget that these guys also go to sleep early and consequently miss out on the drama of the stars up above the world so high. I shall watch the awesome Perseid Meteor Shower tonight while the early rising guys will miss out on this spectacle. Still, they’ll have all their worms to catch in the morning, plenty of them really!

“Oh, it’s nice to get up in the mornin’,
But it’s nicer to lie in bed” says Sir Harry Lauder and I would say ‘Amen’ to him!

Sri

iyerviji · Aug 12, 2010

Dear Sujatha

Its good to wake up early in the morning, you feel so fresh. But sleeping early in the morning also is very nice, sometimes you dont feel like getting up. My husband is very particular in getting up early in the morning, he goes to sleep early and wakes up early and does not need any alarm to wake up. Now also though noone is going to office or schools still we get up early . The days when I have to get up very early without alarm I am able to get up as I dont get proper sleep the previous night.

love
viji

radsahana · Aug 13, 2010

hi sujatha

enjoyed reading the snippet very much. Even i find it difficult to wake up in the morning. I dont get sleep easily at night, it is only past midnight i sleep, then it is more difficult to wake up at 6 am.

But what to do, have to start the work and routine, ( i fulfil my wish of sleeping late on weekends )

have a great day.

knot2share · Aug 13, 2010

My dear dearie!

Loved your post. Even we have got used to hitting the bedside clocks over the years that it doesn't matter if one is on a holiday or not, we need to wake up to the Beep Beep everyday. It sometimes feels as though we have been waiting for the alarm to go OFF (or ON??? I have never figured out which is the right way to say it) all night and once it beeps, we say appaada and then slip back into a more contended sleep even if that is for a short duration. Well, waking up during winter is possibly the worst punishment one can have. Hubby and me have written agreements on who makes morning tea/coffee on weekends . Its like "you get up", "no, please you get up first today", "I have had a long week so please you wake up first"......Each time the word PLEASE gets stretched longer and longer PLEASE...PLEEASE...PLEEEEEASSE.....And I hate myself :rantwhen I end up giving in to this drowsy argument we have on bed. And about snoozing the button in life - lets not even go there. Look at it this way. No matter how many snoozes, we do face it at the end of it.

DivyaKGCP · Aug 13, 2010

Wow Sujatha!!
I loved reading ur snippet...
This is how exactly i feel when i have to get out of bed, every morning..
So during weekends will sleep till 8 to compensate weekdays early rising!!

OOPALL · Aug 13, 2010

Hi there!
You should have been a screenplay writer!!LOL How true most of us intend to hit that buzzer as our minds think ok one more time and I will get up.
I am an early bird. I get out of bed but that doesn't mean I am fully awake. The water has to hit my body for me to be fully awake hence the shower is first on the list.
Very well written...Thanks!
OOPALL

meenasankaran · Aug 13, 2010

Dear Suja,

It is with a lot of shame that I confess here in front of one and all that I have never once hit the snooze button in my life.:drowning

Not that I don't set the alarm every day. I do indeed but for reasons that escape me, I always wake up bright and early long before the alarm goes off. Every night before I turn off the light, I cast a longing glance at my alarm clock and send a silent prayer upwards for a chance to sleep in late at least the next day and wake up only to the musical sound of a shrieking alarm. (Sigh sigh....)I guess my prayer hasn't made it to God's 'To Do' list yet.

Awesome post as always, my friend. :thumbsup