There would be many who may not agree with my experience in this matter.Yet that does not deter me from stating the same,as I have seen it to emerge as the real culprit in most of the circumstances.Right since my childhood,I remember seeing my parents get up quite early in the morning and pursue a detailed personal discipline- whether at village,city home or on tour.This always gave them lot of time to prepare & plan for the day and live the day to the best of their abilities.This also gave them time to reflect upon their responsibilities and challenges pragmatically and enthusiastically.So at the end of the day they had the faith and satisfaction of having given their best everyday.
But the enemy entered in our house in the form of addiction to sleep.Generation after generation has taken it as the best form of enjoyment in life,there by ruining whatever was left of their ability to live responsibly,health consciously and to be a good family member.Not that I am completely immune against such "sleep " temptations ,but I have come to realize its destructive effect on our mind and body.For a healthy living,6-8 hours of sleep is a basic requirement.But any sleep beyond that deprives us of any freshness, creativity, analytical ability and physical fitness.I remember how it all started.Normally ,we used to finish dinner by 9 PM at Asansol where my father was posted,and sleep by 10 PM.So when father used to wake me up at 5 in the morning,I was able to do so joyfully and had almost 3 hours at my disposal to talk to my parents, freshen up,do my exercises, prayers, breakfast, pack my bag and walk my way to main road to reach my school. In the evening, father came back from office by 6 PM.I used to came by then.We used to play cricket or football together, talk about the day spent and then do our prayers again before returning to study along with my father.Then mother would serve some snacks.Again by 9, we would rejoin at dinner.Life was as simple and enjoyable as that.But then some of us grew up and had opportunities to stay away from our parents for our studies.There we picked up this bad habit of sleeping late and getting up late.It looked a like a small aberration to begin with, but resulted into complete alienation from our family-emotionally,psychologically and mentally.Gradually we started sleeping at 1 -2 AM, courtesy late night movies on Doordarshan and novels with saucy,attractive, and yet, good for nothing themes.Suddenly all that was around us including our parents,home and circumstances seemed less important and the characters and emotions depicted in movies and novels looked more familiar ,important and realistic.So,till the time my father would go to office,we used to sleep during our holidays.By the time mother will finish rest of the household chore ,and wait for us to have breakfast,we will be moving around with our morning cup of tea and newspaper,listening either to film songs or cricket commentary.We would have breakfast at 11.00.We will pretend to study for an hour or two or go out to meet our friends.We will come back around the time father came back from office at noon.We will have lunch some times together or separately and then again sleep till late afternoon.By that time father would have left for office again.In the evening we used to keep wasting time with friends busy smoking or gulping cups of tea,returned late to home, some how joined parents reluctantly for dinner and then continued with our nocturnal routine.Not that parents did not try to wean us away from this retrograde lifestyle.but we always managed to frustrate their effort by our whimsical attitude and cold indifference.Thus gradually parents understood that we would not be able to serve as emotional and physical support in their old age.And we were happy to be relieved of that responsibility.Parents continued to deal with us with the same sense of responsibility and care,but there was a sense of helplessness too.The last straw came in the form of our getting into jobs in the cities,married to such life partners who were perfect matches for us in terms of their liking for indiscipline and SLEEP.
So when parents became old,we became adept in using them in looking after our children,doing sundry jobs at home like bringing provisions from shop,dropping off and receiving the children back from school,attending to all our social responsibilities on our behalf.We took them for granted as our domestic helps.We were still busy going to office,meeting our friends and SLEEPING.
However,ever since I have seen my teen age child has shown the same love for SLEEP and indifference towards me,I have become sleepless.I know the disease pretty well and the consequences also,but I find myself helpless in making them understand it accurately. With every passing day they seem to be moving away from me and I can't do a thing to wean them away.even more disturbing is the fact that no one from outside was responsible for that .One small aberration called addiction to SLEEP destroyed all the warmth and emotion that symbolized my family.Had I tried to amend myself early in my life and obeyed the instructions of my parents,I could have avoided this day.However it's very late now.
We still live together,but just live together only.We were not a family anymore.I hope you would not have lived as recklessly in your life.
