THE NEW AGE KUMBHAKARNA

What do I do if I’m not with my books or laptop? Well, I sleep soundly. No matter how noisy the surroundings are, I always enjoy my slumber. This causes much embarrassment at times. Several incidents come to my mind but I vividly remember the funniest of them.

It happened when I had my annual examinations of seventh standard. We had just moved into our new house .It was a busy period as my uncle’s wedding was a week away. My parents had to supervise almost everything . Mamma and Papa were too busy with the tit-bits of work- paying the workers, buying gifts ,etc (doing all that is to be done in a typical Indian wedding). Now I had assumed some responsibilities at home- I’m a big girl now, I chuckled to myself. I was deprieved of my sound sleep because I was dead tired at the end of the day. I had a language paper the next day. I bolted the room and started preparing for the examination on a hot summer afternoon.
I was brought to reality when something poked me. I was sleeping on the bed with the book on the pillow !! I opened my eyes to see the curtain rod being whisked gently and heard Papa’s voice near the open window,”Open the door now.” I unbolted the door and again went to sleep.

Later that evening, Mamma heard about the incident and what followed was pure laughter for the whole family. I had bolted the room where all cash was kept and Papa needed to pay a worker immediately. He first knocked my door, it did not rouse me.He said he almost shouted my name alongwith two or three other people(the workers who were waiting for their wages.) They banged the door with their hands with full force. Imagine six hands banging a teak door bolted from inside. The curtain rod idea stuck to Papa and finally it yielded result. A good half an hour later.

This incident tickles me to laughter even now and I’m happy to be called “The New Age Kumbhakarna”.