Chapters From My Life: 100 Rays Of Son

Sleeping Monster

Two things I never believe when my children declare it to me. One is Farheena promising me of doing her regular exercises and another is Rayyan waking up on time on a working day. Generally people sleep and wake up in the morning. Unfortunately, both my children do not just sleep, they leave their body here and travel to distant universes and when they wake up the next day it is like having a rebirth. One incident that happened in Byndoor proved it to me. Once a lightning struck the BSNL tower during a stormy night. The sound was so deafening that most of us jumped out of bed in our sleep. I rushed to checkout on my mom and dad who were awake, scared and at loss not understanding what was happening. Immediately, they asked me to check out on the poor children to see if they are safe. As I entered the room, I found them sleeping soundly as though nothing had happened at all. Seriously? The next morning, all the people were talking about the loud noise and we realized it was due to the lightning striking the BSNL tower. Finally, I realized other than my two children, everyone was woken up by that shattering loud noise.

Compared to Rayyan, Farheena is a sleeping beauty who wakes up at least at 15^th attempt, but Rayyan – the sleeping monster is so unpredictable. When he has to go out for cycling or early morning walks, no matter how quiet the home is, or how deep his sleep, he is up just like Dracula when the sun goes down. Unknown to Rayyan, I have tried few experiments on him. One is tempting him to watch some interesting series like Breaking Bad or Daredevil on the eve of his cycling expedition. Those series can keep us hooked to them till late night. Yet, the next day when I laughingly peep into his room to see him sleeping away while others are enjoying their ride, I find an empty bed. Yeah, he stealthily sneaks away very early in the morning. I had once forced him to take cough medicine before sleeping because he had mild cough, yet he was up on time. I have given him heavy dinner, given him tough work, and many more but the ghost wanders away on time.

If not for the cycling or swimming, I have so much trouble waking him up. “Rayyan” “Yes maa I am waking up” … repeat that for 10 – 15 times. Most of the time, he is dreaming of waking up, following his morning routine and going to work laying there cosily on his bed. I have banned him from using the alarms because it will wake up everyone in home and also in neighbourhood but not Rayyan. We have tried all different ring tones for him and failed with all of them.

When Rayyan was born, he did not cry for long but nor drink milk, but immediately went to sleep.

My sister was waiting with camera in hand to click his pictures, but this baby slept for quite long time.

We had to compromise and click his pictures when he was sleeping. I have not experienced those sleepless nights with both my children. They would sleep through the night from day one, unless they are sick.

Once when Rayyan fell asleep, my sister decorated him with jewellery, yet the baby did not wake up. It was time for his lunch, but it was so difficult to wake him up. The same drama happened to the teenager when we were with Paula.

Rayyan had fallen asleep without a pillow and Paula tried to wake him up to sleep properly on his bed. I snickered and watched when she assumed that saying, “Rayyan, you are sleeping wrong. Sleep properly on your bed” was enough to get the job done. No response. I laughed and told Paula that doesn’t work. She found Annie, the doll, and pretended that it was possessed and was tormenting Rayyan when he was asleep. She did not want to be the cruel aunt who troubled a sleeping teen, so she passed the blame on to Annie. The doll climbed on his back, poked her finger in his ear and behaved like a very bad doll but the sleeping monster wouldn’t budge. Paula was shocked. He is lucky that we are good people who do not throw cold water on him, beat him or shout too loudly. May be that would have changed him.

Once my husband who was back from Dubai was shocked to see my efforts in waking up Rayyan. He gave me tip to wake up this 10 year old boy, “Just sneak up to him slowly and give him a hard pinch. That will teach him to wake up on time”. If I recollect my feelings towards my husband, I think this was the point when I kind of lost a quite a big chunk of love for him.

Every night I threaten both Rayyan and Farheena that I am not going to wake them up the next morning, but when I see them the next morning it looks as though they are not in this world anymore. So, the routine of summoning them from unknown world starts. On the other hand, when we have nothing to do for the day, Farheena will be awake early in the morning and staring at me. There is some tingling in my spine and when I open my eyes I find her looking at me and waiting for me to wake up. It is the same with Rayyan though he remains in his room and plays around there.

I am not sure, how coming from a light sleeper like me, these two people can sleep like logs. I sometimes feel that they enjoy this routine. It may be like that smell of baby powder which comforts you. Because, if I am not around they are up on their own.

One of these days, these two youngster are going to wake up and find that they have lost their jobs because they have slept for the whole year, depending on their mom to wake them up.