The Afternoon Siesta:
Naina was sleep deprived. Not that she never got any sleep, just that her body demanded more sleep. Arun found it funny. According to Arun,Naina’s life was all about sleep. Her ambition in life was to sleep. Naina starts her day at 5:30 am in the morning. After that she does her household chores, office chores, her kid’s chores and then she goes to bed by 10:30 p.m. Being an insomnia patient, she gets sleep by 12:00 a.m.
On weekends she always plans to get her afternoon siesta. However, luck sometimes favours her, sometimes not.
Today, being a sunday, Naina had planned her afternoon siesta. She had slept at 1:00 am yesterday. Again, insomnia did not let her sleep. She finished her chores right at 2:30 pm, she fixed her bed, switched on the ac and pulled her cozy blanket and covered her body. She got her daughter Anu also with her. Her eyes were heavy and she was about to fall into a deep slumber when Arun came and yelled at Anu for misplacing the TV remote. Naina said, ‘Let me sleep now, I will find it after I wake up. You too take a nap now.’ Arun stubbornly went out of the room, came back and yelled at both Anu and Naina and said, ‘Find me the remote.’
Naina threw her blanket, Anu too woke up. Naina searched for the remote. She could not find it. Her head was aching as always as if a hammer had hit her. She had tears dropping from her eyes from the pain of headache and more from the pain of Arun’s stubborn gesture. She walked away from home for an hour to get some fresh air because she knew ‘afternoon siesta’ was a luxury for her and the price for that is peace of mind. When she came back, Arun was luxuriously taking his nap. Naina searched for the remote.She found it tucked in a sofa by Anu. Naina gobbled a pain killer and got back to her routine chores while Arun woke up fresh and went out blaming Anu for losing the remote. Naina looked at the clock, laughed at herself and said, ‘Didn’t you know you are a robot, whose body needs are decided by others. You don’t need sleep. You are just lazy. Get back to work girl. Afternoon Siesta is royal. You don’t deserve it.’
