Sleep, sleep, sleep...

Tossing and turning
Longing and hoping
That I would start dreaming
Where is that lousy sandman?
Is he out of sleeping sand?
I really don’t understand!
It’s past my bed time!
Way past midnight.
Where is that lousy sandman?
Sailing the seven seas?
Oh! So ignorant of our sleeping needs!


“Oh! I wished I could get my hands on that lousy sandman!” I said furiously as I squished and squashed my pillow for the hundredth time that night. But my struggles seemed futile against my active mind and sleepless eyes. They seemed resolute to keep me awake the whole night. It was frustrating to lie in bed for such a long time and still not be able to catch forty winks. I had pretty much tried every traditional sleep inducers, from counting cute, cuddly sheep to simple, quiet meditation. Nothing seemed to work.


Then, suddenly, I remembered something my father had told me once when I had been very young. One day, my father gave me some advice about sleep, saying that sleep was a soothing sensation that required a clear and unperturbed mind. Only when we vacate our minds of all the calculations, arguments and discussions only then do we enter into deep, comforting sleep. It was pretty simply. No tuff chemistry equations or long detailed explanations. Remembering that advice, I wondered whether I had some rocket science calculations going on in my head or perhaps even a war raging over whether I should have said what I said. I racked my brain a couple of times, recalling the events of that day. At first, nothing seemed to be weighing down on my conscience and then finally, it hit me! I was worried and inwardly disturbed about my behaviour to the shopkeeper! I had bargained with the poor guy so much that he reduced the price to piddling sum of hundred rupees. However, for some insane reason I decided to test his patience and demanded for an ever lower price. The already frustrated shopkeeper had turned red and made a disgusted face at me. Throwing the slippers away angrily, he had stormed away to the back of his shop.

Laying in bed now, a couple of hours later, I realized that I had been really unfair to him. He was earning his bread and butter while I just fooling around, trying to save more and more of my pocket money (which was not hard earned). Acknowledging the fact that I had been utterly rude and bad-mannered towards him, I resolved at that very moment to return to the shopkeeper next day and buy the slippers at the original price. Before I realized, I was spiraling into darkness and dreaming of sparkly slippers and pretty shoes.

“A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow.”~ Charlotte Bronte