Silent Night — All is calm all is bright

March 27th, India- Gurugram. The weather is particularly pleasant and to my surprise, I am able to open the windows without fearing pollution. I arrived today around noon and spent the day giving gifts to house helps.

As night approached, I was looking to stretch my legs and relax, One full night's sleep was well deserved after sitting for 27 long hours. I started from my house in San Francisco at 6:00 pm to catch the 9:00 pm flight.

My mother has a unique way of reusing things and doing “Jugad” in the house. I don’t know what type of mattress the bed has, but it has 2 mattresses on top of each other neatly covered by a bright-colored cotton bed sheet.

Anyways, I went to sleep for the long-awaited stretch. At my home in America I have a full big bedroom to myself but here, 3 people-- me, my mother, and the attendant have to sleep in the same bedroom. Not that, I am complaining but after living in the US for so many years I just like my own private space. There is a separate bedroom in the house where I could sleep but, my mom wants everyone in her sight. Anyways, I have no issues with it as it makes my mother happy. Finally, I fell asleep.

3 hours into sleep, around 1:00 am I woke up to my mom’s painful coughing. Then the attendant got up to take her to the bathroom, next the lights switched on off, doors opening, and shutting, toilet flushing, etc.. all the normal bathroom sounds and activities went on for 15 minutes to disturb my sleep. I tried to sleep again but, street dogs decided to bark. For the next 30 minutes, I could hear Bhow, Bhow, Bhow… till I could filter out the barking and fall asleep again only to wake up to someone’s car alarm Whew, Whew, whew… It happened two times till I fell asleep again. This time it was sound but, mom had to use the toilet again and she started calling for the attendant — ‘Anita. Anita.. ‘ in her feeble voice and complaining of pain and fatigue at the same time with “Uh,..Uh… Ah, Eah,” sounds followed by “aai aai ga! ” and “aai, aai”.

I kept pretending to be asleep but, I was getting a little headache so I decided to do some relaxation. I started saying “Ramraksha Stotram” and relaxing from head to toe. It being Navratri after doing Jap’s Durga Shatnam was playing in my head and

I was not able to settle between “Ramraksha Stotram” and Durga Shatname.. Till finally, I slept again to wake up to the whistle of the guard which went on for the next 15 minutes. Don’t know why guards have to whistle at night in India.

Again some dogs were barking. This time it was a different sound — Bauuu.. Bau…. With an elongated “U…”.

I got up and drank a glass of water and again tried to sleep. It would have been 4:00 am and a little brightness was scattering. Birds were starting to wake up. Koyal, Sparrow — they all were making different sounds…

I decided that now finally, it's time to actually wake up — around 5:30 am. As I was waking up I remembered the song — “ Silent night, All is calm, all is bright “ and smiled to myself.

Now, it was time to start another day — I did some yoga and after a bath started Navratri pooja.