The Joy of Sleeping in the Afternoon

If you look at the journey of man, purely from the point of view of a Homo Sapien, you will find that the journey hasn’t been all that bad.

We have evolved from cave-dwelling, club-wielding barbarians to people whose lives are a lot easier. In some ways, we are still spending our lives in providing for our food, clothing and cave, but one cannot deny that the journey has become smoother.

Somewhere along the line, someone invented books, cars, and mobile phones. Someone or the other came up with all those little inventions that constitute our life today. We can predict some of the ways that nature will act in, and have invented medicines that cure most illnesses. Someone also fucked a chimpanzee somewhere in the timeline, but let’s focus on the good bits for now.

If the Man of Today met the Man of the Cave, and the two of them sat down to talk, there will be some nostalgia involved. Some things will be laughed at, some appreciated, while some will be spoken of fondly. Like getting to mate with anyone you want, when the moon is full in the sky.

Or like sleeping in the afternoon.

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Sleeping in the afternoon is one of life’s stolen joys.

Over the years, we have fashioned a life where sleeping in the afternoons doesn’t figure in the day anymore. It is left to the realm of the useless, the old, the children, and the drunkards.

While work constitutes the majority of our day, anything else – a hobby, a passion, or other banal endeavors like pursuing members of the other gender – are left for the night. But where is the strength and the energy? How can you pursue any of it if you feel drained and weary?

Taking a nap in the afternoon keeps you fresh. A lot of people say that sleeping after lunch makes you fat. That it is not good for your health. But unless it is manual labour that you’re involved in, I don’t see how it makes any difference. Sitting in front of the computer doesn’t really set your adrenaline rushing. You are groggy, heavy, and half –asleep anyway. On the other hand, taking the nap in the afternoon energises you, making you revitalizing you for the other side of you.

A nice, sound nap in the afternoon is also of assistance when you want to drown out the madness of the day. Let’s face it, living can be problematic. India is not the most pleasant nation to live with anyway, but even if we were in the happiest nation in the world, living everyday life is a jigsaw of a thousand, chaotic, small requirements. Just surviving requires you to interact, to understand, to explain, to negotiate, to imbibe, decode, and transfer. But take a nap in the afternoon and see.

Like an invisible blanket, everything fades out into a quiet, calming silence. The noise, the chaos, the need to understand and be understood – all of them float out of your body like smooth, smoky fumes for a few hours. You wake up purged, pure. Like a monk after hours of meditation.

As your body adjusts to your naps, your body clocks operates accordingly. You make the most of your mornings, with the awareness that you have a few hours for yourself coming up. Even the most fiercest of storms at work cannot deter you, because you know that just for a few hours, you can lie back and think about things, till you’ve stopped thinking about things.

A nap in the afternoon is a powerful feeling – it gives you the power to pause. To pause this maddening world that is sprinting. To hold the remote in your hands and pause it, and then rewind it, and play back the bits that you liked.

It gives you the power to reduce everything else into a drone. Whether it is the noise of a train, the bustle of people, or the noise of a mosque, a factory, or a fishmarket, you can reduce it into nothingness– a noise in the background that can be neglected for a few hours – a wisp of reality. But most of all, a nap in the afternoon is a hidden indulgence.

You are stealing away that time from the day. It is yours, a sinful, forbidden indulgence that no one can take away from you.

And as you close the windows and pull the curtains, and your room is bathed in a light, dreamy shade, and the fan begins to whir in a steady rhythm, you know that in the next few hours, nothing can trouble you.

The room is dark now, and the windows have been closed. The fan is rotating on its axis in a low, steady hum. I can hear a few voices from outside, but they don’t belong to my world. The voices have begun to fade away, as a few birds chirp in the distance.

I am lying down on my bed, my feet covered by my blanket, and I wait for sleep to come and take me.

I shall see you on the other side.

Good afternoon!