Saturday, March 3, 2012

Kids don't need to count the sheep to sleep

This is a story about someone who slept in the classroom and learned a lesson for life.  Let me introduce the hero of this story. Our hero was a L.K.G student wearing a tie,neat uniform with an aluminum box with books. He went to the school as usual on that day. His school had just two class rooms, one in the ground floor and the other in the first floor. The steps to the first floor was in the ground floor itself. His class was in the first floor. 


He used to sit in the last row and there was a space between his bench and the wall, which was enough for a small boy to just lie down. Towards the end of the class on that particular day, he felt sleepy. As we all agree it was natural for a kid to feel sleepy in the afternoon. Our hero wanted to make use of the space between the wall and his bench for effective use. He told his neighbor boy to take care of his school box and moved to the bench-wall gap just by sitting and sliding under his bench. He had known that the teacher might not allow a boy to sleep in her class. He managed to move without anybody noticing except for the neighbor boy. 

He had a fantastic sleep without any dreams. It was fantastic since nobody disturbed his sleep. Needless to say that he woke up on his own. He opened his eyes only to see the empty class. All the nine or so benches were empty with matching empty desks. He realized what has happened. His neighbor boy had ditched him. May be he was so dumb that he forgot to wake up or he was too gentle to disturb somebody in sleep or he didn't want to play Judas betraying his friend,show him lying horizontally on the floor to the teacher.

Our hero climbed down the steps and came to the ground floor with some hope. His hope shattered when he found even the ground floor empty. He started crying as a last resort standing near the shutter gate of the ground floor. Within few minutes, his father came in search of him since his boy didn't reach home from the school. His father was tense with worries about what had happened to his son. When he heard the sleeping story, he got angry naturally and extended his hand into one of the diamond shaped gaps in the shutter door only to give few heavy pats in the back of our hero.That diamond shape gap became the first ever mechanical design hated by that kid. 
Our hero had some general knowledge even at that time and answered that the watchman's house was nearby the school for one of the rapid fire questions by his father. The next few sequences happened very quickly. Father - watchman's house - key - door opening etc, our hero was finally rescued from his own school. The story wasn't over with that happy ending. On the way home, our hero was sitting in the front bar of his father's cycle, suffering real 'pain in the butt' (not just an idiom). His father was still furious,pedaling the cycle with anger and the boy could feel his father's hot breath in his back. Our hero couldn't understand any part of his father's speech which was delivered fast in anger with regular rhythmic beats in the back, played with perfection like a pro Congo player.What a terrific  experience by a kid, for sleeping at an odd time and odd place?

This was the story that flashed my mind when I wanted to join the, 'The Kissan 100% Real Blogger Contest' and I was that kid who slept in the class room many years ago. After that experience, till this day, I never felt sleepy in any place other than my home, even if I was tired like a dog.If you don't feel sleepy at office you will not have incidents like the one below. 

 Years later, I felt happy when I heard that the afternoon siesta was made official and the kids were allowed to sleep under the care of the teacher.

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