When you’re sitting up
and working at 1:30 AM, listening to nothing but the sound of typing, your mind
wanders, flitting between day-dreaming and memories. Mine just passed by this
incident when I first pulled an all-nighter. The day our door-bell burned out.
I was 12 years old…….
11:00 PM on the
previous night
We were heading back to Bangalore from an “educational trip”
to Mysore. The bus was filled with Class 7th and 8th students and a teacher-turned-DJ.
We started singing random songs and by 1:00 AM we were dancing in a moving bus.
Not a wink of sleep was possible that night. It was the first “best night of my
life”! We reached school at 2:00 AM to find our parents sitting outside waiting
for us. I went back home rambling about all the fun we had and all the stuff I
ate during the trip, and ended up sleeping around 3:00.
11:00 AM inside the house
I had just finished a heavy breakfast and was trying to
figure out how to curl my damp hair with a pen, when Mom and Dad decided to go
grocery-shopping. They called out for me to close the door and be good; I
locked the door and went back to dressing my hair. I brushed and twisted and
tangled my waist-length hair, daydreaming about the best trip of my life……..
The next thing I remember is seeing a blur of all the faces
of our neighbourhood, a ladder leading to our balcony and my mother crying and
laughing at the same time. I figured I’m sleepy and crawled into bed and fell
asleep.
11:00 AM outside the house
Mr. and Mrs. R climbed down the stairs, relieved now that
the child is safe at home. They headed to the humble grocery store and ticked
off the items on their list as they bought.
“Let’s get her a Dairy Milk” Mrs. R suggested when they were
almost done
“Don’t encourage all this, it spoils her teeth. She’s
already got braces” Mr. R reasoned tonelessly and moved forward.
“Then we’ll get her to brush three times a day!” Mrs. R was
determined
Grumbling about how late the bus got last night, and how
they had to wait at school all night, Mr. and Mrs. R headed home one hour
later. Climbing up two flights of stairs ,they rang the doorbell, conjuring an
adorable little image of their daughter standing on her toes to reach the
peephole and check who’s at the door.
No response
They rang the bell twice, thrice, ten times.
No response. Tension began to build in their minds as they
banged on the door calling her name. Neighbors came out wondering what
happened to the generally quiet family next door.
“What happened?”
“Looks like she must have fallen asleep…”
“Call to your phone and find out… Oh you don’t have a
phone..! Right!”
Comments flew around, the other kids came to their rescue
and used their screaming skills to awaken the girl
“One.. Two.. Three.. SHRUTHI!!”
They yelled again and again, some grownups joined in after a
while and called as the worried parents jabbed on their doorbell. Suddenly after
a while someone realized, when the noise died down, that the doorbell is not
making any sound.
“On my God it has burned out!” Someone exclaimed
To try everything possible, the annoying kid downstairs got
his toy Dholak out and played it like the Lord of Seven Seas, but there was no
response from within Door no.67.
The smart engineer from ground floor suggested we enter the
house somehow, and found a ladder in his garden that seemed to reach the second
floor. By then Mrs. R was sobbing and Mr. R’s BP was twice as high.
“Now someone has to climb up” he ordered. Nobody dared.
So he climbed up the two floors, jumped into the balcony and
entered the room, and there she was. Asleep on the edge of the bed with her
mouth open, legs dangling down and a comb in one hand. Apparently she was
brushing her hair and fell asleep. Yes, that happened.
The engineer opened the front door and yelled for everyone
to come and see for themselves the wonder that was the kid’s slumber. Mrs. R ran
inside and hugged the sleeping kid as Mr. R’s BP dropped to normal.
Sleeping beauty woke up for a second, saw a blur of faces
and crawled to the middle of the bed to go back to sleep, amidst the relieved
laughter of the entire neighbourhood.
So that was the first
time I stayed up all night.
PS: True story!
