Sleepless in Bangalore

Not really. My eyes are burning as I write this. However, I'll have to admit I don't sleep very well any more. All the more frustrating, when you feel sleepy and drowsy all day ... but when you try to sleep, something doesn't fit in.

I assume it is the heat. I am not used to hot places any more. Delhi used to get much hotter than this, but as a kid in the hostel, sleep was never a priority. Also, much more drastic alternatives were available then. During summers, often just before going for dinner, we would get buckets of water from the bathroom and just pour it over our mattresses. By the time we were done with dinner, followed by the post dinner walk and got back to the room, the mattresses would be as dry as a board .. and just a wee bit cooler. Can't imagine doing that now. We lose such a lot in growing up ... like the ability to pour a bucket full of water on a mattress.

Thinking of school, and hostel brings up other memories.
Ours was a pretty funky hostel, and in retrospect (after experiencing the engineering college hostel) the food was really terrific. We would get these small 10 gram butter packs along with our breakfast (like in the planes) and we'd once in a while, collect these.

Around 10:30 p.m. the assistant warden would come for our attendance ... we would put all the butter on the top most stair just or on the landing of our floor. He never did fall ... but it was always a pleasure to watch him skid a little. He'd be careful the next few days ... but he always, eventually forgot .. and we always remembered :)

The very last night I spent in that hostel, I remember it was really hot and most of the blokes had already left. The staff had started folding up for the year, and the mattresses had been piled up in the rooms where everyone had left.

I was not feeling too good about leaving Delhi ... a lot of things involved .. and wanted to have some time one my own. Wandering around, I reached the top floor and found a heap of 13 mattresses piled one on the other. I remember climbing up to check how it felt to be on top of that many mattresses ... the next thing i remember is waking up about 6 in the morning, with the tinny music of the aquaguard attached to the water cooler resonating through the floor.

Timeless....