Raja's Blog Space

Another morning, another day. I love to get that extra 10 minutes of sleep. I am sure no one likes to get out of the bed. During my childhood days, I did not use any fancy alarm clock at home. Guess who woke me up every morning? No rewards for the right guess here. It was always my mom, who used to give me a big shake all over my body, which sometimes shattered my wildest dreams. However, waking me was a piece of cake for my mom compared to what she had to go through to wake up my lovely sister!

There were times I witnessed the repeat of Kumbhakarna awakening. However, during other occasions, to wake up my sister, all it took was one person, my elder brother. He is the only 'early bird' in my house who, even now, has the habit of getting up early in the morning. He used a lot novel techniques like pouring ice cold water in the sleepy ears, snatching the blanket, opening the window screens, and a lot more. Of course, like a soldier in Iraq, he had to weather a lot of counter offensive. Whether an alarm clock was needed or not, a first aid kit was a must. While all of this happened, I used to quietly snug in a corner and just watch the battle;) and moreover my brother got that extra kick and pleasure in waking up my sister. So he did not bother me as much.

As we grew up, we started relying more and more on our mom for the early morning alarms. During exam days, we woke up promptly on the first call. Otherwise, we just asked her to come back in 10 minutes time (manual snooze...). There were times my mom had to give us prompts every 10 minute interval for nearly 2 - 3 hours! As I moved out of home, I started using portable alarms and here in the US, I use an alarm which has a pretty cool feature called 'Snooze'. For those, unfamiliar with the 'Snooze', it lets you prolong the wake up buzz by a preset time, usually 10 minutes. I owe a lot to the guy who invented this feature in an alarm. Even these days, I use this feature extensively during the morning buzz.

During my college days in Michigan, I got into the habit of snoozing anywhere from an hour to 2 hours. My hands involuntarily hit the snooze button on the alarm. My poor roommate, who used to sleep on the upper bed of the bunker probably woke up every 10 minute, while I was happily snoozing. I used it to such an extent, one day my roommate politely requested me to set the alarm at least somewhat closer to the time I actually intended to wake up! Thankfully, he was not like my brother. Else he would have poured cold water in my ears!