Jaded

Very tired, I decided to indulge in a short siesta, though I haven’t started preparing for my exams starting Monday. I draw the curtains, clear my bed and lie down, knowing I’ll be asleep in a few minutes. Though I’m exhausted, I’m not able to sleep. Instead, I stare at the ceiling and observe the sun’s rays struggling to make it‘s way into my room, trying to thwart my sleep. But no, I say to myself. I’m so tired that some sunlight won’t matter. I close my eyes, and go to my happy place.

Thud Thud.

I can hear my phone vibrating on my table. I wish I’d switched it off, but there’s nothing I could do now. I hastily reach for it with my lower half clinging to the bed and my upper half dangling from it. I press some button, and it stops. Peace again. Then clunk. Phone splits and the already battered battery takes another beating. It at least won’t vibrate again methinks, and I happily tuck myself in again.

Thud Thud.

Now is probably the time to tell you about the noisy people I have for neighbors. And I’m not living in a soundproof house, rather a room that’s barely the size of your bathroom. ‘Vaishnavi(V)! Can I borrow your PC notes?’ screams Aswini(A). Names don’t matter, because these people don’t matter anyway. But again, to complete the story, V screams back. ‘Inga vaa. I have it here’. And so I think it’s over, but how naïve of me to think that. They’re not done yet. A walks out of her room, slams her door, bangs on V’s door. V says ‘It’s open de’. A pushes the door so hard it hits the wall and I’m hoping it rebounded and hit her face. But as luck has it,no, she’s fine. And like any other two girls who have an exam in two days, they start chattering. Mind you, I can hear EVERY single word they utter. I didn’t want to eavesdrop, so I tried concentrating on things on my table. I finally get accustomed to all the jabbering, and despite the noise, I’m starting to fall asleep. I close my eyes and bang. I’m guessing A left V’s room, thereby repeating the same banging and slamming. Now I realize I have only half an hour to go before my alarm rings. THEN it struck me that my phone is dead on the floor and my alarm isn’t going to ring until I fix it. I reluctantly get up, fix my phone, reset the alarm, and get back into my comforter.

Thud Thud.

I can hear fe’s chappals. And I know she’s not loud. So I theorize that I’m trying to spoil my sleep by listening to otherwise normal sounds. But I can’t ignore this. I hear her walk all the way to the common bathroom. To my surprise, I’m actually thinking if she’s going for a bath or to wash clothes. Then I think I can ask her to wake me up if my phone fails me and reach for my phone to send her a message. Bang. Phone falls down again. Sigh. I decide I’ve had enough and close my eyes yet again, not bothered about when I get up. All I want now is some sleep. But wait. I hear fe coming back. 70 steps. I counted.

Thud Thud.

All the way from ground floor, I can hear them clearing the mess. The plates are clumsily clanked together, the curd cups are poured into a bigger container. I can hear it, as I long for some sleep. Cleaning up the mess is by no means a long process, so this eats into most of the time I have left.

Thud Thud.

That dreaded knock on my door. At first I choose to ignore it, but it gets louder and louder and I’m losing my patience. I get up in one swift motion, and yank the door open.
Person: Sorry to disturb you. Were you sleeping?
Me: Uh huh. Tell me. What’s up?
P: I wanted to know about the daksh blah blah…..
M:*regrets volunteering for daksh*. More blah blah.
P:Thanks and sorry to disturb once again.
M:*Smiles and before thinking, says* No problem. Come if you have any more doubts.
*closes door.shudders*.

Now I decide to stop trying. Everyone has their threshold. I reached mine. I woke up in such an irritated mood that I wanted to break somebody’s head. Maybe mine. Or maybe my ears for picking on every single sound.


Thud Thud. My heart is beating louder than ever. I can hear it. I could, all the while when I was trying to sleep. I sit up and wonder. Two years back I used to sleep like a baby, without a care in the world, without anything disturbing me. I wish I could go back to that time when it didn’t matter if my dad was watching some action movie in the same room that I slept. I’m tired. More tired than I was when I wanted to sleep.

I'm jaded.

P.S- No offense to A or V or P. You are nice people.