Oh, My Valentine!

An uneventful weekend, loaded with work.
I spent the Valentine’s Day at home. Married friends hardly went out (I checked out with a few), but the youngsters did. Some of them checked out Purple Patch, the city’s only pub/night club.
Oh, Trivandrum! I was wondering if we really wanted a night club in Trivandrum. Maybe we do.
But then, the old buddy in me would love a quieter place, with some soulful songs thrown in.
But anyway, as the city is progressing into a Tier III IT hub, I reckon it might need to cater to the needs of the younger crowd.
No complaints.
So back to the Valentine’s Day. I have never been a Valentine guy. Many Feb 14s have come and gone, without making much difference in my life.
But this time it was different. I didn’t have an action-thriller Valentine, but it was the best in recent years. For the first time, my Valentine bought me a gift. A precious one. A watch.
So I didn’t actually mind sitting at home, teaching kids, giving them dictation and slapping them with impositions, and snoring away while they were writing those impositions.
My daughter couldn’t believe her eyes as her Papa was snoring with her textbook in his hand! Oh, these siesta hours. You really a strong will to be at home after a good lunch and not to sleep.
Many years ago when I was in Ras Al Khaimah, a sleepy northern emirate in the UAE, I was in for a shock as everyone was sleeping so ‘seriously’ during lunch break. I was staying with my father’s friend. They used to switch off all the lights and draw curtains and get under thick comforters, and snore away. I too was given a fluffy blanket and asked to sleep. Fresh from Kerala with no acquired habits, I lay awake under the blanket all those hours. I felt bored, out of place and nostalgic. I wept under the blanket, silently. I missed home. I missed my friends. I missed someone precious.
It was miserable.
But after 15 years in the Middle East, I can say that I was not a regular siesta sleeper. I might fall off to sleep in the sofa watching a boring Test or documentary, but I was never a ‘serious’ sleeper.
So the Valentine’s Day passed by.
I am loaded with work as our city-based portal is about to be launched. I have always been an early bird—early to bed and early off. But these days I have been burning not only the midnight’s oil but early morning too.
But tonight onwards, I have decided, I will sleep early.