When the onus is on Me!

I opened my eyes to a drumming and humming sound. Google Home told me it was 3.05 am. I was a tad disappointed that the sound was not originating from beside me where my hubby slept nor from across the room where my son was sprawled on the sofa cum bed. The disappointment came from the fact that then one did not have anyone tangible to blame for the heavy head. The signs of an impending migraine and a morning gone in cribbing was more debilitating than the actual illness.

In situations where one is functioning at half of one’s capacity due to sleepiness and in that scenario, carrying around a head which weighs like a ton, the circumstances are never charming.

I almost toppled my glass of water which seemed to have shifted from the original coaster I had placed it on before I retired to bed.

The water bottle seemed like a Fevicol bottle, and my tired brain tried to understand and remember at the same time why I took out the glue and when.

My island next to the window assumed a goblin-ish appearance and seemed to be almost lying in my wait.

The shadows from the solar light outside acted to be discoing from bright to dim at some systematic interval, adding to the whole eerie scene.

My headache however, ensured that none alarmed me, and each got an expletive as I grappled to hold on to my bearings in the 3 am dark. Popping the orange pill and groping for the balm at the same time, shifted my attention yet again on to the humming sound outside. This time it was followed by a clang and a revering engine too. Swearing under my breadth, some of the funniest abuses like tire should blast, bulldozer should turn turtle and such, I climbed back into bed.

After sleeping just, a wink (I thought), the boring alarm ring tone of the every year upgraded and slower iPhone, jerked me out of my painful sleep. To beat the 5 am blues and looking forward to hearing the birds outside while feeling the cool breeze on my face I swung off the bed. The swaying solar lamps and the pitter patter of the seeds from my garden tree on to my balcony seemed to melt away my headache instantly. A hot cup of English breakfast tea lifted my spirits further.

However, the origin of the headache – the drumming & humming sound – had not stopped. I spied a huge digger with its front blade trying to reluctantly scrape what sounded like a lot of stubborn mud, off the hard ground. I clicked a video of the monstrous giant and the sound it emitted there off as it neared our rear boundary wall.

 I then looked around at the environment our house was in – surrounded by the who’s who of the society.

It seemed so baffling that none had the courage nor the nerve to question this kind of civic disturbance which was being done right through the night?

Flash-back: A smirk appeared on my face as I remembered a wrecked afternoon at the shooting range when one ‘esteemed’ neighbor had stopped my rag tag work force comprising one electrician cum everything and master of none, plus one more disinterested person from trying to fix 3 poles on my side of the boundary wall with u-shaped clamps. It was 3.30 pm on a very pleasant afternoon during the rains. As it is my army was disinterested in going to battle, let alone want to win it, so they got the perfect excuse, as this unneighborly lady came out and warned them, maybe even threw some weight around of who she was, to stop.

An SOS came to me.

Asking my rag-tag army for the real reason for her unhappiness opened a can of worms. One explanation followed another. In-between, I strongly suspect, was added peri-peri masala from some Ekta Kapoor type serial or some vernacular one too. In short fact merged with fiction. And humari “vaat lag gayi mamu” ( = we were taken for a complete ride!)

After much raising of temperatures, mainly mine, as I reached home an hour later, the poles were already fixed and the gang who created the chaos was sheepishly trying to look very busy. They were expecting another dressing down, but I had had my helping of drama and nonsense for the day and left the scene hurriedly.

Present: I wondered why this same lady had not had the nerve to ask this disturbing moneyed neighbor with his diggers as to why he was digging right through the night and creating a ruckus, while she had made an unnecessary fuss on a very pleasant monsoon afternoon. An afternoon during the rains when people love to laze around their balconies and take in the surprisingly splendid weather. An odd 3 second drilling sound had disturbed her then but not this. Surprising, I’d say??

Flash-back: Incidentally the poles were being put up to prevent the prowling cat of our esteemed neighbors from walking in every morning and late evening to try her luck at my turkey and other birds, as her early morning breakfast. The cat like her owner was looking to throw her weight around. Not on my watch, Pussy cat. The owner of the errant cat was warned, and I have not seen or heard either of them, since.

Present: The drumming continued. My video was taken. My morning chores done. My headache had dug in its heels and was there to stay for a while. And the whole day loomed long and painfully in front of me. As I relocated to my lawn for my morning-rabbit-munchkins routine I heard my birds – the turkeys and the Chinese fowls screeching in happiness at the fresh food I had just sent out to be distributed into their earthen pots. Happy morning, they seemed to be screaming back at me. I couldn’t but help have a huge smile and an enormous sense of gratifying delight that I had animals to help me ward off melancholy feelings. To hell with the headache and my rag-tag army of reluctant workers, there’s so much more to life!

Flash-back: My chinese guinea fowls and the turkeys leave no instance to show off to the other ill-kept birds about their pristine and happy environments. One day we had them screeching their hearts out and we discovered that some hungry birds of one of our other careless neighbors had slipped through our front gate to have a sneak snack at the grains of our birds inside. Nah! But my birds would have none of that. We have not learnt any sharing skills and want to learn none either, they seemed to convey as they screamed and chirped and created a noisy ruckus while scurrying around to peck at the unwanted intruders’ nee visitors.

Pets get fearless seeing the environments they grow up in. They also get emboldened with the way they are treated by the owners. My turkeys do not like raised voices and screech their displeasure in unison. We like the calm and quiet, please refrain from noise pollution!

My rabbits hate being lifted and cuddled except one small cutie who can not get enough of both. One naughty black one whom we have rightly named the Tasmanian Devil leaves no moment aside in which he does not lunge for either my hand or a twisting peeing session. And that falls in a visible arc and whoever is near gets sprayed with it liberally. We love being in our hutches and please refrain from your cooing and cooching.

 Present: Some small talk with the rabbits. Another hot cup of tea. Some fruits. A walk in the garden. A relaxed hour and a half and nothing seemed tedious or forced anymore. Animals have a therapeutic effect which is calming, restorative and like an energy tonic to frayed nerves and jagged temper edges.

Moral of the post: I realized then that how my day began was not dependent on me but how it panned out for the rest of the hours was entirely dependent on me.