Wake up call!

Its Sunday morning 6 AM in January. I am wide awake to the dark cold morning. Yes, the sun has still not risen and the coldness, well let’s say it is not restricted just to my body.

The Jet lag has played its part. Despite of putting my head under the pillow number of times, I have finally woken up as my body clock made me think it’s time to be up. Well, you can’t blame it. It must already be noon time in India, when the world has still not woken up back here in the UK.

We arrived yesterday from India, with our over excess baggage full of homemade food, shopping and numerous little things forced on us on the name of love by our parents which could hardly be termed as necessities for living. This happens every year. We swear not to exceed the baggage weight and end up debating either with parents back home or in the airport with the check-in assistant.

I can’t fathom what I am missing at the moment? Is it the bright warm sun shining down on my face or the buzz of the radio, washing machines, people taking bath, horns of vehicles outside lining up for traffic, some faraway construction noises, children yelling as they rush for the school, or the consistent ringing of doorbell as the maids, garbage collectors, newspaper boys, milkman make their presence felt in your life or the chirping sparrows as they prepare for their morning run and the eternal chatter of people living in your house or in the nearby flats!

The morning here is quiet. Not a single sound except for my breathing. It is 8 am and still dark. I haven’t noticed a single human soul outside. The trees have shed their leaves long time back leaving no attraction for birds to arrive. The sub-zero degree temperatures have pushed everyone into a deep slumber, making it more difficult to get going.

I go to the kitchen and make myself a Kettle Tea. It does not taste the same like the Indian brewed tea on the gas. I drink my own tea in a perfect silence. No-one tells me today’s latest news or some gossip of a new neighbour that has just joined our society or the plans about today’s cooking or even about how I should think about having another child! No advices given or asked. No energy wasted in useless talks, no smiles or laughter exchanged or no grief shared!

Its 9 AM. I switch on the TV. The news channel is talking about the weather. Of course they are! The entertainment channels are full of reality TV shows about people I do not know and the movies do not have sudden songs and dance sequences of people jumping around the trees with million other people. I surf through the channels get bored and switch on the Bollywood song channels. It has the power to transport me into my childhood without having to watch the songs. I stay with it. I stay with myself.

I start unloading the dishwasher and realise that the dishes are too clean. They look like, nobody has ever eaten in them before.

 I then start cleaning the house and realise that In fact, everything is too clean and perfect. There is no dust coming in the house as the windows are never open , no smoke coming in the house from road traffic pollution,  no mud from footprints as nobody ever rings the bell, no mosquitos around to trouble you in the evenings and no sweating around  as the coldness neither leaves your body nor your mind.

The house is so damn clean and perfect that it looks like nobody has ever lived here before.

It Sunday morning 10 AM. I am wondering what to do next apart from watching the clock go by every hour!