The morning Link to heading
Different people wake up at different times. Before I became a parent, I used to wake up by 6:30 AM (sometimes earlier) and sleep by 11:00 PM (sometimes earlier or later). But since becoming a parent, I sleep when my daughter permits, and wake up when she commands. She’s a little over two years old, so my sleeping pattern is starting to get back into its place.
The part I love about waking up early is the chirping of birds, freshness in the air, the cool atmosphere, and an overall peaceful environment. The chirping of birds has to be my favourite part of the morning. I find mornings very conducive for exercising, and do whatever I can to get my body moving. Earlier I used to go to the gym, but that stopped since the onset of the pandemic and later the birth of my daughter. Since past two months I go to learn swimming. Anyway, I’m miles (light years?) away from my fitness goals.
When I was a kid, my grandpa instilled a phrase in my head - “Early to bed early to rise” - and as far as I remember, he skipped the remainder of it which says - “…makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. I’m sure he thought the former would naturally take care of the latter. During the high school and higher secondary school (8th grade to 12th), I would wake up early to study because my dad kept telling me that human mind is fresh in the morning and can easily learn things compared to any other time of the day.
When we travelled, I would wake up early, usually a little after the dawn breaks and before the sun rises, and love spending that time simply observing the nature around the place. I have always wanted to know and feel how a place looks, feels, smells, sounds like in early morning. Golden hours (time around sunrise and sunset) also make for very picturesque, and sometimes dramatic, photos.
The murderers Link to heading
India is a religious country to the point that I won’t be surprised if most number of religions are followed here. However, the invention of loudspeakers made this a bit problematic. While I think of myself as a religious person, I find it really annoying that the loudspeakers are used so extensively at places of worship. A few even use a mix of a few musical instruments that automatically start at a specific time every day (6:00AM or 6:30AM in my neighbourhood). And it’s not just one religious group making use of it; it’s almost all the religions, which I observe have a place of worship in my vicinity, that make use of these systems.
Then there are people, usually senior citizens, in my neighbourhood who wake up early to wake others forcibly. As I said earlier, before becoming a parent, I used to comfortably wake up early, but not any more since I barely get to sleep early. These old folks either start talking loudly with neighbours or turn on a music system and play religious songs on it. Upon requesting them to reduce the volume, they give a sermon about waking up early. Phew.
Another category of people are the Honkers - people who use the horn of their bike/car as a piano to play the tune of a song playing in their heads/headphones. I don’t think it’s a bad karma to wish ill for them, especially if they honk during the wee hours.
Then there are stray dogs who love barking in the complete silence of the night (usually between 12AM to 4AM). But one can’t be mad at dogs when the most evolved creatures (a.k.a. humans) are no good than an unevolved animals at making loud noises in the name of worship, celebration, entertainment, and whatnot!
Noise pollution Link to heading
As kids, we all studied about noise pollution and its adverse effects on mental health, and hence physical health. However, as we grow old, we seem to become dumber and do things that we were taught not to do as kids. Things like noise pollution, light pollution, excessive screen time are, in my opinion, silent pandemics that go unnoticed for a long time, or even forever, by most of us but cause great levels of negative impact which, a lot of times, is difficult or impossible to gauge.
So much for being the most evolved species on the planet. :)