The 'Om Namah Sivaya' weekend

There comes a time when you want to try  something you have never done before, when self-doubts arise along the way, and happy with the result, you wonder what took you so long ? Well, people do it all the time, I've often scoffed at relatives who did; now I realise there's nothing to lose and much to gain.

I decided this last Friday would be an ideal time to take a day off from work. Thursday was Mahasivarathri day, a day custom prescribes that you fast through the day, engage in prayers through the night and break fast only the following day after daybreak. 

I shopped for fruits and juices and decided to try it out. I also decided to use  multimedia to support the attempt at staying up all night.

Through the working day on Thursday, I survived on fruits and liquids. May not sound like much to most readers but consider this. If I get delayed on any of my meals by more than an hour, I get a splitting headache. I never really liked fruits - the odd apple or banana here and there are fine but I never believed I could eat fruits for breakfast or lunch. I usually have my breakfast around 815 am, lunch around 2 pm and dinner around 8 pm. I don't indulge in snacks in the interim except a few cups of tea here and there. By 7 in the evening, I'm usually hungry, 745 the stomach starts growling and by 8, it starts to sound the bell for dinner. Not the ordinary bells, more the fire engine type - the hunger better be extinguished immediately or else Siva-thandavam happens. If stuck in office, I can devour a full pack of cream biscuits in no time ! 

Not only did I survive on fruits, I never really felt hunger pangs. What's more, I had absolutely nothing after sunset except water.  

Sleep is another aspect that I've had difficulty controlling. When most people are preparing for dinner, atleast my north and East Indian friends, I'm usually done for the day. It takes a compelling event, something like a live cricket match, to make me stay awake. On Sundays and holidays, I like to have a heavy lunch and then take a snooze. 

It must be some divine intervention that I never really felt sleepy that night. I had prayer scripts to read and some peace chants to do, but would it last me the whole night ? It didn't, but there's plenty of religious material on YouTube that can keep you company during the wee hours. 

What happened the following morning was an anti climax. The plan was to take an early bath, have a sumptuous breakfast and then switch off for the rest of the morning. Didn't happen. Despite being tired, I simply couldn't drop off to sleep. 2 days later I still feel somewhat jet-lagged !

I know that the deeply religious fast quite regularly - Hindus, Muslims, Jewish, et al.  I don't feel deeply religious - atleast not yet - but I liked this experience and I'm inclined to try more often.