The long night

Every Shivaratri brings back memories of my early attempts to conquer sleep. In my home town, Turuvekere, my elder sister and I were thrilled to celebrate Shivaratri. We had learned that Lord Shiva was fond of yakka flowers, a shrub with waxy white or purple blooms. Roaming around town, we found them, but children swarmed around these shrubs like ants around sugar. There was stiff competition to pluck as many as possible. Running home with our harvest, we made two small garlands. We got ready in new silk longskirts and offered the garlands to the god with love and devotion.

Accompanied by our parents, we visited the Shiva temple in our neighbourhood. We prayed, or rather played, with our friends around the temple, dutifully returning in time for prasada. We relished kosambari, kadlehittu, and the juice of Bael fruit, discussing with our friends the benefits of staying awake the whole night (jagarane). My sister eloquently quoted our grandfather: The longer one stays awake at night, the greater the punya (good karma) earned. Friends boasted they would stay awake till the next morning watching movies on Doordarshan. I grew impatient and decided to win this race.

After returning home and enjoying a heavy meal of gojjavalakki, uppittu, and kesari bhath, I began daydreaming about being the youngest child
in my gang to stay awake the longest.
I envisioned the covetous looks on my friends’ faces and resolved to win the race.

My sister and I agreed that indulging in the Doordarshan film festival was the easiest way to stay awake, as we had grown bored of chanting shlokas. Any more chanting would send us to sleep faster! Starting with the movie Bedara Kannappa, the story of a hunter devotee of Lord Shiva, we binged on festival savouries my mother had prepared like chakli, kodubale, nippattu, kallunde (a sweet as hard as stone made with roasted Bengal gram flour), and Mysore pak.

We found ourselves more bewitched by the snacks than by the movie. My sister grew exasperated as I went in and out of the kitchen, bringing snacks one after another. She commanded me to bring them in bulk. I ran to the kitchen indignantly and brought a big plate piled up with all the snacks at once. I started munching ferociously, and everything else faded into the background.

The next thing I remember is my mother trying to wake me up for school at eight in the morning! Apparently, my sister was awake till 3 am binge-watching when my father reprimanded her to sleep. Later, she jubilantly told me that I had dozed off at 9 pm after binge-ing on the snacks. The Jagarane trophy eluded me, but the taste of Shivaratri still lingers!