Biphasic sleep log - Day 99 - 29th April

Because of the whole summer day drowsiness and free-time phenomenon I have been thinking about adding a nap to my day, in early afternoon or even late morning. If I get up at 0500 and take my only nap at 1800, that's a 13 hours long during which I am constantly mentally and physically active. Another nap may not be a bad idea, though it might make my sleep pattern triphasic rather than biphasic. Oh well.

Didn't take an extra nap today but did feel tired towards the late afternoon, so much so that I could not focus on anything after 1700. So, just lay down and watched TV until nap time.

Nap: 1800-1900. Yes, I had set the alarm for 1830 and I did wake up and turn it off, but went to sleep again without making a conscious decision and woke up naturally at 1900. But didn't feel panic when I woke up. It was only half an hour extra.

I felt more refreshed, perhaps I needed that. I had done some Wii fitness today. Since I finished both beginner and advanced level of Obstacle Course, broke my record in advanced Snowball Fight, almost broke my record in beginner Snowball Fight, did some Yoga, achieved an all-time high score in Hula Hoop all in 21 minutes, I decided to go for a jog on Wii. I find Wii jogging much harder than real running for some reason. Apparently, I ran over 3 kms. in 10 minutes. And I did feel tired after that, almost as much as after my real run which takes about 30 minutes for 2.6 miles.

In this 31 session though, I burnt about 162 Kcal and my Wii age was 12 years younger than my real. Not to mention that I was tired and sweating like a pig who has been running cross-country marathon!

After the long nap though, I felt fine, no tiredness. And had more energy today at night. So much so that I slept late at 0030, and could have stayed up even longer but I didn't want to disrupt my schedule.

Woke up at 0515 by alarm and stayed up. Took a few minutes for the eyes come completely awake but didn't have any other trouble.

I am feeling tired in the arms and shoulders, and I know it comes from working on the laptop almost non-stop. I know the solution as well. I will take a break from working so hard on my SL magazine and work on my backlog of movies and TV shows.

Energy levels: 100%
Body: Shoulders and neck tired and tense.
Health: Great.
Mood: Productive+Creative

99 done, 1 more to go!

Biphasic sleep log - Day 98 - 28th April

Considering that these are summer days and I am at  home, I do feel sleepy in the day, but usually I try not sleep other than my one nap, though I have been thinking of adding another scheduled nap in the day then either reducing core time or just keeping it as it is.

Nap at normal time, 1800 to 1817, woke up, did 1 minute of something on the laptop then went back to sleep. I love now how easily I can go back to sleep. Then slept till the alarm rang and woke up at 1830 by the alarm.

Felt refreshed and instantly active as I woke up, no issues there.

At night, felt sleepy about midnight. Therefore, slept at 0050. Alarm set for 0430. I was about to wake up with a little bit of effort but again wasn't careful and feel back to sleep. Till 0510. At that time, I just woke up naturally and this time stayed up.

Again, I had a very vivid dreams in the extra sleep like yesterday, but not as beautiful as yesterday.

Still loving biphasic. 

The Missing Voice

The Missing voice

कमरे में सन्नाटा सा है

छत पर पंखा कड़-कड़-कड़-कड़

अपनी धुन में चलता जाता

शीतल मंद हवा के झोंके 

दबे पाँव खिड़की से आते

फिर भी पर्दे हिल जाते हैं

मोटर कारें चलतीं नीचे 

शोर मगर ऊपर तक आता

फ्रिज की घूं-घूं चलती है अविराम अकेली,

चाहे दिन का कोई पहर हो

मेरी खिड़की के नीचे बच्चों ने फुटबॉल उछाला 

उनके कोलाहल ने जैसे दीवारों को हिला दिया है

इतना सब कुछ होने पर भी,

कमरे में सन्नाटा सा है...

कैसी है वो ध्वनि जिसे मैं सुनने को आतुर बैठा हूँ 

कौन सा ऐसा सुर है जिसकी कमी मुझे खलती है इतनी

नहीं नहीं, 

छोटी सी वो चिड़िया मेरी खिड़की पर आकर गाती थी, 

दो पल का विश्राम ढूँढती 

अपनी व्यस्त ज़िंदगी से जो, 

मेरी खिड़की की छजली पर

चुव चुव चिव चिव कर जाती थी?

मेरा उसका क्या नाता था

मैं क्यों उसको याद करूँगा?

उसके नन्हे से गीतों का

मुझसे क्या संबंध भला?

फिर भी सच है, 

कई दिनों  से उसका गीत नहीं सुन पाया

शायद उसकी व्यस्त ज़िंदगी बहुत व्यस्त हो गयी कहीं पर

शायद मेरी छजली ही अब  दूर हुई उसकी राहों से

या फिर उसको फ़ुर्सत ही ना रही कि आकर गीत सुनाए

क्यों मुझको विश्वास है फिर भी,

अभी कहीं से वो आएगी, 

फिर अपनी ही भाषा में वो 

चुव चिव का वह गीत गाएगी, 

सोच रहा मैं भी उससे 

अपनी भाषा में पूछूंगा  

“क्या इस छजली से मोह नहीं है,

क्यों इतनी दूर चली जाती हो?”

Biphasic sleep log - Day 97 - 27th April

Just when I was thinking that this log was getting monotonous.

The nap was quite good. Went to nap at 1800, fell asleep in 5 minutes and woke up naturally at 1825. Felt fully awake and alert so turned of the alarm 5 minutes in advance and stayed up.

Then at night felt sleep right on schedule. I should mention that now when I feel sleep it's not the normal kind of sleepy which is like a suggestion from the body that perhaps it's a good time to sleep. No, it's more like a complete system shutdown, "The application could not be started because this workstation is shutting down" kind of sleepiness.

But still went to bed at 0030 with alarm for 0510. Woke up at 0510 and felt confident that I could stay up but wasn't careful enough and slid back into sleep very easily. Next thing I knew it was 0647.

Even though I had wasted more time in sleep than I intended, I wasn't sorry about it today. I had had a long, vivid, very beautiful dream! So that was time well-spent.

As for energy levels everything was great.

Energy levels: 100%
Body: Fine
Health: Good
Mood: Relaxed and happy

Three more days to go but having second thoughts about discontinuing the log.

I like him, but...

ये मसाइल-ए-तसव्वुफ़, ये तेरा बयाँ 'ग़ालिब' 

तुझे हम वली समझते जो न बादा-ख्वार होता 

Translation: Ghalib, your subject matters are good and your style is great, we would regard you as a Prophet if you were not such a drinker.

So, Ghalib was not perfect. 

Recently Chalie Sheen went back into rehab. I am a great admirer of him for his acting in general and in Two and  a Half Men in particular. I didn't know what to think when I found out that he was as bad in substance abuse in real life as he was in the TV show as Charlie Harper. 

When I was quite young, in my teenage, I discovered the books of Enid Blyton and got hooked on them. Many years later, I came to England for work and mentioned to someone that I practically grew up reading Enid Blyton and her books taught me English. He told me that Enid was not a nice woman in her real life, she used to be horrid to her children and used to neglect them a lot. Enid Blyton has written a great many children's books and they are vastly popular. I am a big fan of many of her series books like The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, Five Find-Outers and Dog etc. 

Going back to the young age, I think I was in my 20s when Sanjay Dutt's film Khalnayak was released. Sanjay Dutt was in custody at the time for illegal possession of an AK47 rifle. I remember talking about the film with my friends on a morning walk. But we were young enough to know everything, and the solution was clear to us. "Both are totally different matters, it doesn't matter what happens in his personal life, we can go and watch the film." And that was decided. We ultimately didn't get to watch the film, but that's not the point. 

I have many, many examples of this type where a personal is very admirable for something that they do, but also they are bad in another regard. This mix of good and evil can be found in a whole range with the amount of good and bad varying to a great extent but the essential question is the same. 

Sometimes, the decision is clear. Michael Jackson, according to people, was a great musician. But he also had an illegal, horrible, despicable sexual perversion. I never cared for his music or his personality so I don't give a damn how good a musician he was considered to be. On the other hand, his particular perversion, in my books, is absolutely unforgivable, in any condition. So, both ways, I don't like him, and I don't care if he's dead, I am going to speak ill of him, I don't believe in that hypocritical convention that a man suddenly becomes a saint just because he's dead. 

An opposite case, I absolutely love this song called "Cliffs of Dover". I have even posted here about it. It's an instrumental piece by Eric Johnson. While doing research on the song, I came across some forum posts and found that Eric Johnson is a great guy, no conceit, very down to earth, very helpful. I talked to my guitar teacher about the song and he told me that Eric is an absolute perfectionist and works very hard to get his sound just right. All good things, easy decision - I like him!

But, back to the point, what do YOU do when you come to find out something bad about someone you admire and respect? Salman Khan is a great actor but he killed 4 footpath-dwellers while driving under the influence of alcohol. Do you still like him? I still watch his films, but I don't like him as a person. What about you?

For me the question is still open, whereas in most cases, I have a definite stand and opinion, most times an opinion that goes against every other opinion in the world, but I know. In this case, I don't know...

..I'd be very interested to get some viewpoints on this. Please share your thoughts in the comments. 

Biphasic sleep log - Day 96 - 26th April

Had the nap from 1805 to 1830. Went quite well. But that's normal now.

At night, I was late, courtesy of SL, but I think it was unavoidable. Went to bed at 0100, with alarm for 0530.

Did wake up at 0530 and with a little effort got up as well.

Energy levels: 98% but got better
Health: Good
Body: Only slightly tired from doing too much laptop.
Mood: Active

I am going to discontinue this log after it completes 100 days. There seems to be no point to it any more. I have successfully adapted to biphasic to the point that I never plan to go back to monophasic permanently. I have demonstrated that biphasic works and is flexible enough to be continued in view of social demands.

In the meantime, I have tried both Everyman and Uberman and found that none of them work for me at this point in my life.

The only thing I don't like about this log is that it kind of takes over the archive section of my blog since there are way too many log posts and not enough other posts. :) So, in 4 days I plan to stop this.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 95 - 25th April

I should start with the day. I went for a run again. And performed even better than Friday's run. More running, faster speed, personal best for pace. And yet, it was not as good as Friday's run. Today I had to make an effort. On Friday my body was in control, I felt I was in a good enough shape to run. Today, even though I achieved the same targets, hitting the same checkpoints, I had to make an effort for each. Today I had to exercise my willpower to not give up before each checkpoint. I could do this because I knew (from Friday) that I could do it.

Thinking about it later, I tried to find what the reason could be, since I should be even better than Friday simply because of Friday's work out. The time was almost exactly the same, the distance from last meal was about the same. I was not hungry yet, not at all. My diet had been the same.The weather was same, sunny and warm. The only difference I could think of was that Friday's run was after several nights of biphasic sleep, and today's run was off the back of two consecutive nights of monophasic sleep. It's not a true scientific test, but that's the only difference I could think of.

Also felt more tired after the run. In the afternoon I felt very sleepy. So much so that I took my evening nap in the afternoon. From 1545 to 1610. Just 5 minutes to fall asleep since I was almost falling asleep already.

The nap was good. I did wake up with a headache but it went away after a while. And still had the energy to stay up till midnight.

Actually past midnight. Slept at 0030 with alarm for 0510.

Woke up 0510. Took some effort but woke up.

Energy levels: 98%
Body: Fine, no tiredness from yesterday's run
Health: Fine
Mood: Active

Biphasic sleep log - Day 94 - 24th April

Strictly a monophasic day. Was busy in so many things, SL, phone, housework etc. that realized the time at 1845. And I was hungry and had more appointments. So, no nap.

Yesterday's monophasic and today's no-nap day told on me by night. Started feeling sleepy about 2200. So finally slept at 2315. With alarm set for almost 6 hours of sleep till 0500.

Woke up at 0500 and slept again till 0618. Didn't feel too bad as it was after all a monophasic night, rest was more important since there was schedule.

Energy Levels: 95%
Body: Fine
Health: Fine
Mood: Active

Biphasic sleep log - Day 93 - 23rd April

Quite a simple day but not biphasic.

Was out all afternoon so didn't get any chance for a nap. I had a couple of glasses of Diet Coke, which was not good but there were so few real alternatives and I was in the mood. Anyway, I didn't feel any extraordinary caffeine high or withdrawal. But I didn't feel sleepy either.

Felt a bit of tiredness in the legs from yesterday's run.

At home, I did my usual SL stuff and went to bed at midnight with an alarm for 0445 even though I had had no nap.

Woke up at 0445. Took a lot of will power to wake up.

Energy levels: 90% reduced to 80% later.
Health: Fine
Body: Fine
Mood: Productive

I am running again!

After a long period of promising that I'd start running again, I finally started it. And I am literally overjoyed with the result.

It's kind of funny how things start. I had not done any Wii fitness last couple of days and had been thinking about doing some. But then a friend of mine said she's going bicycyling today and I thought, "Hmmmm, maybe I should also go running." The time element between meals happened to be just right so I went. To explain that last remark, I don't go if I have just eaten very recently or if I am hungry already. My performance is very bad in both the cases.

I was so glad I came out, not only was it a glorious day out, I found that I loved how my stamina felt. My circuit follows the major and minor roads around the place where I live, it's about 2.5 miles in total, but I don't run all of it. When I run out of breath or I come to a particularly steep uphill stretch I stop running and start walking.

Even though I carry my GPS-enabled Android phone with BuddyRunner application running on it, my main source of assessing my performance while I am doing it is using a number of checkpoints. Yes, like in a videogame.

The first checkpoint is a set of a traffic lights which is about 0.49 miles from my house. If I go a few steps past them I have done half a mile. I try to do that in one breath i.e. no walking, all running. From those traffic lights the road becomes uphill, with the slope getting steeper. On my best days  I can run up this slope to the next set of traffic lights. Today I managed the half mile mark in one go and carried on to achieve the extended mark (next traffic lights) 0.7 miles. That was so good.

Then there's some level roads that I run and walk based on how out of breath I am. Then an uphill slope again, which gets very steep near the top. My second checkpoint is from the top of this hill. There are all kinds of points where I can stop from here on, but on my best days I can get back to my door without stopping from this point. Today I reached my door!

This is particularly difficult since the last stretch from the main road to my door is all uphill with the slope getting steeper, really steep near my house. But slow and steady I managed to achieve it!

It proves two points. One, biphasic sleep gives you good energy to use in all your activities even with limited hours of sleep. Two, Wii fitness helps to build up your stamina.

Oh, I left out a good bit. I got bibbed on the way! You see, when men are driving and they see a particularly pretty girl, they honk their horn. In English vernacular it's called "bibbing". While I was running on the level part of my circuit (on the footpath), some girl in a car honked at me. I looked to see if it was somebody I knew. It wasn't. Yeah, I know it's shallow. It's shallow of her to honk, and shallow of me to be pleased about it but hey, I consider it my reward for being good and going out running. ;-)

Biphasic sleep log - Day 92 - 22nd April

The energy levels today were great. I even went for a run. I'll write about the run more in detail later, but it was great.

Nap at 1740. Alarm for 1805. Yes, I am feeling cocky about that short fall-asleep time these days. It was good nap. Up by the alarm. No struggle. Full energy from getting up.

Then went to bed slightly late because of SL business. It was at 0020 that I finally turned off the TV also and the alarm was set for 0445. And I did wake up and turned the alarm off, but then wasn't careful and next I woke up at 0615. It wasn't a huge waste, but I missed an appointment that was at 0500. Oh, well!

Energy levels: 100%
Health: Great
Body: Slightly tired
Mood: Excited

How is your index finger?

दुनिया ने तेरी याद से बेगाना कर दिया, 

तुझसे भी दिल-फरेब हैं ग़म रोज़गार के 

                                                              फैज़ अहमद फैज़ 

These Urdu shayars are called ustaad not because they were a master of Urdu poetry (which they were) but because they were masters of human psychology and behaviour. 

Let me translate the sher first then we'll come to my actual topic. Faiz says that the world actually made me forget your memory, because the hassles of work are even more attractive (?) than you. Here Faiz uses the word Dil-Fareb. Dil of course is heart, and fareb means deception. I think Faiz uses "Dil-fareb" to mean "attractive" in the case of the beloved and "distracting" in case of the hassles. So, in short, "Dear Love, you are so attractive that you have taken my heart but these hassles of employment are so distracting that they have made me forget everything including you." Of course, it's a thousand times more powerful in the original Urdu. :)

Now, to my topic. If you read it in Faiz's words it sounds callous to forget a loved one for practical matters of the world, but is it not true in the case of each and everyone of us? 

When the boss's call comes on the call waiting, do you not hang up with the girlfriend with, "I'll call you back, baby." Do the family matters not get pushed back when the project hits "urgent"? 

The weird thing about it is that projects have a "red" or "urgent" indicator, personal relationships don't. They hit red when you find out your wife is having an affair or your girlfriend dumps you, or the friend you never got around to emailing, is no longer in a position to receive emails.....

By then it's too late. You can't put more manpower on that project, you can't make people work in shifts, and you can't increase the budget....

Interesting, no?

Let's be fair, work is important, projects do need time and attention, but so do family and friends, and life partners.

How often have you heard this from a friend when you called them, "Arre yaar, so sorry I haven't called you in so long, but I have been so busy!" And how often have you said it yourself?

Sometimes it is indeed true that one is simply swamped with work and personal stuff that takes up all their time, but more often than not, it's just a question of sorting out your priorities and managing your time effectively in order to achieve them. I mean, really, how long does it take to shoot off a two-line email or a one line text message?

I am sure at one point or another you have sorted out your work things and created a to-do list. May be even for your personal "business" stuff. Ever made a grocery list? I bet you have. Well, surely a friend who lends you his ear, supports you in bad times, amuses you in good times and loves you despite yourself cannot be less important than a carton of milk?

मुद्दतें गुजरीं कि तेरी याद भी आई न हमें 

और हम भूल गए हों तुझे ऐसा भी नहीं 

One question I am sometimes forced to ask my friends is, "How is your index finger these days?"

And once he/she says, it's okay, I demand, "Then why the hell didn't you use it to dial my number?"

So, look at that index finger, if it's fine, use it for something other than picking your nose. 

And with the delightful image I will leave you to do with it as you like. 

Biphasic sleep log - Day 91 - 21st April

Quite a simple day again, biphasic day.

Evening nap from 1739 to 1800. Yes, I left only one minute to fall asleep. And it did work almost perfectly. If not in one minute, I was asleep in a couple of minutes. Waking up when the alarm rang was quite easy too.

The evening was good, didn't feel any dip in the energy levels until even until midnight.

Core sleep from 0030 with alarm set for 0500. It was hard to get up at 0500 but I managed it because  I had an SL appointment for exactly that time, no room to hit the snooze. And once I woke up energy levels were great and no signs of tiredness.

Energy levels: 100%
Body: Great
Health: Great
Mood: Productive/Creative

Shayri 101 - Faiz - Dono jahaan teri mohabbat mein

A ghazal from Ustaad Faiz this time. 

दोनों जहान तेरी मोहब्बत में हार के

वो जा रहा है कोई शबे-ग़म गुज़ार के

[शब्-ए-ग़म = दुःख की रात]

Dono jahaan of course refers to this world and the world of heaven and hell. When a man is in love, he cares nothing for the pleasures of the Earth or Heaven, other than the love of his beloved nothing else matters to him. And this man, poet says has lost both the worlds in one night, a night of sorrow. The lover knows only one sorrow - of not having his love returned by the object of his affections. So, he gives up Earth and Heaven in order to gain the love of his life but as the reference to the night of sorrow indicates, he doesn't receive that love from his beloved. 

इक फुर्सते-ए-गुनाह मिली वो भी चार दिन

देखे हैं हम ने हौंसले परवरदिगार के

This one literally amounts to blasphemy. The poet says that the God gave us life to enjoy, he calls it a leisure to commit sins (anything and everything that's considered pleasure by the people is usually classified as "sin" by a majority of the religions). But, according to the poet, this window of opportunity is so short like 4 days. That's a popular expression to call the human life four days long. I am reminded of another sher:

मेरे महबूब ने वादा किया है पांचवें दिन का, 

किसी से सुन लिया होगा कि दुनिया चार दिन की है 

Back to Faiz's sher. The poet says that God gave us time to enjoy ourself but only such a brief one and that in the poet's view shows the God's courage in entrusting the world to Man. God was afraid of what chaos Man might create on Earth if he had more time, so he gave him only a short lifespan. The synonym used here for God is "parvardigaar" which means the one who provides everything, think about the word "Parvarish" and you'll see what I mean. One of my favourite shers even though the whole ghazal is my favourite. 

वीरां है मैकदा खुम-ओ-सागर उदास है 

तुम क्या गए कि रूठ गए दिन बहार के

[मैकदा = शराबखाना, खुम =घड़ा, सागर=गिलास]

The bar is deserted, the pitcher and the glass are sad. Ever since you left the Spring has left. Pretty simple once you know the difficult words. 

दुनिया ने तेरी याद से बेगाना कर दिया

तुझ से भी दिल-फरेब हैं ग़म रोज़गार के

Another one of my favourites. Even though I love you dearly, the work of the world must be done and such absorbing and distracting is this work in fact that it has made me forget even you. 

भूले से मुस्कुरा तो दिए थे वो आज 'फैज़' 

मत पूछ वलवले दिल-ए-नाकर्दाकार के 

Faiz says that today she smiled by mistake and I cannot describe how many desires and passions that one smile stirred up in my useless heart. Why is the heart useless? Because its one job is to attract and entice the one I love and it's not able to do that. Hence dil-e-nakardakaar or useless heart. 

Well, that concludes the second lesson in Shayri :). Your comments and questions are welcome as always. 

Biphasic sleep log - Day 90 - 20th April

Having a clear plan is important. Without a plan things go kind of random.

For today I had a sort of plan but at night I messed it up.

Nap1: 0730-0800. By the book and worked well.

Didn't have time for an afternoon nap as I had an appointment outside. But didn't feel like I needed the afternoon nap either. I was home by 1500 and feeling fine.

Nap 2: 1830-1900. By this time I needed the nap and delayed it half an hour only because of SL. This one worked fine as well.

By midnight I was feeling fine, sleepy but not like everyday when I can't keep my eyes open.

Went to bed at 0000 and set 2 alarms, one for 0300 so I could wake up by E3 routine if I felt like it, and second for 0430 to use biphasic core time if I felt I needed more sleep.

Well that's where I lost the plot. Both alarms rang, and I turned them off (apparently) but kept on sleeping...until 0740!

A Chinese proverb comes to mind, "A man with a watch knows what time it is, a man with two watches is never sure."

Plan must be concrete if I expect it to be followed. Lesson learnt.

Energy levels: 100%
Health: Fine
Body: Fine
Mood: Resentful

Even though body and energy levels were all good, waking up late starts me off in a bad, almost panicky mood. I feel like it has put me behind the clock. It's merely psychological as I do have lots of hours to do what I want.

The reason I considered Biphasic instead of Everyman last night was the time-saving vs. the effort.

Everyman:
Total Sleeping Time: 3 hours core + 3 x 30 minutes for naps = 4.5 hours
Pros: Waking up at 0300 gives me time for SL appointments.
Cons: Shorter waking time slots, more times goes in preparing for sleeping and coming awake. Complicated sleep log entries.

Biphasic:
Total Sleeping Time: 4.5 hours core + 30 minute nap = 5 hours
Pros: Longer waking slots, flexible nap time, much less sleep inertia.
Cons: Wasting 30 minutes in extra sleep, can't do 3 am SL appointments.

So, you see, even once Everyman started working, it'd still give me maximum of one hour more at the cost of flexibility and shorter waking slots. I am leaning towards Biphasic again.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 89 - 19th April

Another day on E3, but not as good as yesterday.

Nap 1: I wanted to delay the first nap a little bit so did it from 0730 to 0800. It was good and refreshing.
Nap 2: Second nap was same as yesterday from 1400-1430 but it wasn't good. Even though I fell asleep very quickly, for no reason at all I had a coughing bout which woke me and I had to take a sip of water before I could go back to sleep. Which I did. But had coughing again in a few minutes, with the same process repeating. So, I don't know how much actual sleep I got.

Because of the second nap not going well, I decided to take the evening nap early. I was feeling the need for it.

Nap 3: 1800-1830. Good nap. Felt quite refreshed and was able to do all that I wanted to do.

Somehow with 3 naps, it's harder to map the food to nap to exercise timing and I couldn't do my Wii fitness today. Will do tomorrow.

Core: Was able to stay up till midnight easily and went to bed at 0010. I had a choice to leave the alarm at 0300 or make it 0330 as I don't really need the lead-in time for sleep. Pretty much any time I touch my head to the pillow I can sleep quickly. That was one of the thing I had set out to fix when I tried biphasic so I am quite pleased that it worked.

Set the alarm to 0330 still which left 20 minutes to fall asleep. It was way too much.

Woke up at 0340 and it was still a struggle to get up. Took a lot of willpower for that one.

With this current routine of E3 - 3 hours core and 3 naps, I am finding that the total sleep time is 4.5 hours, plus any inertia time whereas in biphasic total sleep time is 5 hours. Inertia time is cut in half for biphasic as I go to bed twice as opposed to 4 times.

Hence, in longterm I might not maintain E3 as it is now unless I can reduce sleeping time further. But for now, getting up at 0300 helps me get ahead with my SL magazine project so I am going to continue it for now.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 88 - 18th April

I could successfully do Everyman 3 today. Success in the way that I took 3 naps and stayed awake rest of the time. But all the awake time was not full-energy, so I do need some more time to adjust to it.

The first nap that I have already mentioned in the previous log was from 0630 to 0716.

Nap 2: 1405-1430. Why from 1405? Because I was doing something and took me 5 minutes to wrap it up but I set the alarm for 1430, confident that I would be able to fall  asleep in 5 minutes. And did I? You bet I did! I fell asleep in 4 minutes. How do I know? Well, I woke up at 1409 from a sleep or hypnogogic stage, looked at the time and immediately fell back into sleep.

Woke up at 1430. Felt fresh and recharged.

I don't know what energy levels to report, but I still felt sleep dep. Still when I did Wii fitness, I could easily cross30 minutes. And today I broke my Obstacle Course record, finishing the Advanced level for the first time. Also figured out how to do Hula Hoop properly and almost broke my all time record there. Also broke my record in both Basic and Advanced levels of Snowball fight. Got 4 stars in Obstacle Course, and both levels of Snowball fight.

Nap 3: 2000-2030. Good nap again. Sticking to schedule as well.

Then started feeling sleepy about 2300. Went to bed at 0000 with alarm for 0300. No room for falling asleep time as I thought that could be absorbed in the unevenness of the sleep cycles.

Woke up at 0330, somehow. Very sleep dep but stayed up and started the computer. 

Biphasic sleep log - Day 87 - 17th April

Had an active day. Towards the evening the exercise from yesterday and today started to catch up with me and felt a little tired, not too much, just a little.

Nap: Got home about 1700, but wasn't so tired that I had to sleep right away. Went for nap at 1800. Woke up before the alarm, felt fully awake so just woke up, without looking at the time. The 1830 alarm rang at least 10 minutes later.

Felt sleepy about 2300 and went to bed precisely at midnight with the alarm set for 0300. You see, it seems like I might have this week to myself and I have, as usual, too many projects demanding immediate attention that I have tried to give Everyman a serious try.

I woke up once about 0100 and then once more, then finally just before 0300. This time I just stayed up. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't difficult in view of my resolution.

I was able to play around on the computer easily and was fully awake but still feeling sleep dep. Then around 0600 started feeling more sleepy and decided to take a nap. I think I might need 3 naps in the beginning which I can later move around and reduce to 2.

So, first nap today was from 0630 to 0700. But I felt still sleepy so snoozed till 0716. Still have sleep dep but able to function fine.

Energy levels: 90%
Body: Sleep deprived
Health: Fine, will exercise today
Mood: Creative

Biphasic sleep log - Day 86

16th: Even though I woke up early in the morning and felt like doing the fitness stuff on Wii, I didn't because I expected to be active rest of the day.

And that's what happened. I was on a treasure hunt later and spent over 2 hours walking, running, jogging, both uphill and downhill, constantly on meet, exercising both mind and body. The weather was quite nice for it.

The point is, even with a limited amount of sleep and following the Wii fitness regime, I didn't feel tired during the hunt. Once I sat down and had lunch, and then started walking again then I felt tired.

I got home at 1717, tired and with a headache.

Took the nap at 1800. Got up at 1830. It wasn't hard to get up but my headache was still there. I felt good though, well-recharged, not tired.

Energy levels: 99%
Mood: Active

17th: I was easily able to last past the midnight and went to bed finally at 0015 with the alarm set for 0500. Woke up at 0500 by the alarm, pressed snooze confident in the knowledge that I am getting up, but of course I fell back into sleep. Woke up by the snoozed alarm at 0508 and easily got up.

Energy levels: 100%
Body: Good
Mood: Creative

Didn't feel the tiredness from yesterday. Felt like working out but didn't as I planned to go out today and I'd decide in the evening if I still needed/wanted more exercise.

A life of unfulfilled dreams, a shelf of unread books...

This post comes with a special rule - at any point during the perusal of this post you are allowed to say, "Sunil bhai, you are crazy!" but you can't do it twice! Read on!

Recently I read this phrase somewhere "A life of unfulfilled dreams, a shelf of unread books..." and it struck me as the ultimate wisdom. That's what we are left with at the end of the innings. Due to the nature of desires (we have one new desire with every breath, it is said) it doesn't seem likely that anyone would be able to fulfill all their dreams but still there is only one life and one chance to do all that you want to do.

Following this philosophy recently I started on another one of my dreams - to make a film. Here is a good place to call me crazy!

I am not one of those people who were born with the dream to be a hero or knew that he was going to be a film director when he grew up. Far from it. I actually didn't like learning about these things. Once I learnt that the actors always carry empty suitcases on screen. When you see someone coming off the train or pushing a trolley on the airport with loads of big suitcases on it...there's NOTHING in them! Totally empty! Another time I learnt that when the actors pretend to drink anything like coffee or tea, the cups are totally empty. There NEVER is any coffee in them, not even a little bit. After knowing these, and other things like these, I was always focused on it and could tell that the actor was just pretending to drink. With that special knowledge I could actually judge who made a good job pretending and who was just so so. But still, I didn't really want to know these things. I'd have preferred the bliss of ignorance.

On the flip side of this was the fact that I always found those movies interesting where they showed the moviemaking business. Fake rain coming down from the roof, fake car racing scene, all kinds of fake stunts, I found it fascinating!

It started with second life. I decided to make a movie there. About my motivations to make a SL movie, the less said the better, but suffice it to say that I spent a few months working on that project and finally finishing it. A movie where you capture game footage is called a machinima. The actors are all animated avatars but after you capture the footage, the editing is just like editing a real life movie. For that I had to learn editing. I did it the way I learn everything - from books.

The experience was amazing! It was so thrilling to work on that project and see the output. My friends who learnt about it from me said why don't you do it for real. And I always had an answer why it was not feasible to do that in RL. Money is usually a big part of it.

But then slowly, the idea took root - why not? With the advent of digital filmmaking, it has become possible for people to make low-budget short films.

Then finally, last month, in March, I did a course on filmmaking. It was a course for beginners, taught over 4 weekends. 4 Sundays, full time. I have mentioned this class several time in my posts, but never revealed what the class was for. Well, now you know. :)

The plan was to learn to make films by making a short, really short, film about 7 minutes in length. We were going to interface with an actors' class from the same institute to cast for our film. After 4 weeks we were supposed to have the finished product in our hands. Everything went well, but we ran out of time when it came to editing. So, now that film is being edited in our own time, when all of us, including the teacher who is a well-known, award-winning director, can get together. First such session was this Monday when we got locked out afterwards.

This film will be finished by the end of this month but I took a copy of the whole footage and made a backstage video for it, something like a "Making of" for our project. If you are curious (and you should be if you read this far), you can watch the video below. Your comments are welcome.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 85 - 15th April

This one will be boring as this was biphasic by the book. I wasn't feeling tired so I did half an hour of Wii in the afternoon. It was good and didn't tire me.

Nap: 1800-1830. Fell asleep fast and had a great nap. Got up refreshed and did SL mostly.

Core: Went to bed at 0100. Woke up by the alarm at 0545. Considered sleeping more but decided that I better stick to the schedule.

See? Boring.

Energy levels: 100%
Health: Good
Body: Good
Mood: Happy

Slice of life: Swimming

This is an incident from long time ago when I used to live in Delhi and still had the desire to learn to swim. I still have the desire, I just don't bother to do anything about it.

So, I took membership in the local govt.-operated sports complex and started learning swimming from this teacher who I suspect was just a guy who knew swimming and thought this was an easy way to make a quick buck. I say this because his teaching methods were not all that good and my progress was slow. Having taught for a few years myself, I know when someone is cutting through the crap and when someone is just passing time with the minimum of instruction. Since then I have learnt from other people that that's not the best way to learn.

Despite that I was still making progress and had learnt how to float, face down, using my feet to propel me. I could do it as long as I could hold my breath and could float from one side of the pool to the other side, widthwise.

Then one day, he told me to stand mid-way down the length of the pool on the edge. I should explain that this pool was regulation size with the maximum depth 12 feet and the minimum 4 feet. Where I was standing, I was abreast of the middle section about 7 feet deep.

My instructor told me to dive from there and then swim towards the shallow end. He reminded me several times, "Use the feet. Don't forget to use the feet like I have taught you." I nodded and dived in!

I floated using my feet as long as I could but soon ran out of breath and tried to stand up. Blurghhgh! What? No ground? I prodded with my feet but try as I might I could find no solid ground to stand on! And I panic very easily in water. No, not in the shower, thank you very much. But when I am out of my depth (literally) I lose my wits.

If I had tried to be sensible about it, I could possibly have taken a half-breath and managed to float further to the safety of the shallow zone. As it was I flopped around, arms flailing, feet kicking around a commotion underwater, like a drowning man, as a drowning man, for technically I was drowning. I was scared!

My teacher was right there and when he realized I wasn't gonna do it myself, he pulled me by the arm to the shallow zone. It was only a foot away!

He asked me, "Why didn't you use the arms?"

And I replied innocently, "But you didn't tell me to use the arms!"

He shook his head, "This time use the arms AND the feet!"

He didn't have to tell me twice! This time when I dived I used both arms and feet and swam like hell! I was literally swimming to save my life!

This time not only did I make it into the shallow zone, I almost head-butted the end wall!

Moral of the story: While it's good to follow instructions faithfully, when you are in deep water, use your head!

Biphasic sleep log - Day 84 - 14th April

Felt a bit tired in the afternoon so didn't do Wii fitness today.

Nap from 1630 to 1700. I was tired so I used that time. Should have done earlier actually. Fell asleep quickly and had a very good nap. Woke up by the alarm and got up easily. Had good energy levels as I was still in bed when my friend called two minutes later and didn't know that I had just woken up. :)

Late at night, again felt the same tiredness. Went to bed at 0045, with alarm set for 0530, even though I know I don't need 15 minutes for falling asleep. I was asleep within about 5 minutes. Woke up by the 0530 alarm, but decided to sleep more. Woke up in-between at 6 and 7 but finally got up at 0742. Seemed like I made the right decision as there's no tiredness today. We will see how the day progresses.

I have a busy weekend planned with possibly no naps, so I am not going to try E3 at all tonight, just biphasic with 4.5 hours core.

Akbar-Birbal - The Wisdom Fruit

We all want to be wise. Here's a story from Akbar-Birbal about a king who tried a shortcut to wisdom. 

Emperor Akbar's court was in session when a messenger arrived from the neighbouring country with a message for the Emperor. The message was as puzzling as it was it simple.

"To Emperor Akbar,

We have been informed that your court is a treasure trove of wisdom. As your neighbour we would like you to share your wisdom with us. Please send one Fruit of Wisdom to us, so that we can grow our own from the sample.

Inability to send us a Fruit of Wisdom from your side will be regarded as an act of hostility and will be reciprocated in kind from our side."

"Fruit of Wisdom?", the Emperor was perplexed, "Who starts these rumours?"

Nobody had an answer to that. It was learnt later that the neighbour king had heard the legend of Birbal's wit and had concocted this plan in his jealousy to show up Birbal or find an excuse to attack Akbar's kingdom.

After a period of idle speculation and fruitless (no pun intended) discussion, all eyes finally turned to Birbal who was sitting silently.

"Birbal", Akbar asked, "You are the only one who has not offered any comments on this situation. Do you have an answer to give to this messenger?"

Birbal said, "Yes, Your Majesty.", he turned to the messenger, "Tell your king that we are all out of Fruits of Wisdom at the moment and it will take 6 weeks to grow a fresh one. Once the Fruit is ready, you can come and collect it. In 6 weeks' time."

The messenger departed without further comment and as soon as he was out of earshot, Akbar could contain his puzzlement no longer.

"Birbal, have you gone mad? Grow what? In 6 weeks? There is NO such thing as a Fruit of Wisdom. Why did you tell him 6 weeks. What will we give him when the messenger comes back in 6 weeks?"

Birbal smiled his knowing smile that used to drive the Empror insane because he could not guess what he was thinking, "Your Majesty, please leave this small matter in my hands. When the messenger returns in 6 weeks he will be given the Fruit of Wisdom and rest assured that it will satisfy our neighbour king."

Next morning, Birbal sowed some seeds of pumpkin in his garden at home. He kept a careful eye on their progress every day. When the Emperor asked him in court about the matter of the Fruit, he would reply complacently, "The Fruit is being grown, Your Majesty!"

When the pumpkins were 2 weeks old, Birbal covered 2 of them with earthen pitchers (ghade) and made supports for them so that they would still get sunlight while growing completely inside the ghade.

When the pumpkins grew big enough that they filled the earthen pitchers completely without breaking them, Birbal plucked them off.

Two days later the messenger arrived as expected. When he walked into the Emperor's court and demanded delivery of the Fruit of Wisdom, Birbal stood up and handed him the earthen pitchers filled with the fully grown pumpkins.

He addressed the messenger, "In view of our cordial relations with your kingdom we have prepared two Fruits of Wisdom instead of one to be delivered to your king. But please tell the king that special care must be taken when extracting the Fruits. If you cut the Fruit with a knife or break the special container, the Fruit will be entirely spoilt."

The messenger looked at Birbal's face, then looked at the Fruits of Wisdom and retreated in silence.

Moral of the story: Your mind is a wonderful tool, the only way to sharpen it is to use it.

Biphasic sleep log - Day 83 - 13th April

Nap: Since I didn't get a chance to do a morning nap, I kept the evening nap on time. From 1800 to 1830. I did sleep during that but it was not one big chunk of sleep, it was more like several chunks of good sleep. I can't count how many chunks. But I enjoyed it and felt great afterwards.

Core sleep: Because of SL went to bed at 0115. Alarm set for 4.5 hours - 0600. But I forgot about the guitar alarm on my laptop for 0530. It did go off on time, the volume was loud and it woke me up. It took me two minutes to remember the time for today was 0600 but by then I was awake so I just stayed awake.

Energy levels: 100%
Body: Fine
Health: Fine, no cold.
Mood: Active

PJ Shayri - My Style

I have seen this sort of thing on Comedy Circus, but they don't really pay attention to the rhythm or length, just the rhyming of last words. I thought I could do better, so here are some samples for you.

उसके  प्यार  में दिल ने हमको यूँ काँटों में घसीटा, 

तन की शक्ति, मन की शक्ति, Bournvita

बिना तुम्हारे नींद न आये दिन भी नहीं ढलता

तुम्हारी त्वचा से तुम्हारी उम्र का पता ही नहीं चलता

साथ तुम्हारा प्रियतमे छूटेगा नहीं

फेविकोल का मज़बूत जोड़ है टूटेगा नहीं 

नेताओं को लग गई बेईमानी की खाज

बुलंद भारत  की बुलंद तस्वीर...हमारा बजाज 

हम को तो पैसे से मतलब देश का  जो कछु होय 

She's a complan girl, I am a complan boy

जैसा कि रिवाज है आखिरी शेर में शायर का नाम ज़रूर आना चाहिए, तो अर्ज़ है कि..

बेईमानों की BMW, सच्चों की खडखडिया है 

वाह सुनील बाबू, बढ़िया है 

As usual, your comments are welcome. :) 

Shayri 101 - Khumar - Haale-dil unko sunaate jaaiye

I have been interested in Shayri from early childhood. Things that rhymed just fascinated me. Then as I grew up the interest grew and I began to get the meaning and emotion behind the sher's, even the non-rhyming ones. Now after years and years of enjoying Urdu Shayri I have come to realize that not only do I enjoy reading or listening to shayri, I also enjoy explaining the sher's to those friends who don't understand that much Urdu even though they are interested in Shayri. 

I have done some posts where I posted a sher and then explained it but mostly for my English-speaking readers. It occurred to me that I could do a series of posts for kind of teaching this sort of thing. But I was afraid it might come off as patronizing or showing off my knowledge. Recently, it was pointed out to me that my readers might enjoy that kind of posts. People who like Urdu shayri but haven't had the background to understand a lot of it are not in minority. And modest as I am, even I have to admit that my knowledge of shayri is above average at least. :) 

So, here we go, take from it what you like, but I am going to do a series of posts where I'll post from my favourite sher's and explain their meaning including the deeper meaning as I see it. 

Let's tackle a nice ghazal today, one of my very favourites. The name of the shayar is खुमार बाराबंकवी, a famour shayar with many very popular ghazals to his credit. 

हाले-दिल  उनको  सुनाते  जाइए 

शर्त  ये  है  मुस्कुराते  जाइए 

Translation: When you pour your heart out to her, the condition is that you keep smiling. 

Meaning. Haale-dil, the things that are in your heart, when a lover wants to tell this to his beloved, it's usually things like "I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't live without you" etc. etc. So, the shayar says that when you tell her all this, keep a smile on your face. Why? Because you want to keep her interested, and you want to put on a brave front, because nobody likes a whiner. 

आप को जाते न देखा जाएगा 

शम्मा को पहले बुझाते जाइए

Translation: I cannot see you go, so please douse the candle before you go. 

Meaning: The Urdu shayri deals in very delicate emotions. Shayar says that I cannot bear to see you go, so douse the candle so that it's dark when you leave. The implication is that even though I know you are leaving, and I know I cannot stop you, at least I will not have to see you walk out of my life. Anyone who has ever said goodbye to a loved one would understand this sentiment. 

And this was the first sher I ever heard from this ghazal: 

दुश्मनों से प्यार होता जाएगा 

दोस्तों को आजमाते जाइए

Translation: You will start falling in love with your enemies when you start testing your friends. 

Meaning: This is a cynical sher. The shayar is talking about the ways of the world that once you start testing your friends you will find that you cannot rely upon them and it might sour you on your friends, making you love your enemies more. As I said it's a very cynical sher but unfortunately bears a grain of truth and I think we can all understand from our own experiences where the poet is coming from. 

The last sher, the Makta as it is called, contains the name of the shayar. When I told Fazil the above sher, he told me the next one, and the name of the poet. 

रौशनी महदूद हो जिनकी "खुमार"

उन चिरागों को बुझाते जाइए

Translation: The shayar says that we should douse the lamps that have a limited circle of light. 

Meaning: The purpose of a lamp is to give light, and the purpose of a human being is to do good. But those lamps whose circle of light is very limited (mehdood comes from हद which means limit) or the people who do good things only to help themselves or their family, are useless in this world, their existence is meaningless. The implication here is that we should be selfless and generous to all our fellow beings and should encourage that kind of culture in the world. 

I have deliberately selected a relatively easy to understand ghazal for this post. In the future I will tackle progressive more complicated language and concepts. 

I will wait for your comments to know if this was useful at all. 

Biphasic sleep log - Day 82 - 12th April

This day wasn't really good for biphasic sleep. I was too busy in the morning to catch a nap for E3 pattern of 2 naps a day. Then in the afternoon I felt quite sleepy so decided to take a nap from 1430 to 1500. Only I ended up sleeping till 1540. Didn't like it but it felt like I needed the rest.

Even after the nap felt a lack of energy and motivation. I always have a thousand and one things to do but didn't feel like doing anything today, not even playing Second Life which is always good for wasting a few hours. Thought about playing Wii but didn't do that either.

At night, felt sleep around midnight so went to bed at 0015 with alarm set for 4.5 hours of sleep, 0500. Woke up at 0500 and turned the alarm off. I could have woken up then, but since I woke up coughing bad I realized what was wrong with me.

I have been coughing a bit since last 2 days and it wasn't getting better. That explained the lethargy and lack of motivation. AND the oversleeping. So I decided that I do need the rest and went back to sleep without setting another alarm. Woke up at 0742 naturally.

Now that I know what's wrong I can try and fix it. Had ginger tea in breakfast, and a liberal dose of black pepper. As usual I will attack it with everything I have but it still irks me that I keep catching this stupid common cold. One of the reasons why I hate the London Underground. You share a compartment full of germs every time you set foot on it. 

Slice of life: Lockout

Last night I had a class. It was not a usual class, it more like work. But hobby work. I'll actually explain in another post what the class was about since I have been keeping that under wraps for a while.

We were supposed to work together from 6.30 till 9.30. We were all pretty engrossed in our work when around 8.30 someone closed the door to our room, probably not noticing that we were inside. One of my team members cried out, "Are we being locked in?"

That panicked the others and one of the other guys went to the door and shook it. He couldn't open it. He knocked loudly on it from the inside with, "Hello? Hello??"

Then he tried the handle again and lo, it was open! Phew, what a sigh relief we all breathed. Could you imagine being locked in an empty London office at night!?

I should explain that this was not the usual venue for our class. Our class had overrun its time so we were using the institute's own offices to finish the over-budget work.

Well, anyway, we knew the work we had wasn't going to be finished tonight so we scheduled to meet again another evening and decided to call it a night about 9.45 since almost everybody had plans.

The teacher needed a hand with his equipment so laden with all his stuff, computers and whatnot we went down the stairs. Only to find that the main door was locked!

Well, the first impulse was to jiggle and jangle and pull and push and twist the doorknob. Nothing happening. I went up and tried the buzzer that opens the door when someone rings the bell. It worked but the there was another bolt operated by a key that was locked!

Next we started looking for a fire escape. We wandered around in the recesses of the building with our cellphone camera flashes for illumination but there was nothing we could use.

We were officially locked in!

We went upstairs and in the office where we were working found a couple of large windows that were not barred or locked. It was only an 8 feet jump to a hard pavement. Two or three of us were confident that we could jump that much. But it wouldn't help the others and what about the computer? So that was not even discussed.

Then started the hunt for information. A phone number. Any phone number that could get someone with a key to come and rescue us. We started calling people, direct, indirect, in-indirect contacts who could help. Finally, we found a business card with a mobile number of a person we knew would have the key.

The call was made. The estimate was 20 minutes of wait. Whew, not so bad!

Now where is the point of all this? The point is this - even though were locked in and almost everybody had something or someone to go to there was no real panic in the room. We were total 6 people and not one of us said, even once, "Oh, I am starving!" though we all were.

Nobody complained, nobody said, "Oh God! Why me?"

Instead we just settled back down into our chairs and chatted. One girl found the coffee and milk in the fridge and she made coffee for anyone who wanted. Not me, I am off caffeine as you know. And we all chatted about the projects we had done or we want to do and all around it.

One thing that was mentioned several times was that if we had just carried on working, we could have gotten more done. :)

Calls were made to partners, girlfriends, boyfriends and the situation explained.

And I was thinking, "Wow, these people are cool! They are not a bunch of grouches!" Indeed all of us just took it in our stride and enjoyed a chat with colleagues.

That's my whole point - circumstances happen to all of us, how we react to them decides what we take away from them. Personally, I benefitted immensely from that lockout, I learnt some more stuff, I got some networking opportunities that I would not have gotten had we just walked out and gone our separate ways. I wouldn't be surprised if in the recent future I get some wonderful opportunities that can be traced back to this one instance!

In the end, it was not 20 minutes, but finally at 10.55 that person came to rescue us with the key but did we mind it? Nah!