I'm all Ears!

God has constructed human beings beautifully. He has created us in the perfect way. For instance he has given us hands equipped with five unique fingers to perform innumerable functions. Not only are they useful for things like eating and picking things up, they are essential to do things like scratching, picking your nose..umm, ok you get the picture! And our five wonderful senses, each performing its own wonderful task. But I do admit that there are some gifts that the Almighty forgot to bestow upon us. For example, I really wish he had given us the power to close our ears the way we can close our eyes and mouth. I wish we had some sort of ear-lids which we could just pull down whenever required.
This strange thought entered my mind in the afternoon today, when each part of my body was trying its best to go off to sleep. Well last night, I had stayed up all night watching this amazingly entertaining and gripping serial ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and got up early today. (I think I saw ten episodes at a stretch!) So by the afternoon I was dead tired and desperately needed some shut-eye. So I entered my room, changed into my comfy pajamas and snuggled inside my warm quilt, smiling to myself. I had almost crossed the threshold of my dreamland, when a loud bang woke me up. Well, that was my mother, washing clothes right outside of my room (that’s where our courtyard is) and apparently she had dropped something. Grrr-ing to myself, I pulled my quilt together closer around me, and again began to drift into a badly needed slumber. Suddenly I heard my little cousin Ganu (he is only two) squealing at the top of his voice outside in the porch. To make things worse, his dad (my uncle) took out his basketball and began to dribble it right outside! To top it all, apparently every time he threw the ball at Ganu he would joyously scream “Ye maraaaaaaaaaaaaaa…ye maaraaaaaaaaaaa!” It was so infuriating that I got up, peeped out of my door and asked him to be quiet. And I think I was kind of rude. But I didn’t care. I really needed to sleep.
I finally managed to sleep. But my sweet slumber was short-lived. After about twenty minutes my grandparents came out and sat on their terrace, which is right on top of my room by the way. Now, as my grandfather is a little hard of hearing, my grandma practically had to say things twice and that too at the top of her voice. To increase my misery, they were having some kind of argument. I was rudely awakened with a shock as my grandpa went “Beh! Tum to sunti hi nahi ho!” It was so unfair! It seemed as if the whole world was conspiring against me. I pressed my pillow hard against my ear and prayed for sleep to engulf me. I was almost weeping with frustration. Would you believe it, after a while, my brother blared rock music in his room. I could NOT take it anymore. Without thinking, I got up, opened my door and screamed my lungs out “Will anybody bloody let me sleep in this goddamned house?”. To my surprise, there was prefect silence.
Finally, I managed to drift off into a wonderful sleep and slept for four hours straight.
But this experience left me pondering, about the benefits of having ear-lids. We wouldn’t have to listen to people we don’t want to listen to. We could just shut off our ears in the middle of an argument and avoid so many fights. We could sleep peacefully, anywhere. In a train, for example, we wouldn’t have to worry about the baby wailing its head off…or the fat old man in the next compartment who snores as loud as clouds thundering. You could just close your ear-lids and stay unaffected. You could even sleep peacefully during a boring lecture! I would have used my ear-lids especially during Diwali. I simply detest the way I jump out of my skin every time a bomb explodes!
Anyway, guess we can’t really do anything about it, can we? Although I’ve heard that a device has been invented, which completely cuts off all the noises around you. I guess it’d be quite useful! At least for a person like me. And for others as well, in the ears to come! :P