The 1000 Watt Bulb

It was nearly midnight but the lights were still on – as bright as a 1000 watt bulb. We had no idea what to do with it. If this continued, none of us would be able to sleep. We were especially worried about the baby.

Madhuram was nearly a month old now and extremely colicky. She was hyper sensitive in the night. We had to literally speak in sign language in the nights. And the bulb was further annoying us. We could not do away with it as there was no other room we could shift to.

Madhuram’s cries only worsened with each minute. The colic was getting the better of her. The bulb was annoying further. We swung, swayed and sang to her – only to our dismay. She could not sleep. We tried all known tricks. Each member of the house tried their hand to pacify her to sleep. We put lullabies on the computer for a much soothing effect. But alas, her colic was hard to pacify. And so the light burned on night after night after night.

We took her to the docs for a solution, but came back without answers. We tried all sort of herbal medicines, but were let down. All we consulted told that this was a regular feature that would continue till three months. Three months seemed a long time. We were worried how the baby would pull on for three months; awake all the night with the irksome lights on.

The break point came when the lights burned on till late morning. Tears ran down cheeks of my mother and mine seeing the anguish of Madhuram. Depression crept in till… suddenly the light went off. There was silence in the house. The baby’s cry disappeared and there was a relief in all our eyes. We wanted to now quickly find a solution for the 1000 watt bulb before it shone again with its full glory.

Finally we decided to put the traditional swing. The first two days proved fruitful. The lights went off earlier and Madhuram enjoyed her sleep. The third day, it was back to square one. The lights burned again. As each of us tried our hand at the swing, it looked that swing was giving away the desired effect. As we peeped in to see if the baby had slept, we were greeted with a gurgle and its 1000 watt gleaming eyes!