As a child, I hated afternoon naps and suffered frequent scolding for disrupting the naps of grown-ups. But, soon I found an Enid Blytonesque sense of adventure in the unexpected secrecy of being awake when everyone else lay deep in the cushion of heat and somnolence. Disrupting the dominant adult regime, it became a time to read forbidden books and investigate ignored cupboard shelves. As an adult, I have frequently taken afternoon naps at my office desk, dense with dream, like dark chocolate, waking to the fizz of refreshment like prosecco bubbles in my nose. In lockdown, naps are part of my routine and I have been happier, healthier and more awake to life for it. The suggestion of 3 pm meetings scandalises me. Why so rest-less, dost?

Siesta is a pan-Indian practice, not a Goan invention. But it’s also an increasingly stigmatised one, seen as some kind of infra-dig desi habit, like pickle and paratha for tiffin, like saying Hawai chappal (present Miss) instead of flip flops-yaniki some folx only praise dopahar ki neend if Spanish people do it.

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Productivity is the chief religion of our times, which requires conformity to propagate itself efficiently-ownership of our time and minds by work in ways that denies human needs; ownership of our politics by the binaries of liberal and bhakt. We need things that restore us to ourselves.

The GFP started with a declared wish to fight the BJP and ended up allying with them. Make of that what we will, but a local party staking claims to the CM’s seat in a state besieged by infrastructure projects with "You do not have to overload a small place with too much infrastructure" is an intriguing disruption, an idea of federalism that also runs, differently, through the farmers’ protests. Perhaps federalism is the afternoon nap of politics. Perhaps all disruptive models are not "move fast, break things". Some are "take it slow, mending things" letting sleep knit up the ravelled sleeve of care. Perhaps federalism is the afternoon nap of politics.

Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer and curator working with fiction and non-fiction. Reach her at paromita.vohra@mid-day.com

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