Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not the ordinary homo sapien, he is several rungs above ordinary Indians, at least. But it is his power to go without sleep for hours on end that separates him from ordinary mortals. There is a picture of Modi sleeping on a thin green mat spread out on the floor. Modi is sleeping on his stomach, and this is perhaps the only photograph of Modi sleeping.

In 2011, somebody asked Modi how much he slept? “I have very little sleep. All my doctor friends consistently advise me that I should increase my sleeping. I should sleep a minimum of 5 to 6 hours. But I have become so workaholic and it has become my habit since many (sic) years that I hardly sleep for 3.5 hours. But it is a very sound sleep. I go to bed and within 30 seconds I fall asleep."

It’s said Yoga and the pranayama routine help Modi keep awake. Now there are reports that Modi sleeps for only two hours per 24 hours and that he is experimenting if he could go without sleep and “work for the country 24 hours.”

Modi’s sleeplessness has been revealed by Maharashtra unit BJP chief Chandrakant Patil. “PM Modi sleeps for only two hours and works for 22 hours every day," Patil told BJP workers in Kolhapur. “He is experimenting now so that he does not have to sleep. He is trying to prevent sleep so that he can stay awake for 24 hours and work for the country. He doesn't waste a single minute."

The message is loud and clear. Modi is forever working for the country. And this is pretty much engraved in the minds of BJP workers, and the growing tribe of “Modi-bhakts”. In Modi’s lexicon, there is nothing like mission impossible. There is a biopic on Modi but there is no film with Modi as ‘Shaktiman’ or ‘Superman’.

“Did Superman sleep?” The answer is the ‘Man of Steel’ required sleep but not for the reasons mere earthlings needed sleep. Superman slept to “feel normal”. Peter ‘Spiderman’ Parker needed sleep and ditto a whole bunch of other superheroes.

Batman took micro-naps. The only one who did not need sleep was ‘Sleepwalker’, a superhero with immunity to sleep and resistance to mental attacks. Strangely enough, the Sleepwalker’s nickname was ‘Sleepy’, which if given to Modi would raise a ruckus louder than the snoring of the ogre in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

Away from fantasy, there are contemporaries of Modi who also carry insomnia as a badge of honour. Barack Hussein Obama would get to bed only after 2 am, sleeping barely 4-5 hours, and Donald Trump’s stay-up late routine was one reason why Melania Trump didn’t lose any sleep over him! Trump’s downfall in fact can be laid at the lack of sleep’s door.

There is no record of Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin losing sleep over anything, and there is nothing to show that President Joe Biden doesn’t hit the bed these Ukrainian days and nights. The only VVIP who could have beaten Modi in keeping awake for hours and hours was Albert Einstein, who if tales are to be believed, slept for only three hours in a year!

Albert Einstein is a cult figure for all the good reasons, and maybe the secret of his insomnia lies in the world’s most famous equation E=mc2. Modi’s ‘Experiments with Truth’ could be the Mahatma’s spirit in him. Also, there is this growing cult being groomed on Modi, the aura being built around him—an awakening! (IPA Service)