Freaking out on a saturday!

Weekends aren’t exactly celebrated in India. All those you reply to the Monday morning customary, gossipy question of “How was your weekend?" with "Oh, I totally freaked out!" are all but lying, trying to ape the westerners-mostly. Once I asked my colleague what he meant by freaking out and not surprisingly, with an embarrassing tone said, he watched television all day. Is this called freaking out? To him perhaps yes!

For me a day well spent is the day I do nothing. I just love doing nothing. But this happens rarely and mostly theoretical. I spend my Saturdays quarrelling with government officials, bargaining vegetables, paying overdue bills, repairing my cycle and many more abysmal things which I cannot afford to do weekdays.

The day typically unfolds ten-ish with a long gaze at the newspaper reading mostly the latest who-killed-whom sort of stories. There is also a ‘pretending to read the editorials’ session at the approach of elders. What follows is a lazy breakfast with a long list of to do things, some thought carefully and some just thrust upon by all sorts of adorable people. The outcome of the list depends largely on the day. On a good day all things magically work out and you begin to think of how beautiful the world is. On other days, it is, why I the heck am I supposed to do this kind of feeling.

My favorite though is visiting the government offices. Changing the passport names, updating the ration card entries, pan card application are few of the things which comes as a package of getting newly married. Since in Pune all these places are at different demographic locations, I have to take an auto-rickshaw ride to these places. Auto drivers in Pune have a definitive aura about them. They often reject rides and mostly agree taking us only to their preferred locations. And yes, they can charge you astronomical figures and could take you miles if they realize that you are a newbie. I have a history of altercations with these creatures and my blood pressure shoots up nadir when they try to fool me with hyperbolic sums for meager distances. Such is the apathy of the public transport that you have to depend on these characters and I often end up troubling myself. Visiting closed government offices on Saturdays in an auto-drive is a rare combo which only a lucky few pune-ite’s are privileged to. I totally enjoy such experiences as it gives me a subject on which I can scribble on my blog.

Bargaining vegetables is another thrilling event. I try to get under the skin of the vendor for a bargain of couple of rupees. Often I end up at the receiving end of the fiery temperaments of the vendors. Why I do this is beyond my understanding as well, since late evenings when I spend a couple of hundreds on a stupid tasting pizza (more out of compulsion) I end up blaming myself.

When Saturdays are such stressful, I often end-up meditating on Sundays. If some one asks me Monday mornings as to how was my weekend I confidently say, I freaked out. Isn’t this called freaking out as well?