Working Holidays !!

The winter finally seems to be clawing itself out of Toledo while spring has been creeping in slowly. With the sparse but sure greenery and the animal and human life that it brings with it, spring is sure a joy to behold. But alas, the snow which I had really grown fond cannot be seen anymore. Along with this change of weather comes the time of holidays as we finally got our much deserved spring break. In one of the warm afternoons of a holiday day I got a call from one of my dear friends,

“Dude, haven’t been blogging lately!!” he quipped to me “No time for you in the spring break also?!!” he added, as this had been my excuse almost every time that he had asked me the same question before.

“Give me a call after few hours” I said to him “I am in college right now finishing some work.”

“What the f*#-!!” my friends usual calmness and decency suddenly went flying out of the window as I spoke those words!!

So the bottom line was that while everyone was having fun on the spring break, I was still working 9 to 5 in the college just like my normal days. But for once I was not complaining, the reason being at least I have something to do now rather than just sit and cool my heels off!!

Cut to Friday midnight when I had my draft proposal to finish. I worked the whole day to prepare it from scratch. Completed it, edited it and then reedited it again and again, knowing fairly well that no matter how much corrections that I do, the paper will still come back with fiery red marks on them. The moment that I finished the draft and clicked the button that dispatched the mail on its destination, I lay back and closed my eyes. Now what??? Having been so used to working on edge of deadlines, without food and sleep, that absence of work creates an undeniable vacuum. It’s like preparing for several months on climbing the Everest, planning everything down to the slightest detail. The work takes so much time and effort that when you actually reach the peak, you just don’t know what to do!! :)

But I had some sort of ‘contingency planning’ for this situation of mine. A neat stack of movies that had lay in wait for my viewing pleasure for long!! I went about the task in such a meticulous manner that I ended up almost finishing the entire playlist for the spring break on the weekend itself (5 movies in two days!!).These experiences ranged from simply mind blowing (Changeling) to annoyingly boring (Paul Bart:Mall Cop) to surprisingly good (13B) to unexpectedly sweet (Twilight) to satisfyingly unsatisfying(Frost/Nixon) . In between I also managed to watch the true genius in its pristine (Sachin Tendulkar of course!!). So by the time Sunday drew to a close, I had exhausted on my list of options to do in the next 7 days. Now, I actually had a bunch of stuff to do, all of them relate to my academic work. But what’s the fun of doing them if they are not done just before the deadline!! To aggravate the situation, my sweetheart has her sessional exams going on (only someone from Manipal can understand the graveness of those words!!). As she is the only one with whom I never fall short of topics to talk, the holidays looked to be even more boring.

So come Monday, I was back in the college early in the morning for work. It was supposed to be just a one-off affair but the fire alarm rang out as we approached the end of the day. So the one-off affair had to be extended to the second day. Completely soaked and drenched in rain I walked into the lab the next day. The moment that I opened the bag to bring my stuff out, I found the umbrella that I had been trying to find for long and which would have prevented me from being in the hapless state that I was then. If only the rain, by some miracle had colors to them, then I would have looked just like one of the many Holi fanatics in the crowd (one of the few festivals that I do not miss here!!). Second day led to realization that work in our department has a domino effect, hit one down and you face a tumult that requires a herculean effort to meet. So I had to roll in for another day at the labs on Wednesday in a state of shambles and without sleep. I might have actually looked as bad as I was feeling because the first question that my professor asked on entering the lab was “Are you OK?”!! Ok, I sure was, when the day’s work ended. The rainy weather had given way to some pleasant sunshine, but along with it were some really strong winds. So struggling to keep my footing I managed to get back home after picking a bunch of books from the library to keep me company for the next few days.

With the dearth of time before the working days begin, this semester my holidays are also going to be on a deadline :) So here I lay on a Wednesday night with a coke in my hand, a delightful Taylor Swift (the latest addition on my playlist) playing on my newly acquired speakers while I go back to social networking, check out new stuffs on the net and sit back looking for some new movie that I can watch and happily procrastinate to my satisfaction. As someone rightly said “I have had a holiday, and I’d like to take it up professionally” :)