Weekend = weekdays

This weekend came as a puzzle for me. With all the freedom to command my time to my own taste, I have recently adopted a new lifestyle. My mornings have become a bit late: I am hardly urged to wake up about 7 -7. 30 am as I used to. Yet, I get up early enough to see my flatmates for breakfast. Then during the day I am reading on the topic of my prospective doctorate research and writing posts for my blog. Also, by the virtue of staying home I tend to engage in one or another domestic routine in the breaks between studies and writing. The whole last week every single day I was doing one sort of laundry or another - there is nothing as easy as amassing dirty clothes India. Cleaning is also a sad necessity in the flat of six people as the dust tends to accumulate at an impressive speed and never-removed outdoor shoes along with open windows and doors hardly help here too. So, maybe I am more urged than my flatmates to fight any of the listed as I get exposed to that most of the day. However hard, I am trying though to cool down my conscious that may turn me into a non-paid domestic worker instead of a freelance writer as I’d rather fancy being. Anyway, since my major aspirations and duties get fulfilled during the day I have got a whole night which tends to happen out these days. Lots of the new trainees have come, so everyone is pretty keen on meeting, parting, dining out and exploring around. Bunch of the old friends is always there and has not become any less demanding in terms of the investments on both sides, so busy nights are ensured.

The lifestyle of the post-traveling time reminds me of that I had during a brief stay with Tikhon in Moscow Nov-Dec 2004 and my summer 2005 in Norway. In the first instance, I came to Moscow during the break between the classes and the exams at NHH: as an exemplary wife I saw off Tikhon for work in the morning (breakfast and ironing shirts included on the special days), during the day I was studying, doing some grocery shopping and whatever small things I had to fix and every night I was dressing up so we could go out in one way or another. Two weeks of leisure and illusive ‘marital’ happiness. The summer in Norway was all devoted to earning money to come to India, finishing my thesis and proving my ability to get reborn from the ashes. However monotonous the activities were the result was stunning in all the three instances. The social life was almost non-existent, though, in the empty-by-summer student dormitory, yet it started rocking just before I was leaving when in late August all the great new MIBs arrived. Well, in my present situation I am enjoying the best of both situations – being the master of my time, doing the things I really love engaging in, having social life and no relationship bonds.

Yet, the weekend challenge appeared as bewildering as unexpected. I really wondered how to distinguish all-at-my-disposal time of weekdays from all-at-my-disposal time of weekends. And differentiation felt desperately needed: it seems that when we break “normal” routines, e.g. as start working in the night or on weekends and having days for sleeping and weekdays off we find ourselves on a funny frame of reference. Different from that of the majority of people. And to define my comfortable (X,Y) location on it feels more important than explaining to the others that ‘life after work’ is possible.