Windfall holiday

Bakrie Eid is a public holiday! Damn it, I didn’t know it was. Rather, for someone used to the concept of restricted and mandatory holidays, I didn’t know this was a mandatory one. This is as public an acknowledgement as it gets. I made a complete fool of myself by walking into office this morning, only to realize it was a holiday on account of Bakrie Eid! I should have realized it when I hardly met any traffic on the way, or found the office parking vacant. But it wasn’t until I walked through the gates to an empty, dark office when the Security showed me the tiny holiday list on the board, clearly announcing this day off across all offices in the country.

Now I am confused what am I more upset at. The fact that I missed out on a long 3-day weekend; or that I got ready and drove 15 kms to work on a Monday morning; or that I had already got in the work mood. I guess it is more of the last one. I tend to get fidgety Sunday evenings itself, mostly staring at the long week ahead, and generally planning my next day. No prizes for guessing, the plans have all gone awry now.

Which leaves me with a daunting task – what do I do now? This blog will be completed in the next few hours. What next? Wifey is at work (it’s her fault really; she didn’t have a holiday, which made me assume, I didn’t either), so can’t really plan an outing. Besides, a day is too short for any outing in Bangalore. No movie worth watching either. Falling short of books too. A rather sadistic plan would be to call all friends who are at work! In fact, while at the Security Gate, I actually wished the holiday was called off and everyone should be asked to report to work immediately. What if there was an emergency? Some competitor had sabotaged the office! Don’t they do so in the Army? Aah! Empty mind is indeed a devil’s workshop!

Anyways, like all windfalls (not that I have had many), I don’t know what to do with it! If only windfalls were announced in advance (I know that’s an oxymoron)! Reminds me of the movie, Do Dooni Chaar – how the Duggal family cannot decide on what to do with Mr. Duggal’s Provident Fund windfall gain. It is too less for doing anything substantial with it, and too much for trivialities.

And just like in the movie, I guess I won’t be doing much with this windfall either. Just laze around, do nothing. That sounds so much like my ideal holiday idea anyways!