Weekend Plans

“So, what plans for the weekend?”

Don’t tell me you haven’t heard this question pop up in every corner on a Friday afternoon. Because I sure have heard it, and it rekindles my temper.

Why, you ask? It’s a harmless question, you might say. And I’d agree with you, except it’s a useless question too. It’s a conversation starter, yes, but the most I’ve seen people reveal about their weekend plans is their meeting with friends.

No one goes into much detail. Because it’s awkward to tell others you’re planing to hook up with a stranger on the first date, or you’re planning to elope with your high school sweetheart—or worse yet—that you’re planning on introducing “the one” to parents who never approved of your choices.

While the couplings are in trouble, we singulars have problems of our own. Would I be thrilled to tell people I’m planning to hang out in my room alone watching the latest in Blacklist and sleep for hours afterward? Of course, the thought of lounging in my pyjamas all day thrills me beyond words, but to the ones looking so eager and curious to know my weekend plans, I’m just sad and alone. I don’t bother myself with what they think, until they wear that sad expression one uses in the deathbed of an old granny.

Why should anyone have plans for the weekend at all? Why not go home on Friday evening, kick back, relax, and wait for the morning to tell you what to do that day? I’d rather do that than have my entire weekends planned, mapped out, and scheduled. Because, when I do plan to cook up a terrific single-serve meal, I’d just land in a power failure.

So, that’s how my weekend went. What about yours?

The wind in my hair

wind in my hair

Eyes closed, I stand.

The wind bounces,

off my hair

suddenly stops.

Power gone.

Current issue

There is one hot topic among our people today, and boy, isn’t it hot! It’s none other than the current issue. It’s that time of the year again, the time we are mostly in need of the breeze that nature so unkindly denies.

Nowadays, it is not only the nature that forbids us some bliss; the frequent power failures are highly disrupting. Soon enough, it would be a huge political matter, if it’s not already.

People are discussing this everywhere I go. It’s made the headlines of the evening news. This matter is of a great concern to students and those who indulge in small-scale industries . This is the exam season and whether it be studying or attending the exams, students are surely not going to enjoy the heat wave.

Then again, is this really as bad as it’s described? Yes, I don’t deny the hindrances the power failures are causing, but something tells me there’s some good in this bad.

Here’s how it goes: every evening, when my father returns from work, we (my mother and myself) would be watching TV. Not long afterwards, the power goes off. Naturally, it’ll be too warm for us to stay indoors, so we retreat to the balcony. The next one hour is a time to share our thoughts on everything ranging from studies to world politics. It’s not only about social issues either, we speak of anything and everything, our hopes, plans, worries, disturbances, expectations and disappointments.

These dark evenings throw a light into my knowledge of my family. It really helps me to know more about my parents, and even myself, now that I mention it.

We all need that time alone with people we call family, because, even if we have the same roof over our heads, we may not know each other. Understanding each other would be difficult when each is in one corner, either whiling away time in front of the television or the computer.

I, thus, believe that the power cuts, though a barrier to progress, could be a tool to get to know ourselves better.