Today is a Holiday

Went to office, past the major traffic, thinking I'm running late. Reached the office and its locked!?? Wait I'm confused, its my second day at work. Has the office closed down? Have they all gone off on a project without informing me? Umm, No! I was late....maybe everyone else is stuck in the jam. Hmm, let's just wait a while till somebody shows up. Should I call ma'am? Should I ask the shopkeeper what happened? I think I should just call ma'am. And somebody does show up. The office peon. There, he's late too and has probably got the keys to the office. Yay! No one will know I was late! He comes up to me and asks- you didn't get the message? It's a holiday today....followed by the reason, an unfortunate reason. But the office is not closing down. Thank you dear God. "So, what? I go back?" I just wanted to confirm. I was happy.

The last time something like this happened was back in school. I hated going to school. Everyday my mom and aunt had to drag me out of bed, make me eat my breakfast which I deliberately did as slowly as I could, and I would search for signs of impending stomach aches and nausea. If I felt even a wee bit of either of the two I would magnify it many fold and act. Yes, I did. So, imagine after all the effort that goes into trying to avoid school, you reach school and find a blackboard saying "Today is a Holiday". Ten exclamation marks immediately get attached to the notice even if they don't exist. the Word 'Holiday' itself has an exclamation of its own...if you know what i mean. In a place like Manipur, it happened quite frequently, the rains (yes, after reaching school in the rainy mess!), strikes, bandhs (very common here), or some other reason, which we never bothered to find out. It was pure exaltation for me! A content heart and mind, as if a battle had been won, going back from school at a time when I would probably have been studying about early man in the first period.

Today of course, was different. It was not like I did not want to go to work. But I love surprise holidays!

As I walked back, the weather just perfect in making the feeling sink in and even more enjoyable, I remembered the days back in school and I am left with a smile and a very familiar feeling of contentment!