Holiday on a Weekday

Does each and every lunatic have to walk around naked? It has become a stereotype; a terrible one. A person walking around naked, usuallay near traffic junctions, and delivering cryptic messages--the descrpition of a typical mad person. So this is the profile of Bangladeshi madmen?

Yesterday I couldn't/didn't go to office. I am still in a dilemma regarding this. Was it a couldn't or a didn't? It has to be a didn't, cause I did not go to office. But whether it was a deliberate decision or a forced choice, that is to decide. Well, I was feeling feverish, as I wrote in my last entry. The now boss turned colleague told me that if I couldn't make it the next day, it won't be that much hassle.

So in the morning, the slightest notion of sickness made me bunk the office. I did get up at 11 AM, though. But still my head was feeling heavy, and in today's sickness standards, I was sick(!)

I had breakfast and spent the next 2 hours reading a Sidney Sheldon book (Sands of Time). It's an interesting book; involving 4 nuns and a rebel group in Spain. The very moment I came to know about the 4 nun fact, a perverted thought crossed my mind, and not too surprisingly, all of them (except 1) experienced their share of sex by page 430.

No the book ain't that huge, it's the two book compilation I bought from Shillong. The other book was "Windmills of God", which went upto 300 something pages.

The electricity went off at around 2:15 PM. It was a hot day, and the heat was killing me. At office, I have an AC just beside my cubicle; albeit not in the same level where I sit. But still. I have lowered the blades, and I enjoy direct AC wind, throughout the day. But staying at home, without any sort of air conditioning was unbearable, and at 3:20, I was convinced that "Enough was enough". I had some pending stuff to do, and I thought that was the best time to go out and finish'em.

I nearly forgot how the streets of Dhaka looked like, on a weekday, and at 3:30 PM. I grabbed a 500 ml RC cola bottle, and headed off to Kakrail, my first stop. I went to the SCB ATM, and withdrew some cash for financing the plans ahead. Next stop, Nahar Plaza. Bought Cartridges for the USB printer I got. I looked for some games and DVDs, but didn't buy any. I made a promise to myself "today I'll buy only the stuff that I really need...no impulse purchases". This happens to me all the time. I grew myself a compulsive dvd/cd purchasing behavior. I have plenty of CD/DVDs which I haven't even inserted into my ROMs. This is pathetic, and money-losing!

I bought a scientific calculator for my "soon to be sitting for HSC" sister. Her exam is in 2006, and I often feel amazed in realizing that the once cry baby has grown up so fast! We have something common with Ross and Monica--the older we are getting, the closer we are getting.

Anyways, I think I've been watching too much of Friends, lately. The best thing about the serial is that it never feels isolated...one episode is almost always linked with the ones preceding it.

Eastern Plaza is losing it's charm. Rifles Square now has better collection, and it's still more of a CD market than a mobile one. The sight of people drooling over hansets sickens me, and that statement sounded like a huge example of hypocrisy to me, too. Cellphone earn me my dvds and cds, and the occasional eating out incidents as well. But still it sickens me, cause I want my life outside office to be totally "office-free". I see people hanging out with colleagues, going places with colleagues, and talking about office while in adda sessions. But those ideas don't tempt me. I have enough office @ office.

I realized that the rickshaw routes have been decreased significantly, and one has to use a lot of tricky shortcuts and "previously unseen" chipa golis for going from one place to another. It's quite amazing to visit a never seen before area after living in Dhaka for more than 16 years. I wouldn't be this much baffled if it were some obscure (for me) area in old Dhaka, or in Uttara or Mirpur. But this was Eskaton, the place which I passed so many times in my short life. I always used the main road...the road that goes from Moghbazar and upto Bangla Motor. But now rickshaws are apparently not allowed to venture over that road. So my rickshaw puller took the road that goes from Baily road to the road connecting Shahbag with Bangla motor, but instead to going there, he took a right turn, and I ended up in the heart of Eskaton. I saw some "Buddhijibi shongshod", where people where chanting "Joy Bangla, Joy Bongobondhu" and I also saw the Eskaton Shobuj Shongho club.

Good old busy Dhaka city in the afternoon! I missed the sights. I desperately tried to remember when I last spent a day like this. But it didn't happen within the last the last one and half years.

Soon the rickshaw surfaced beside the Huq good's shop, and I had to cross the dangerous Bangla motor crossing and walk upto Nahar plaza. Previously, walk like these would be as simple as eating a piece of cake. But this time around, I was panting and heavily sweating, which shows how obese, dumb and weak I have become. Once again, I realized--the trade off is expensive. The trade off between a secured job life and a "do what I wish living under parent's shadow student life".

Yeah this was Nahar plaza and Eastern plaza. I already described what I did there, so I'll move on to Nilkhet and Newmarket. I have thrown fists at imaginary people and shouted out curses at them as well (in my mind, obviously) for buyin the calculator already. Newmarket would give me more options, but at that moment, I wasn't planning for this visit. I thougt I'd go to Nilkhet only (what a short sighted judgement!). I bought a GMAT book from New Market, and on my way back, I suddenly remembered that it's a friend's B'day today.

Went there, saw'em play cards, went to the roof and had a moderately fun adda, had dinner and got back home. I saw WWE Raw on my PC (via TV Card) without being interrupted, after a long long time. Another childhood dream came true. My dad hates WWE, and we have only one TV. So you get the picture.

Small dreams, easily fulfilled. What about the bigger ones?