Day Twenty-Six: That Thursday Feeling (8 July)
on From Banglatown to Bangladesh (Bangladesh), 18/Sep/2010 08:23, 34 days ago
Thursdays are the new Fridays. Or they have been for the last 21-ish months anyway, and will continue to be so for the next five or so months, or as long as I stay in Bangladesh.In the UK, there was a definite sense of excitement to Fridays: the prospect of a weekend, a lie-in, and a sense of potential, of days off and weeks to come. There were few excuses for staying-in on a Friday; Friday nights meant a break, from work or essay-writing or dissertations, they meant socialising, celebrating successes and another week completed, or sharing complaints, and leaving the negatives behind as the possibilities of a weekend loomed.In Bangladesh, where weekends consist of Fridays and Saturdays, that Friday feeling now comes on Thursdays. Thursdays in the office are about finishing tasks from the week and making plans for the next, trying to leave with a sense of calm and completion, amongst what is often confusion. By Thursday afternoon, things slow down, the clock starts ticking, and the office empties by five o’clock.I leave too. And despite the knowledge that a quiet weekend is ahead, and despite the lack of glasses of wine or other post-work drinks, I still leave with that little bit of weekend excitement. I’ve got my own treats planned, Thursday-night indulgences in sugar (a bottle of 7Up or Marma pitha) or fried goods (a singara or two), and maybe some rom-com DVD cheese. Another week has been completed. I still have a lie-in tomorrow, and some time for rest and reading the paper and treating myself to my little Bangladeshi luxuries.The context may be different, the day may have changed, but that Thursday feeling is still a good one.