The Missing Sunday

The Missing Sunday(Hazel Eyes) The Missing Sunday…….

We watch it in most movies, we read it in many books…..Sundays are days of relaxation. The day you sleep in, get up late, eat a long, luxurious breakfast. It's not corn flakes with milk, a cup of coffee or a sandwich made in a hurry. It's something decent which counts as breakfast. The day when u can count on being lazy, which u while away without feeling guilty. It is the day that is looked out for, in the whole week. The day which never comes too early. Sundays define you as a person, everybody works…but what you do in your spare time, that is what counts!


Year 1996-1998: School time torture!!
I was a 16 year old girl preparing for her exams. Not your usual end of year exams. I am talking about the dreaded entrance exams. The ones which your parents use to threaten you from kindergarden. The ones which give you nightmares and you wake up sweating in the middle of the night. The ones in which everybody before you have a good rank. The ones who don’t are the black sheep of the family, used to denote bad examples (Look at samir, what a failure he is…. i knew it the day he could’nt get through his entrance…. is that what you want to become??). The gateways to become somebody worth talking about… doctor, engineer, lawyer. Many suicides in our country are linked to the result of such exams!!

Sundays before this penultimate year were for roaming around with friends, watching movies, lazing around. Not any more…. after the tenth standard, forget that ‘fun’ even exists in life. Asking permission to watch a movie on Sunday is like asking dad, “Dad, Can I color my hair turtle green?”, or maybe, “Dad, can I dance naked in Cannought place??” These questions have an instantaneous effect on parents. Rise of temperature, reddening of face, gnashing of teeth, pulling out hair…..and sadly dire consequences for you. A lecture on buffalo herding (that’s what u will be fit for if you don’t clear the almighty entrance exams!!), cancelling of existing television privileges, drying up of pocket money. Simply said, try it only if you are planning to commit suicide anyway!
Sundays are for tutions. Algebra, atoms, electrons, photons, logarithms, chemical formula. As if weekdays with these instruments of torture are not enough, the very same teachers call u home for the weekend. A room full of scorpions, black widow spiders or leaches would be a better alternative. Sometimes, I feel physics, math and chemistry were invented to make students miserable.

“Now the most anticipated moment has arrived, The Miss World 1998 crown goes to Ms…..!!” …. I can’t believe it! I really can’t!!! It’s me…me……. me.

“Get up before I pour cold water on your head”. Eh, are Miss world’s so badly treated?....its my mom, waking me up at 6 in the morning!
Physics 7-10, chemistry 10-1, maths 3-5. This was my schedule. If you think I was free after 5 in the evening, you are sadly mistaken. Those hours were reserved for the mountain of homework and for preparation of tests in the next week. It was bad to the point that I didn’t have time to worry!! Wish days were elastic and you could fit in 40 hours instead of the usual 24!

And they have the audacity to say school days are the best days of your life!! Carefree and happy. The next person who says that is going to get his/ her teeth bashed in!

When I got through entrance exam and got admission in a dental school, I was sure that all colleges are closed on Sunday.


Year 1998-2001: College time bliss!!
I got admission in a dental school in South India, it was quite exciting to know that I was studying in a premier, reputable, established institution. My preliminary years were quite relaxed with basic subjects. Although it's quite tough and requires effort to understand the basic subjects. But years pass by in the new environment and with new friends around you. Now you are on your own. You can study whenever you want and relax at your own pace. It’s fun to take your own responsibility. The best part is: Sundays are free!!!


Sunday: 12 May 1999: 10:00 hours
Aah! I think I can sleep for one more hour…who is gonna stop me! Corridors are quiet and calm, ofcourse; everyone is having a pleasant morning sleep. Its raining out. The weather in this city is pleasant throughout the year. Summer means sunshine and rain, winter means cool winds and mist. We have common bathrooms in the hostel, where the buckets are kept on Saturday nights. In the morning hostel maids fill our buckets with warm water (it comes till 12 ‘o’ clock in the afternoon), so that we have it ready for our lavish bath whatever time we get up. Few buckets will have aprons soaked in hot water for the whole night to make it bright white. Most of the girls will be roaming around in the hostel with their hair coated with henna, curd/egg, etc….all sorts of things that are meant to go in the mouth but end up on hair!!

Today the most crowded place in the hostel is the phone room. Both outgoing and receiving booths have a long endless queue. You don’t need to count all the heads, just count the ones having boyfriends and multiply the number with 3 (Theory of college time: 3 parent-child conversation = 1 time boyfriend-girlfriend talk). In those days, having a mobile phone was a privilege (not a necessity). Only the rich gals from mumbai and delhi used to have them for show off because even receiving calls were charged heavily. That was the time we indians invented the missed call. Do you want to inform your parents to call you on the college phone(free of charge)?....simple, give a missed call!!....do you want to tell ur boyfriend you miss him?...simple, give a missed call (He calls back, so its free for you….he!he!he!)

Till your number comes in the phone booth for makeing a call, let’s check out the most happening place in any hostel campus…..The mess!! Wonder why they call it a mess?….because, as a rule, all food served in such designated areas is disgusting & unpalatable….it is done to make you ready for life in the real world, in which you will be able to survive and relish anything and everything!!

The plates are filled with omelets and slices of bread. You thought girls don’t eat much?? Check them out on a Sunday in the mess!! Gossip and food, that’s college Sundays for you. It’s a national time pass. A handful will be found in the gym(crazy, health nuts!!) or sitting outside reading newspaper and drying their hair in the early morning (If 12 ‘o’ clock can be called so) sun.

Ah, this is life. I am sitting near my room window which opens towards the campus road, having a cup of tea and a newspaper in my hand. The newspaper is strictly for an excuse, and not for reading!! The outside view is worth a description. All the bikes of the campus are parked near the walls of the girls hostel. Anything can have a break, but love is a full time job!! All couples deeply in love spending their Sunday the way they want to. How many of these relationships will end up in “happily married!!”, god only knows. Who is going around with whom, who went to a movie with whom, who wants whose notes…..gossip that can keep me and my friends engaged for the next week. All this happening right below my window.


Year 2001-2004: Final year in college
Its 7 ‘o’ clock in the morning. The corridors are still calm and quiet, because everyone is sleeping in their rooms. What am I doing getting up so early? I should be in a cosy bed dreaming nice dreams……
The good news is that my dental school is running the hospital clinics from this year onwards on Sunday. Great, could’nt they have this groundbreaking idea 2 years later (when I would have finished). God bless the great brains who found out this new idea to increase patients inflow.
I think I should forget that there are weekdays in a week. I didn’t opt for medical school because that would have been hectic with night duties, holiday duties and emergencies. Seems dental studies are no better!
Girls (other medical, paramedical branches, other years) are enjoying a normal Sunday. I am trying to mug up some hypothetical, highly imaginative clinical scenarios and the treatment that is expected to be rendered for them. These might be asked in the clinics and I have to be prepared. The patients are smarter. They want their appointments only on Sundays!!

The only way to reach on time for clinics is to just get up late on Sunday and run directly to clinics without a bath. After coming back you can think of taking a nice head bath with cold water!!!
Instead of mundane things like washing apron and taking a head bath, wash your instruments and keep them sterilized with an extra set ready especially for today. After all its Sunday, there will be more patients today, than a weekday. The funny part is that Sunday patients remain Sunday patients, they don’t come for appointments scheduled on weekdays!
We get fired more on Sundays too! Maybe its our professors way of venting out their anger on spoiling their holiday. Sunday demons are faced with lots of patience!!


Year 2005-2008: Postgraduation-life becomes tougher!
The golden days of graduation studies are over. Now we prepare to be masters. So we get fired more, yelled at more, given more work…..all in the glorious path towards making us true postgraduates. Maybe the teachers realise that this is the last time and chance to rub our noses into dirt as after this we will do the rubbing. So they do it to their hearts content!!

I got admission for postgraduate studies in the same college. I thought, “Known devils are better than unknown angels!”, and devil it certainly is, because it ate up my Sundays. Postgraduate studies are what I call the cat and mouse race, with a twist…here the mouse has no place to hide! Here the mice walk up to the cat every morning to get their daily dose of torture. Postgraduates regularly pray for their boss, the prayer goes something like this, “May his wife gives him a nice breakfast of aloo ka parantha and lassi, after which he feels so lazy, he can’t get up from his chair”, “May he get a double promotion and is so happy he forgets about us for a month”, or “May he get called all over the world to deliver lectures, so that he never remains for long in the department” . Unfortunately, such prayers never come true. You would think the days the boss is on leave are the most comforting and relaxing. Conversly they are more hectic and tiring since we are trying to finish treatment for the long standing cases, complete our records, finish seminars and do all kinds of sundry work!!



Sunday: 18th November 2006: 10:00 AM
To add to the misery, I opted for Pediatric dentistry. I completely forgot that schools are closed on Sunday! Anybody who visits a pediatric department on a Sunday will know the fact that Indians are the best when it comes to reproduction!! So many babies, kids, toddlers!! All of them wailing in a synchronized way like a chorus. I better buy ear plugs if I don’t want to become deaf.

Luckily, Sunday is a half day clinic. So when u finally finish up and have had a decent meal, you crawl into bed……a thought comes into your head, “The next week starts tomorrow”, when this week has not yet ended!!
What does God have against me and Sundays!!

Year 2008-2010: End of studies- enter the real world.
At last I am over with my studies. Now I will finally earn my own money. I don’t work for free anymore. The cat and mouse game is finally over.
This illusion lasts until you take your first step in the real world. The cat and mouse race was so much easier!! Here you have to contend with larger monsters out to devour you without even letting out a burp!! How much ever you earn seems to be less. Consultations are the order of the day. Rent out your services for the patients who can pay. You can see where this is going…..all the patients want treatment on a Sunday!! I can hear god laughing his guts out!! Sundays bah!! Maybe the week should go directly from a Saturday to a Monday! Don’t give me hope, just to snatch it away at the last moment.

Year 2010: Happily married- A solution at last!
I am married now. Since I have to take care of the house, I cant work on Sundays!! Finally, I realised the eternal truth. Don’t run awat from your problems…..just thrust in on somebody else’s shoulders and live a peaceful life!! I married a dentist and asked him to treat Sunday patients!!

Sunday 17th January 2010 06:00 AM
I am minding my own business, cosily curled up in my bed. Suddenly, I am rudely awakened. My hubby……”Come, lets go for a walk. Can you hear the birds chirping?”……I can’t ask him to go later (at a more civilised hour, if you ask me), since he goes to work then. (I want to kick myself, for giving him this harebrained idea).
No, oh God!! Why in the name of heaven, cant you leave my Sundays alone!!!!

Year 2011: The gulf shores beckon!
I and my hubby shifted home (shifted continents actually) and took up jobs in the middle east. The pay is better, the work hours are better….and best of all, it’s a 5 day week. God has heard my prayers after all. He has given me not only Sunday but Saturdays as well. God is great!!
Then I understood God’s sense of humour!!...........
The Middle east works on a schedule where the holiday falls on Thursdays and Fridays. That is their weekend.
So, sadly to say, I still work Sundays….I have stopped fighting fate and destiny!!

Hazel Eyes!!
19-09-2011