A random Friday Evening: 6:00 PM
Everyone seems to be in a rush.
There are excited murmurs everywhere. People shutting their laptop with a big smile.
Someone’s phone rings and he groans at the caller id. His client is calling.
His colleagues urge him to finish the call fast so that can get a table at the place they have decided to go to welcome the weekend.
A loud exclamation is heard among the audience “The Weekend is here”.
Almost everyone grins and smirks, in a good way. Even the bosses.
Goodbyes start with the usual “Have a great weekend” and “See ya on Monday”. The despair of returning to work at the end of other weekdays had been replaced by a cheerful feeling for looking forward towards the ‘weekend’.
This was a typical pre-Covid Friday evening in an urban workplace setting. And we all loved it and what followed afterwards, ‘The Weekend’.
The lack of this ritual has made Friday evenings, to say the least, a bit dull.
One of the many many things that Covid has taken away from us.
Now there are just individuals sitting at home with a sense of a bit of relief that there will be a pause of work for 2 days. There is still some anticipation, but there are no excited murmurs among colleagues, no phone calls or text from friends to decide a place fast (as everything will get full otherwise).
Life just goes on monotonously.
Now we only reminisce of the old days. The good old days.
Will they come back? Noone knows.
But till then, let’s hope that with time, the normalcy is returned with our favourite Friday evening rituals.