Being a mountaineering instructor, I’m often away from home for long stretches on climbing trips or to undergo further training. Up in the hills, days lose their meaning, so weekends are not that special. However when I’m back in the city, it’s another story altogether! When I’m at home, I see to it that my weekend is unintruded upon and that I get to spend time with my family. I’m a real homebody. For me, weekends mean just staying at home and shutting out the world.

Saturdays are generally taken up by college, and after that I usually catch up with friends. I am not much of a party person. My way of chilling out with friends is ideally curling up on someone’s bed, tucking my feet in and having a good round of old-fashioned Bangali adda. Once in a blue moon, we may catch an odd flick at a movie theatre close to home. But ideally we’d treat ourselves to phuchka or jhalmuri and then settle for a long chatting session.

On Sundays, the family takes precedence. I sleep in till pretty late and wake up to a lazy morning at home. Though I don’t cook a lot, I absolutely love going to the bazaar. There is something about all that colour and vibrancy that I am very drawn to. Channel-surfing is also high on the Sunday priority list and I hold on to the remote for dear life if I find a comedy being screened on any channel whatsoever. Life is pretty stressful for our generation and when I’m looking for entertainment, I prefer not thinking about anything. So a comedy fits my requirements. I love spending Sunday evening with my mother since I can’t give her much time during the week. We go for a short walk or even an odd round of shopping or whatever she chooses to do.