Office-goers have household chores to do or some pending work at the office which has to be completed. So they are left with little time for leisure on Sundays. Earlier, Sundays used to mean a holiday starting with unconventional breakfast followed by movie or picnic which used to re-energise the people for the week ahead, writes Dipankar Mukherjee
Sunday-for generations has been the favourite day of the week of all students and office-goers all over the country. However, changing times and modern-day work pressure have taken its toll on this one-day leisure.
British India administration declared Sunday as weekly holiday in 1840. Since then this day has continued to be a holiday. Sixty-five years into Independence and we continue to have Sunday as a holiday. Of Course, some State governments and some departments of the Central government have introduced five-day week work system. In such work schedule Saturday and Sunday are weekly holidays.
Of late it has been seen that students and young professionals are busier on Sundays than other days. It is evident from the routines of schools and coaching institutes that they are called to work even on Sundays.
If someone checks the examination schedule of the competitive and entrance examinations, he will notice they are scheduled on almost Sundays of the year.
Similarly, the office-goers have household chores to do or some pending work at the office which has to be completed. So they are left with little time for leisure on Sundays. Earlier, Sundays used to mean a holiday starting with unconventional breakfast and then followed by movie or picnic which used to re-energize the people for the week ahead.
Team Viva discussed with the students, youth, office-goers and retired people how they spent their Sundays and how the day had become busier for them compared to other days.
Rina Sethi has passed the twelfth standard examination a fortnight ago and is now going to take admission in under-graduate course. She said "in the last two years, I do not remember a single Sunday when I have stayed back home and relaxed. It is true that pressure of studies and career is maximum in eleventh and twelfth standards, but still one requires holidays. On Sundays, there was no school nor coaching classes but still, there were loads of work, including purchase of books, visit to the library, etc, that had to be done."
Suchi Chaturvedi, a final year student of Nutan college, said "every Sunday I have a competitive examination to face for the last seven months I have been continuously writing examinations on Sundays starting from IBPS clerical cadre test in December 2012 to Staff Selection Commission's combined 10+2 level test and Food Corporation of India (FCI) recruitment test."
"On such when there are no examinations, college assignments have to be completed, or there are project works to be done or there are special classes in coaching institutes to be attended. People think that we have a leisure weekends. But in reality, we stay busier than the weekdays," added Suchi.
Yogesh Singh, an engineering student, said "when I was in school I used to play cricket whole day on Sundays but since I have taken admission in engineering, Sundays are taken up by pending assignments. We return from college on weekdays by six in the evening and then we are left with very little energy to do anything. Also, the professors prefer giving assignments on the last working day of week considering that we will get free time on weekends."
Yogesh further said "my Sunday starts early like weekdays, and whole day I remain busy in completing assignments and other works."
Mahendra Shukla is studying in the twelfth standard. He said "on weekdays my day starts with school which ends by 2 pm and then coaching starts which ends by 6 pm after which I am free to do whatever I wish. But on Sundays my day starts with early morning test in the coaching institute followed by special classes which end by 9 pm. So my Sundays are far busier than the weekdays. I now prefer taking an off on weekdays."
Surendra Singh Parmar is preparing for bank probationary officers' examination and also pursuing masters in Physics from a city-based college. Parmar said "I hail from Vidisha district and it is hardly an hour's journey by train, but in last four months I have not been able to get a single Sunday on which there is no work. My parents also keep asking me to come home but due to busy weekends I am not able to meet them."
"People think that we are free on Sundays. In reality, students like us remain occupied with work on Sundays. Families with school-going children can enjoy the weekend while rest of us have to make effort to keep the Sundays free," added Parmar.
Mohit Khurana works for a private insurance company as a sales manager. He said "every Monday morning we need to submit a report on our last week's work. This means that I have to work whole day on Sunday to complete the report as till Saturday I need to take client calls and visit them. Gone are the days when a working class person used to enjoy the Sundays."
Rajesh Chandra Verma has retired from Health department of the State government. He said "it has been my routine during my 40-year-long career that I did not work on Sundays even when I had to work overtime during the weekdays. I believe that after working hard on weekdays a person needs weekly holiday to re-energize him. Otherwise, if a person is forced to work continuously week after week, he surely will lose interest in work."
Verma further said "nowadays I see school and college-going children remaining busy on Sundays also. It disturbs me as I know that if they do not get proper rest, they will not be able to study properly for the whole week."
Competitive environment and the race to achieve targets in lesser time has made the students lose their weekly holiday. But they need to understand that taking no break will adversely affect them in the long run. It is suggested by academicians that regular breaks should be taken and if some extra labour is required during the working days, it's okay. Also, a smart timetable can ensure free time during weekends.