Another Friday came and went.

The clouds obediently blanketed the

cold morning; the Sun refused

to come out of its hiding place.

Trees were naked with leaf buds

(and flowers too), ready to burst open.

Birds did sing lullaby to the half

a million people of Göteborg on

that cold and an uneventful morning.

—

Elsewhere in the lab in Johannesberg,

a PhD student started her day

as usual; the fermenters, the shaken flasks,

the pre-cultures, all laced with her favourite

model organism: yeast, and gyrated to several

hundred revolutions per minute; with the imminent trip

to the East planned and the numerous

Adventures looming ahead, surely she looked forward

To the trip, the following week.

—

With backpacks ordered and wine bought for the weekend

To match with the food that was to be cooked,

Joy peaked its high than ever.

And then the inevitable happened.

An innocuous statement by a fellow student

To reboot the system, made that uneventful day

A thing to remember for many days to come.

The key computer was shut down,

And none can log in.

—

Phone calls were made and

registers were checked.

When the group leader was about to be called,

he found the password in his lab notebook

that was meticulously noted down when

he was given a tour of the bioreactors

a year ago. Those string of few characters

did make her immensely happy.

Yes, her joy knew no bounds.

—

And with the computer switched on

with an array of random characters,

all hopes were high again.

Smile played on her face and

we all took a break at quarter to four,

and discussed about schnapps and other

such drinks from various countries.

With the mind being still,

and the universe being happy,

glad was the time to say goodbye and a good weekend.

—