One extra day, but still …

I was talking to my friend and was telling him about the holiday that is coming up this week Friday (Pongal festival, for which I ain’t going home) and then about the one on 26th (Republic day) and how nice it is that both of them are on a weekday, thus earning brownie points from me (I love holidays on a weekday, don’t you? ) and he  (not an Indian, obviously) was like, ‘how many holidays do you guys even have’. I was telling him that this is one benefit of being secular and celebrating festivals of all religions 😉

Every year, the second half of the year is always filled with holidays, right from July (starting with Ramzan) until December (ending with Christmas) there are one too many holidays every month. And if they happen to fall on a Monday or a Friday, the better. Long weekends, less leave to apply for a vacation 😉 Possibilities galore. The first half of the year doesn’t have as many holidays as the second half. But this year, in spite of it being a leap year (not that it means anything, except that we have one extra day and I wish they declare that as an official holiday from here on, at least for people who want to follow traditions ) all the prominent holidays that usually earn us weekday holidays in the second half of the year fall on a Sunday. WTH. Gandhi Jayanthi – Oct 2 – Sunday, Diwali – Oct 31 – Sun, Christmas – Dec 25 – Sunday, The next New Year is also on a Sunday. At the least we still have Ganesh Chaturthi – Sep 5 – Monday, Independence Day – Aug 15 – Monday, Dussera – Oct 11 – Tuesday, Ramzan – Jul 6 – Wednesday. So it isn’t an utter and total disappointment, but still, I would have loved to have the rest of them too on a weekday. And my birthday also falls on a Sunday 😦 Not a fine year for holidays, no sir.