The Calendar condundrum

-

It’s that time of the year when our walls and desks are replaced. This year, I bought one from Fully Filmy with every month having a montage of my matinee idol Superstar Rajinikanth. 

The living room will have one or two large monthly calendars while the puja room with have a daily-sheet calendar, a culture that is very popular in the South, especially in Tamil Nadu. 

The workdesks for all of us at home will have new desktop calendars, courtesy friends and family who ship their business calendars or send us one bearing photos of religious deities.

This year, I am plannning to design my own desktop calendars on Zoomin with photos taken through 2024.



But other than these little changes that we make, there is nothing that really changes between 31 Dec & 1 Jan. for most Indians. 

Our personal / religious calendar is varied across the country and our ethnic backgrounds. 

From Ugadi to Baisakhi and so many others for almost each state, our calendar for purposes of calcultaing our Indian festivals is different.

Most Indian companies follow the Apr-Mar cycle for their Financial Accounting, therefore the opportunities for promotions / salary increments at workplace are calculated differently. 


A few of them follow the Calendar Year while very few follow July-June cycle. 

The business budgets for income and expenditure is also the same as above, so Q4 (JFM - Jan, Feb, March) is among the slowest and tougest for businesses as expenditures shrink massively during this period. 

In the West, it’s exactly the above due to which 1 Jan. is a great day of rejoicing and enjoyment, which culminates with the holy Christmas season. 

Everything changes for those who follow the Gregorian Calendar - financial year, business and personal goals, festivals and so on. 

New Year resolutions go hand in hand with their wishes for the period ahead (whether one follows them or not is a different thing). 

Yet, most Indians have taken it on them to celebrate “Happy New Year” each year, with growing glee and excitement.

Once upon a time, Retail sales used to soar ahead of New Year’s eve and patrons would queue up salons from a week before. I am not sure about the salons but retail sales haven’t seen spike during this period for many years now.

It’s all about the frenzy and FOMO of not wishing others for the new year ahead. Yes, symbolically there is a change, but nothing beyond. 

I am all for celebrations, especially if it fills the coffers of retail and F&B establishments but mindlessly and blindly following the West in this too - well, to each his / her own and probably the frenzy could come down in the coming years, just like how Valentines Day is not as big a deal anymore in India as it was 2 decades back.

To all those who are celebrating the Gregorian Calendar New Year - best wishes for the year ahead and may you be blessed with all your wishess. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pushpa 2 - The Rule : Movie Review

-
Image
In the second instalment of Pushpa 2 – The Rule, the lead actor Allu Arjun doesn’t disappoint his fans one bit. From the first scene till the end, it’s Arjun who carries confidently, the might of the expectations of the much awaited film on his shoulders. And how he does it deftly, so easily, is something that’s worth appreciating. In the first part Pushpa - The Rise (2021), Pushpa Raj, a coolie who is involved in transporting red sanders smuggled from the forests, becomes a local thug and begins to be a part of the syndicate. Over time, he becomes a notorious criminal, by transporting truck loads of the well guarded tree logs, which are banned from hunting and transporting unofficially. In the sequel, we see Pushparaj continue his “raj” and this time, he is a lot more aggressive in his dealings with the cops. Pushparaj and Srivalli’s (Rashmika Mandanna) romance track goes on one side. They are married now and their overtures are – well over the top in some scenes (sic). Jagapathi Ba...
Read more

The cult of Chandramukhi

-
Image
The distance from Koramangala to RT Nagar in Bangalore is around 14 Kms over 25 mins at that time of the day, rather night. But the bike ride felt eternal. My skin under the full sleeves’ shirt was shivering like never before. My closest experience to something similar was during the early 1980s when I watched “My Dear Kuttichathan” at Devi Theatre in Chennai. Be it a graphically shot snake coming out of a chandelier or the evil-filled Raja Vettaiyan walking with his sticks screaming “Laka Laka Laka” or the Rajapalayam Dogs barking fiercely and of course the extraordinary eye movements of the ecstatic Chandramukhi showing off her jewels, the entire movie was a bit on the edge when I watched it for the first time on this day, 15 years back. I feel the same every time I watch this film till now – around 50+ times during the past 180 months. The scary ride was because I was returning back from PVR at Forum Mall after watching First Day Night Show and Bangalore’s lonely roads were infamous...
Read more

I - Movie Review

-
Image
I have been a self confessed fan of Director Shankar for many years now. My first tryst with his direction dates back to Gentleman when I was still in school and had limited understanding of the art that is cinema. But he was one of those Directors, I thought then, who has a bright future since he had tread on a sensitive subject in that film with elan. I have enjoyed all of his movies thereafter. In each outing of his, he brought out a different panorama of film making - something that the commercial directors have always refrained from. His heroes were larger than life, be it the "One day CM" in Mudalvan or the "Bribery conscious old man" in Indian. Ofcourse, and naturally my most liked movies of his are Sivaji and Enthiran, which feature my personal matinee idol, the Superstar of Indian Cinema, Rajinikanth. After watching Sivaji, I felt that for a change, Shankar has made a film for someone else - for Rajini fans in this case. After a successful run, his...
Read more