Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Special Days- 2

We have a new Day .

Rahul Gandhi's birthday, will now be celebrated countrywide as Farmer's Right's Day, as per his party's dictats.

This has given me so many ideas. For so many potential days that we can celebrate with appropriate celebrations.

Many moons ago I wrote a post on Special Days, which were actually Mumbai Centric and dedicated to folks like bus conductors and bhajiwalis.

Nothing happened and no one celebrated such things. Maybe one needs to think on a wider and possibly grander scale, like the aforementioned Farmers Rights Day.

Like :


Mukesh Ambani's birthday : to be celebrated as Reliable Tower Rights Day. Folks in power can visit illegal slums, construct illegal high podiums and give speeches about how they need votes and support in return for some virtual bathrooms and toilets that they plan to gift, once the high command agrees..

Sharad Pawar's Birthday : National Fence Sitters Day. This will be be celebrated by sitting on a fence and watching cricket. Flat top fences will be outsourced to some known folks (who will make a killing), to make the sitting and moving more comfortable. Local Baramati grape wine will be on sale for common folks, and on the special occasion of the birthday, the party will decide to change the name of one more station on the Mumbai suburban train network.

Digvijay Singh's birthday : National Abuse Day . This is to be celebrated by giving at least five interviews to TV channels, and calling at least 10 people as "thugs". There is a suggestion that this also be celebrated as a day when one shows off one's connection with celebrities, dead or alive, by recalling one's last communication with them.

Mayawati's birthday : National Elephantine Law and Order Day, This is to be celebrated by allocating elephants to the various police thanas. An amazing way of celebrating slow moving cases pertaining to Law and Order. The common man will celebrate it by staying out of town, or even migrating.

Lalu Prasad's Birthday : National Alu Samosa and Milk Day. One of the more popular celebrations, the nation will celebrate it by every household making Alu Samosa's, and drinking a glass of milk. Just for this one day, the government will train its permanently blinded eye to the hoarding of potatoes in the previous weeks, and the rampant adulteration of milk, the supply of which has decreased due to missing Fodder.

Salman Khan's Birthday : National Barechested Police Dance Day . Ever since his movie Dabang got a National award in the Family Entertainment category, folks have been itching to wear uncomfortable police uniforms, remove shirts and dance, since it seems to yield dividends. The only folks unhappy about this are the Mumbai Police , who anyway face crimes bare chested (idiomatically) , since some one's made a total mess of purchasing bullet proof jackets for them all these years....

Karunanidhi's Birthday : National Crore Movement Day. Contrary to what people think, this is not a Tamil Movie Dance move. This day is to be celebrated by ordinary folks being given jobs by Kalaignar TV, consequent to the huge funds received by the Crown Princess Kani. Rumor has it that opposition parties loyal to another Chennai film person had infiltrated the crowds this year.

Baba Ramdev's birthday : National Fast-Fast Day . On this day, central ministers will restlessly pace at Delhi airport, and garland the first saffron colored person who emerges, in what will then be considered as an amazing revolutionary gesture. Claridges Hotel, Delhi will serve free coffee to everyone that day. Most ordinary people , will practice their Yoga exercises in the morning, and dedicate the rest of the day to learning how to ward off lathi blows. Special training will be imparted by police across the nation. No one will really fast on this day, but people will celebrate by drinking a glass of fruit juice together. Given that this is Kalyug, the possibility of people adding stuff to fruit juice cannot be denied.

Suresh Kalmadi's Birthday : National Deep Pocket Day . This will be a fun celebration, with millions of folks wearing trousers with deep pockets and walking around, jingling the copious amount of small change inside, singing, with great gusto, "Thembe Thembe Tale Sache " which means that "A massive lake happens from small small drops of water".

Some tailors in the good books of the ruling party are supposed to have made a killing, replacing pockets in white pajamas. The chairman of the National Hide-and-Seek Games Association will address a rally of all the previous Hide and Seek champions outside Tihar Residency, New Delhi. Naturally, with the dearth of actual small change in the market, as far as the ordinary man is concerned, it is rumored that some folks are hoarding small change, and the government is seized with the matter and may now decide to declare 5 rupee coins null and void. My bhajiwalla is worried.





It suddenly occurred to me, as to , how and why, anyone could have a Day named after them. And so I studied and did research on how our weekdays got their names.


The Greeks , Romans and Germanic people made things quite confusing by naming the days of the week after their Gods, where the same Gods were called by different names. Then the "old Germanic English" took over , keeping the connections to the old names.

So Sunday was named after Old English sunnandæg "day of the sun".

Monday was named after Old English mon(an)dæg "day of the moon".

Tuesday was named after Old English tiwesdæg "Tiw's (Tiu's) day, and Tiu (Twia) is the English/Germanic god of war and the sky. He is identified with the Norse god Tyr.

Wednesday was named after Old English wodnesdæg "Woden's day", and Woden is the chief Anglo-Saxon/Teutonic god, and means "violently insane". He is identified with the Norse Odin.

Thursday was named after Old English thunresdæg "thunder's day" and Thor is the Norse god of thunder.

Friday was named after Old English frigedæg "Frigg's day" composed of Frige + dæg "day", and what is most interesting, is that Frigg (Frigga) is the Teutonic goddess of clouds, the sky, the Norse goddess of love and the heavens and the wife of Odin, the guy after whom Wednesday is named. !!

Saturday has some boring precedent having to do with Saturn.

But what is terribly revealing, is that nepotism surely existed while naming Wednesday and Friday, even in those days.

I may be wrong but something about naming days after Odin(Wednesday) and Frigga(Friday) rings a loud bell......

9 comments:

  1. A holiday for Kanimozhi too, please. She'll feel neglected otherwise! Am still laughing at this post

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  2. Kanimozhi Z birthday as Beautiparler day.

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  3. Awesome post! what you left out didi? how could you..she has managed to make the railways a loss making organisation and now is planning to show her skills in WB..dont you think she deserves a day to herself :)

    and your previous post on Mumbai days...amazing..I should try the conductor/ train driver day...super nice idea

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  4. Ouch! for the last lines of National Barechested Police Dance Day!

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  5. And of course lol for the rest. :)

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  6. this is wrong why not a BIKRAM day :) I am special too . whats so special about the corrupt and bad ...


    See i told and say I need to learn to be bad a liar a corrupt person maybe then it is be Bikram day ...

    Bikram's

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  7. Ha ha! I had not read about the proposed Rahul Gandhi day. I thought people still living did not have days named after them! :)

    As for the rest, very entertaining. But I think we ordinary people should go on a fast to have a day named after us. Maybe an 'aam aadmi day'?

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  8. I don't know anything about present-day politics in India, but I found this very funny, and laughed out loud at your paragraph about the days of the week.
    I am going to send your blog link to a Canadian friend who has a PhD in Indian history but had to spend his working life in Australia because no one in Canada in 1970 cared about Indian history. I think there are quite a few people in Canada who care about it now.
    — K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  9. I find roads, cities, days, buildings, institutions being named and renamed by/for someone who did not pay (from their own pocket) or labor to create them very wrong.

    Why not have a special day for Bikram? I mean I am sure we can have a 'be forthright and honest today' day once a year for him? Or why not a 'Suranga Date day'? A day to celebrate versatility and creativity?

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