And so yesterday was Diwali, tomorrow is Bhau Beej, Friday was Dhanteras, last week was Karwa Chauth, Navratri passed us by in October. You see, we only have some 50-odd festivals in India, another 20-odd holidays—in my humble opinion (IMHO), we have too few festivals/days of celebration/public holidays in India. Too few. And this paucity of festivals, in turn, means very few bank holidays—in fact, in the world index of vacations we are second to Germany, that holds the record, on account of them having so many saints.

So, it was with some sense of happiness, that I've noticed we now have a few new national festivals—since we are now so pro USA, we have begun to celebrate Halloween with as much elan as Holi. Even during the lockdown, people hosted Haloween parties, dressed up in weird masks, looking like potential candidates for the Bihar elections. There is some talk that we will be celebrating Thanksgiving on November 26, and this will be added to our calendar's list of annual holidays. Some of my British Indian friends have told me that they're canvassing for a Guy Fawkes Day holiday.