Our holidays are sacred

How did the government goof up? How to remove this confusion? The solution was easy and pleasant. Both March 18 and 19 were declared holidays and schools and colleges closed. It made the festival of Holi more enjoyable for little Shreya, my grand-daughter. Unbounded joy with unlimited number of holidays is the credo of our society.

We prove that we are secular and pluralistic in observing all our festivals. We have holidays on birth anniversaries of Ram, Krishna and Shiva and many more, and then there are festivals like Dussehra and Diwali.

If we celebrate Christmas and Good Friday, we also have holidays for Id-ul-Fitr, Id-ul-Zuha, Id-e-Milad and Muharram. We have holidays on Budh Jayanti, Mahavir Jayanti, Guru Nanak’s birthday and Guru Govind Singh’s birthday. I look at the calendar in joy and despair as I see as many as 26 holidays in a single calendar year. No wonder our work culture is affected.

If we do not observe religious holidays, will it make us less secular or more? The Fifth Central Pay Commission observed in its report: “We are of the considered view that efficiency and productivity would be considerably enhanced by curtailing holidays that are declared on various pretexts. In order to promote a sense of true secularism, religious festivals should rightly be treated as personal to individual employees and it should not be necessary to close government offices on such occasions.

It should suffice if the Central government offices are closed only on three national holidays — Republic Day, Independence Day and Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. We need to develop a more committed work ethos and culture.”

But who will heed the Pay Commission? No government is going to lose an election if it reduces public holidays. What does it matter if we rank only 122 among the 165 nations, according to the UNDP Human Development Report, 2001.

Japan and Germany virtually rose as giants from the ashes of the Second World War. A Japanese did not care whether he was paid overtime wages, he just worked 15 hours a day and gave to his nation unprecedented economic growth. Germans also did the same. The Chinese started only in the 1980s but in two decades China has become an economic superpower on its own, though it also has a large population below the poverty level.

Why is India moving like a tortoise but without winning any race? We have lost the culture of hard work, motivation, team spirit and excellence. Studies have shown that in an eight-hour work day, the actual work done is only four hours. The work is not linked to productivity. We are experts in doing 10 things at the same time — undoubtedly a rare quality. But in the process we miss the goal and lag far behind. Our politicians never believe in standing in queue and are always jumping it.

Taken individually, an Indian is equal to any citizen of any other country. But taken collectively as a team, we lag behind. The crab spirit is all-pervasive. (The story that Indian crabs can safely be carried in an open container in a ship is too well known. No crab can come out of the container

as the crabs never stop pulling each other down.) The spirit of sharing and giving, once all-pervasive, has been replaced by grabbing and greed, spreading insurmountable corruption and making our nation one of the 10 most corrupt in the world.

With the dawn of the 21st century, India must awaken to the new century of sustainable human development. We are happy with good results and do not strive for the best. We are thrilled that we “made it” to the finals of the World Cup, content that we didn’t get the cup, but we never ask why our cricket team was not the best. We lack the spirit of excellence.

Let us see this new culture of commitment, teamwork and excellence blooming and removing India from a cluster of poverty to a cluster of prosperity in the emerging global village. Work is worship.