The family is in a frenzy early in the morning. We check the travel check list multiple times
and remind each other on what is yet to go into the bags. One or the other pulls out the passport every
few minutes and puts it back. The
excitement of a long overseas trip is palpable.
Finally, the luggage is loaded in the cab and we are all set to go. Or
we think.
The husband pauses before locking the door, runs back in, changes the
date in the date calendar to the day and date of our return and comes back
with a satisfied smile. Now the family will see the correct date on the return.
Every single day spent at home begins with the same ritual for us. It is
that of changing the day and the date (and month on the 1st) in the day calendar.
Our day calendar is a pyramid shaped wooden structure with Egyptian
hieroglyphs, picked up as a travel souvenir. It exudes immortality, with Mummy
figurines on the side, and with blocks that show every day, date and month
(without the year).
The first person to wake up in the house gets the honour to change the
day and date. When I get a chance to do this, I find the ritual almost
meditative. It makes me pause, think of
the day before and the day ahead. It
makes me dream of the possibilities the day holds, and a stoic reminder that
this day will never come again.
And it takes me back to my childhood days and a similar ritual. In the Tamil households, the daily sheet
calendar used to be a standard fixture.
It used to be and even today remains a humble cardboard vividly printed
with a Hindu God in the front and some advertisement at the back. The stars of attraction are the velvety slips
printed with the day’s details, stitched or stapled to the cardboard.
I believe that the way
the sheets are torn could tell volumes about the person’s character and the
mood! And the daily sheet calendar was a
great socialist as the rich and the poor, the mighty and the humble have to
tear the sheet alike to see the day’s details!
What is printed on the cardboard and the day slips is worthy of writing
a book on (Oh Devdutt Patnaik did write one!). When one is able to take the
eyes off the benevolent looking God, comes the wonder of each of those
slips. Apart from showing details as per
the Gregorian calendar, one gets to read the lunar calendar details, and the
Hindu Vedic calendar details. For
children, it used to be a game to challenge someone to recite the details of
the inauspicious hours of the days of the week (Raahu kalam) and check against
the calendar. And when a function is
fixed in the house, the daily sheet calendar is the most sought-after
item. The elders would look for
auspicious days, skimming through the sheets.
By the end of the year, the calendar would be faded and the remaining slips tattered. But its life was not yet over. We would dutifully remove the metal staple
pins or threads and the remaining bits of sheets and repurpose it. Elders would use it to support the loose
sheets in which God’s name would be written.
My parents used them as a binder for the multiple volumes of story
sheets torn from the monthly magazine. I
had friends who would use only these as exam pads, with their favourite God
blessing the exam paper! I know of families who dont throw even the daily slips and used them for packing the prasad, or sacred ash! Whatever be the case, it was unthinkable to dispose it
off!
Today, I miss looking at the benevolent look of the Gods and flipping the velvety
sheets. But I am happy that the ritual continues in some form and is passed on to the next generation!
