The 'Day' Day funda

A few days ago, my mom complained to me that I didn’t give her a special greeting card on Mother’s Day. I told her that I greet her good morning and good night daily and why does she need a greeting card when she has my credit card? This got me thinking (yes it’s true; sometimes I do think). Who in the world invented these so-called days — Mother’s Day, Teacher’s Day, Rose Day, Friendship Day, Asthma Day, AIDS Day, Valentine’s Day, Shobha Day (oh sorry sorry Shobha ji. Mistake became)…

For example, did you know that this week, there is a day called Bike To Work Day, which encourages you to cycle your way to work? Healthy thought? Not really. Imagine if you’re in your 40s, overweight, lazy (how dare you imagine me!!!) and your workplace is only 30-40 miles away from your house. So officially, Bike To Work Day can also be termed as Cardiac Arrest Day. But don’t fear. Next week is Doctor’s Day and the week after that is Funeral Day. Hold on, hold on… coming up soon on a day near you is Reincarnation Day too.

By the way, this coming Sunday is World Hypertension Day and Monday is Visit Your Relatives Day. I feel it should be the other way round. Because only after you visit your relatives do you get hypertensive and in some cases, the next day relatives visit you in the ICU. Now that we’re on it, there is also Endangered Species Day coming up soon. So I would request Chunky Pandey to be careful and not leave home.

Some of these days are very special to me because of the memories attached. On Snake Day last year, ek saanp ne mujhe dus diya. Maine usko paanch waapas de diya!!! On Elephant Day, an elephant helped me save on my ISD bill because he allowed me to make a free trunk call!!! On World Check-Up Day, my doctor told my friend, “I need your stool, urine and semen samples.” So he gave the doc his shorts (sorry  it’s the Piku effect!)

Coming back to what I was saying, these ‘special’ days, I feel, were invented by greeting card companies purely for their own gains. Ironically, most of them have shut shop but these days continue through the social media. On a parting note, I would like to apologise to all my readers for being absent last Wednesday. You see, I knew that no matter what I wrote, you wouldn’t read it because you were glued to your TV sets. After all, it was World Salman Day.