Notes

I just saw, a calendar made by one of my relatives, for this year.  The other day, I was talking to kids about the daily sheet calendar.  Looks like most of the kids of this generation are not used to the daily sheet calendar.  So thought of writing a few lines for the kids.

There is so much memory around the calendar.  Daily sheet, as it is called, it has is a sheet for each day.  Most of the calendars would have some interesting quote printed for each day.  Some calendar would have a one-word prediction for each Rasi (by the way do you know your Rasi (similar to zodiac sign)?  

There is always a fight among kids on who will tear the sheet of the previous day.  At the end of the year the calendar becomes a writing pad which we took to school as writing pads exams.   Important phone numbers were also written on the calendar, we hardly had few numbers which well fits in the calendar space.

For each day there is a concept of Raghu and Kethu (shadow planets) time, the duration of each being 1:30 hours.  This time is considered as bad time.  So during these 3 hours people will not start any new good work.  There is also a concept of auspicious time for each day mentioned in the calendar.  Each day a particular direction is marked as bad.  For example on 1st Jan North is marked as bad direction (Soolam).   Feels like more don’ts than dos!   Nice thing about the calendar is, it says time of Sun raise and Sun set time.  It also notes the position of moon with the name of closest star (Nakshathram). The calendar shows three types of dates as per English, Tamil Date and Muslim calendars.  

Interestingly most houses in India have gas cylinders.  When a new cylinder is set to use, to remember the day, they will stick the calendar sheet on it.  Just because the calendar had some photo of God or Goddess, people keep the pad even after the year is over, and they may event frame and use this as picture hang on the wall.

Each year, many local business gives a free daily sheet and a monthly sheet calendar.  People get more than one calendar and they use it all.    Also, during new years you can purchase calendars in the shops.  Though it is out dated concept, it is not vanished.  The calendar continues it’s journey… Next time when you go to India, look for a calendar handing in the wall!