Pongal & No Leave should be given.

Vanakkam.

I respect your views on pongal and being a tamilian i also understand the lines which hides behind those sentences. Honestly, come to Chennai and see how pongal is celebrated here. Thanni illaippa. Namma makkalukku pongal is one more a holiday in chennai. No body bothers about the pain & sufferings of the tamil farmer in the delta. Ingae nammakku thevai "Ulaga tholaikatchikalil [what is this wording about, have you ever seen a chinese channel runs a tamil film, apparum enna mannakatti, ulaga tholaikatchikalil]muthan muraaya oru padam" then, whole bunch of hindi, malayalam, tulu, punjabi, kannada, bengali actor acteress will talk about their oscar winning performance in the "dabba" films they have acted in lengthy intervus, in between there will be loads of advertisements "neyarkalukku engalin ulamartha pongal vazhuthukkal" [athu oru thani torture] and you will have all shops shut down, as if there is something serious for the whole day is happening.

Sorry Gnana, the days have gone. I seriously think, why people in City, barealone chennai, needs to be given holidays for festivals, which reflects the culture & tradition. As you see, the city invariably mortgaged its culture & belongings to the global monetary benefits and slowly giving away its soul to meaningless americanism & westernism. I donno about how a bangalore or a mumbaikar reacts to their own cultural festivals, but TN atleast in chennai, i can see a change in the mindsets of the people as a whole.

No one bothers about their roots over here. No body wants to care even about that. I am not a core cynical tamilian like you, but still hates to see my roots are being slow poisoned over here. Pity, nobody have time to look into this things. Kalanigar is busy criticising Sourav Ganguly for not giving follow-on decision on the last test match in Sydney and praises Yuvraj singh for his performance against the win of australia. That's the state over here.

Look around you and you get the feeling. I am getting it atleast, everyone carries a mobile fone, two wheelers, speaks in english, loans available in plenty [in between those things, you can note, they lose the temperment on things..patience, that's a dirty bad word in the city] certainly India is shining, but also brutally pushes things to a more money oriented, capitalistic society. We are creating money mongers & cash chase generation, who has no worry about their own roots and festivities.

Vijay TV is the only TV showcased the plea of Delta farmers on pongal. Rest all busy with their Starcast shows. 24X7 Channel's show, criticises this government reducing their annual agri related expenses 1.5% of the GDP to 0.7% from the congress govt. In the way of making $billion dollar reserves in the RBI, we are slowly making this country into a service shed and forgetting slowly our daily bread earners.

In this scenario, let me post back the ? why the fuck, i repat, why the FUCK, these people sitting in the city, and working for a souless american, british needs to be given a holiday on their pongal season. In fact, i can see a changing trend in younger community, moving towards yearend and Xmas celebrations [no ..i m not talking about religion over here, but sheer shift the mental shift] than to local festivals. End of the day, we need a leave purely because, annikku, fridge vangina 15% offer tharuvanga...that's all. Look at the no. of ads this time for Deepawali or Diwali, which ever the way you call it, this country is no more a sleeping country, which i born years before, this country has morphed into a customer-driven economy, where the respect is for monetary and not for festivities as such.

What they should have done instead. Soodu Suranai illathavan thamizhan nu v prove time to time. Is any organisation, has taken an initiative to provide a % of their pongal sales to these farmers. Nammakku athukkellam time kidayathu. We buried our hearts to TV serials and weep for earthquakes in Iran, bullet-sheds for Israel and criticises American chuvinism and slowly forget our own farmers who are dying over there..

Intha mathiri nilamayilae, ivanukkalukku Leave vidanuma....venam thalaiva, let them work on the day. Dont' worry about floating holidays, they will take the same for Valentines day, friends day, or for some south american festivals, coz of their company will be given a holiday.

No Leave for people in the city.

btw, we have seen Virumandi on pongal, 1st day 1st show...from thr we celebrated our pongal ;-) , ithuthanya yathartham. :-)