Might as well start Diwali, Christmas...

One of the features of this year's Durga Puja has been everyone scrambling over each other to announce 'Open Season' days before the five-day festival starts according to the Hindu calendar. In Kolkata, where Mamata Banerjee in her incarnation as inaugurator of big neighbourhood pujas 'soft-launched' a full eight days before Puja started today, there were throngs of pandal-hoppers on pre-Puja days. If this was a track and field event, both pundits and pandits would have scoffed at this (millennial?) phenomenon of jumping the gun.

But, perhaps, spreading the Puja days out will have a beneficial larger effect. Like we will also witness today outside liquor shops and inside alcohol delivery apps because of it being a dry day tomorrow, redistributing Puja crowds beyond the usual five days could ease the load for enthusiastic crowds whether in Greater Kailash I or Greater Manchester. It also means a more spread-out 'open shop' for businesses catering to the Durga Puja ecosystem. Which is why we believe it to make eminent sense not to announce that Diwali starts next weekend, but also that Christmas, New Year and, indeed, Holi celebrations can start mid-October instead of at their usual, calendar-marked times. In fact, we envisage that one day not too far in the future, India will have no non-festival day.