Can there be Life without Calendars? An emphatic Yes!!

Calendars have been there for as long as we can remember. There are as many as 23 of them including the Gregorian, Hebrew, Islamic & Hindu calendars, the most common in use being the Gregorian of 12 months with days varying from 28 to 31. The latter was derived from the Roman calendar of 10 months with Insertion of July & August in between resulting in the paradox of 9th 10th 11th & 12th months called Sep, Oct, Nov & Dec.

Can we guess the day on 26th of Jan or Apr or Jul or Dec in 2015 or 15 Aug in 2015, 2018, 2020 without referring to calendars, or conversely guess the dates of 2nd Sunday in Feb 2015 or Apr 2016 or Jul 2017? We cannot even recall the number of days in various months except by the crests & troughs of the knuckles or recalling the childhood rhyme ‘30 days have Sep, Apr, Jun & Nov, the rest have 31, Feb has 28’.

Units of time viz day, week, month & year based on scientific phenomenon correspond to the time for the earth’s rotation, single phase of the moon, orbit of the moon around the earth and the earth’s revolution around the sun (rounded off to the nearest whole number) respectively

A day consists of 24 hours after rounding off the earth’s rotation in 23.9345 hours, a week has 7 days after rounding off the duration of each phase of approximately 7.4 days, a year has 365 days after rounding off the 365.255 (some say 365.242) days, with the leap year of 366 days taking care of the fraction. Month is the Odd one out consisting of days varying from 28 to 31. Based on the various calculations of the orbit of the moon there are as many as 5 different astronomical months varying from 27.21222 days in a Draconic/ nodal month to 27.32158 days in a Tropical month, to 27.32166 days in a Sidereal month, to Anomalistic month of about 27.55455 days, to Synodic month with mean length of 29.53059 days (4 of less than 28 days, 1 of 29+) averaging 27.78812 days. But none are of 31 days or even 30 days, whereas 7 of our 12 months are 31 days & 4 are 30 days. It is in fitness of things that the month should be of 28 days, the nearest whole number. 28 days is not only the most scientific but also the most pragmatic, as a month will consist of exactly 4 weeks, the year of 13 months all (except the 13th of 29 days) having a uniform 28 days/ 4 weeks.

The change will result in each date falling on the same day every month. Going a step further if the 365th day viz the 29th day of the 13th month (named 13th or Thirteenth to avoid any controversy) is given a unique name ‘yearend’ we will not only have the same date on the same day every month but also every month of every year. If we accept this, we can also accept the 366th day of the leap year being called ‘L-yearend’. Barring superstitions there should be no difficulty accepting a year of 13 months conversely if indeed superstitious there should be no 13th every month or years ala 2013.

The constant confusion as to whether a fortnight is 14 days viz 2 weeks totalling to 26 fortnights a year or 15 days viz half a month totalling 24 a year will buried by the revised month of 2 weeks & ½ month being the same.

Coming to the questions ‘Can we guess the day on 26th of Jan or Apr or Jul or Dec in 2015 or 15 Aug in 2015, 2018, 2020, or, conversely guess the dates 2nd Sunday in Feb 2015 or in Apr 2016 or Jul 2017’ we just need to know that the New Year 2015 is a Thursday. If 1st is Thu then 2nd is Fri, 3rd is Sat, 4th is Sun, 5th is Mon, 6th is Tue & 7th is Wed. Take any date subtract multiple of 7, the remainder gives the day of the week.

Republic Day 26 Jan 2015 = 26-21 = 5 = Mon & will remain a Mon in Apr, Jul & Dec & will remain so every month in every year.

Independence Day 15 Aug 2015 = 3rd Sep in the new calendar (of uniform 28 days in the 1st 12 of the 13 months) = Sat, & will be a Sat year after year.

Gandhi Jayanthi 2nd Oct = 23rd Oct in the revised calendar = 23-21 = 2 = Fri year after year.

1st Sun Feb 2015 = 1st Feb of present calendar (Jan 31 days) = 4th Feb of the revised calendar (Jan like all other months having 28 days), hence the 2nd Sun as per revised calendar will be 4+7 = 11h Feb 2015 & will be 11th Feb in all subsequent years as well. Will we still need a calendar? No, 2-3 years down the line calendars will be antiquities. Every 10 year old & above who knows the ‘7 times table’ will have the answer

Days are named after the sun, moon & the 5 planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus & Saturn), visible to the naked eye – Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat. But, why the small alterations, why not name them as such Sunday, Moonday, Marsday, Mercuryday, Jupiterday, Venusday & Saturnday or abbreviate them to Sunday, Monday, Mrsday, Mcyday, Jupday, Vnsday & Stnday. Should we not be scientific, logical & pragmatic in everything?

Will the world accept a change? It is not as if there have been no changes in the past or have different things concurrently.

We have/ had 23 different calendars some of them in use to this day.

We have had weeks with as few as a single day to 3, 5, 8, 10 & 15; names of days have changed from Sun Moon Ares Hermes Zens Aphrodite & Gronos to the present names.

As mentioned earlier a ten month year/calendar has given way to a 12 month year/ calendar.

Some calendars have Mon or Sat as the 1st day of the week, most have Sun as the 1st day, so why can’t Thu 1st day of Jan 2015 be the 1st day of the week henceforth?

Monthly salaries/ incomes may have to be corrected to 12/13th the current values. Weekly wage would be unaffected except for the 52nd week with 8 day wage & the 52nd week of leap years a 9 day wage.

Quarterly balance sheets/ forecasts would perforce not be uniform but 99 out of 100 people would prefer a uniform month resulting in all dates in the year falling on the same day to uniform quarterly financial statements. The correctness of the 4th quarter of 4 months can be derived by multiplying by 0.75 just as the real inflation indicies are derived by relating the new figures to the base rate.

The new calendar be called Indian Calendar. We must remember our unique heritage we are the only nation to have an ocean named after us viz the Indian Ocean, other at best have seas named after them ala Arabian Sea, Sea of Japan, South China Sea. It is a testimony of our ancient glory & the genius & hard work of our ancestors.

Rebutting sceptism & Exorcising mental ghosts - How will we observe International (UN Day etc) or National Days (Republic, Independence, Gandhi Jayanthi) or festivals or personal anniversaries?

Even today there is more than one calendar in use.

A Gregorian calendar invariably has a date corresponding to some other calendar printed in one corner, e.g. 01 Oct 2016 in a Tamilnadu calendar has 6th & 15th related to 2 other calendars printed on either side, the same 01 Oct 2016 in a Hindi calendar has 7th printed on it, which relates to yet another calendar.

Change to 13 months would necessitate a one-time change of national international & religious days and birth, wedding & death anniversaries. We can print the Indian Calendar with corresponding dates of the Gregorian calendar as illustrated in the attachment to co-relate the new dates & also transcribe significant dates on the revised calendar. Republic day will continue to remain 26th Jan, but the Martyrs Day will shift to 02 Feb, Independence Day to 3rd Sep, Gandhi Jayanthi to 23rd Oct & so forth.

After a couple of years, co-relation & important days on revised dates will be second nature(those of us in our sixties would remember the overlap of old annas & pies with the naya paisa for a few years) & calendars will become antiquities.

If the world can have 2 different sets of unit measures metric & non metric, kilometre & miles (US), kilogram & pounds, litre & gallons, lakhs/ crores & millions/ billions/ trillions, drive on the left or the right of the road, left hand drives & right hand driven vehicles so can Indian calendar exist alongside the Gregorian. When the scientific basis, logic & pragmatism of the revised calendar dawns on people & their govts, more & more nations will adopt the Indian calendar.

It is nations that set trends that become super powers in different fields. USA a colony of Britain has in a matter of little over two centuries become a superpower because it deliberately tried to be different – driving on the left, using only a fork & holding it in the left hand rather than a spoon & fork, badges of ranks of the military officers being worn on the collar rather than the shoulders, the stripes of the non commissioned officers pointing down rather than up, we get the bill & write out cheques, they get checks & pay by bills (currency), dates are 09/11 viz 11 Sep while we call 11 Sep as 11/ 09, flat is apartment, taxi is cab, policeman is cop & so forth. Such leadership kindles a desire for excellence. US displays excellence but we display mediocrity, whereas our ancestors displayed excellence – Nalanda, zero, seafaring & navigating across oceans are testimony

Each nation has its own DNA, we cannot be a political, military or economic superpower but were & can once again be the jagat-guru. To become the jagat-guru we must make a beginning now (longest of journeys start with a single step) & maintain the momentum for the next fifty years.

Let India lead rather than follow Britain, Soviet Union/ Russia, USA, European Union, China or Japan.

“Mr Modi it is your privilege/ destiny, nay your onerous duty to lead us our ancient glory – land of milk & honey, the Sone ki Chidiya, just as it was the Mahatma’s destiny/ onerous duty to lead us to freedom, which he did notwithstanding the aberration of the bloody partition. True to his nature of practising more than preaching, his violent death was a subtle message of ‘similar end’ to the victims of partition. Cleanliness, toilets, financial inclusion of the poorest, make in India, model villages, labour reforms, Black Revolution, scrapping subsidies to ineligible people, GST etc are all very well but please don’t miss the woods (restoration of ancient glory) for the trees.

Countdown begins today we have exactly 2 months to go & ....... our mindset to vanquish.


By Colonel (Retd) Ramesh Goyal