Never Enough Holidays

I am not apologetic in saying that some of us cannot be given an inch because we always insist on getting that extra inch to make a yard.  We  coax, we implore and we even threaten that our demands be met.

One case in point is the upcoming Aidilfitri holidays.  The national public holidays for this festival is on the 25 and 26 June 2017, and since 25th falls on a Sunday, a replacement holiday is given on Tuesday.  And of late, the respective ministry has been accommodating enough in providing schools with extra holidays to turn holidays that involve religious festivities from two days into one very long week.

I one small way, to be fair, teachers nowadays can consider themselves quite lucky because amidst all the work that seem to be piling up on them, they still get long festival holidays to spend with their families and relatives.  Quite unlike teachers of yesteryear, me included, when we were not pampered with extra holidays.  If the gazetted holiday for Aidilfitri was two days, then that was all we got.  And if the holiday happened to fall on a Saturday and Sunday, then realistically we would only have one working day off, that was Monday.

So, families had to make clear decisions about their holiday plans.  It was like dashing off to one side of the family for the first day of holiday and then whizzing off to the other side of the family for the next day of hari raya.  They were short holidays but they were sweet.  

Grandparents did not have to put up with their children and grandchildren for a whole week, parents did not have to spend too much money on long holidays which can indeed be a lot and students (and teachers alike) did not take long to catch up with their studies.

And the best thing is, despite the two-day festival holiday, teachers of yesteryear still remained happy, contented and relationship with their extended families never faltered.  

Note : The thing about the "replacement holiday" will be dealt in a future entry.