Petition

To
The President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi.

Re: Petition to announce 24th April as a National Holiday

Dear Madam:

We, the humble citizens of India, hereby make a pledge to you to declare 24th April as a holiday. The date, as we know, is when God was born. He turns 37 today.

God, as we've known Him over the years, has been responsible for the modification of the nation over the past two decades to transform it to the New India as we know it. Seldom have we been united in the illustrious history of our country under one belief. We have loved Him, have celebrated His accolades, have been ecstatic at His success and crestfallen at his rare lapses. We have changed channels when He has got out. We have treated our classmates and colleagues in an insane frenzy when He has scored hundreds. Even bookies do not place bets till He has been dismissed. There are thousands of such examples, and each one of us has his own.

In short, irrespective of the vast differences in clichéd aspects like culture, language, religion and geography and the underrated ones like intelligence, logical reasoning, calibre and ambition, we unite when He walks out to bat for India. The only known person to have done it had been executed in 1948, is called The Father of the Nation, and we celebrate a national holiday on his birthday. And he was just a mortal, like us. Not Him. He's a God. Possibly the greatest of Gods that have ever been.

If Janmashtami can be a holiday in most part of the country, we can definitely celebrate His birthday as well. It's the least we can do for Him.

Please do not turn us down. Please.

Yours faithfully,

Abhishek Mukherjee

(an atheist otherwise)
on behalf of
1,139,964,932 citizens, and counting

Dated the 24th of April 2010.