Listers, Mandeep says: <This weekend is a blessed one.Apart from Holi, there's Id-e-Milad-un-Nabi (the birthday of the Prophet) and Easter. > The Indian newspapers are saying that this succession of holidays coupled with Saturday and Sunday, have all banks, offices etc closed from Wednesday onwards. All babus can now relax in their houses. They do not have to go to their offices for that! (Grin!) On the topic of the Indian babu's love for taking things easy, I cannot resist narrating the following story, with a suitable kow-tow towards John of course! A visa seeker went to an Indian embassy in the afternoon. The embassy was empty, with all diplomats having gone home early. There was only the lone security guard. The visitor indignantly asked him, "Don't they work in the afternoon?" The guard, being an embassy person, was steeped in diplomacy. He replied, "Sir, your question needs to be reworded. It is in the morning that they don't WORK. In the afternoon they don't COME." Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, March 22, 2008.