"I miss spending Dewali with my family," said Meena Kumari in a melancholy tone.
Strolling around the university all day, we wondered whether the Hindu students wanted Dewali to be considered a national holiday across the country. Dewali is the biggest and perhaps most vigorously celebrated event in the Hindu culture. Underneath the sheet of colors, and fireworks that glitter the nights during the festival, there are a crux of festivities which relates to prayers being offered to their gods.
It is intriguing to know that the attachment and indulgence associated with this occasion are very similar to that tied with Eid. Also, like Eid, its dates are decided by the moon calendar and they fell on Sunday and Monday, 3rd and 4th of November, this year. We have always wanted and prayed the fourth day of Eid be declared a holiday, so the fact that the Hindu student body is not granted a holiday even on their "Eid" seemed overwhelming.

To widen the scope we then went to non-Muslim faculty members. It was a pleasant surprise that the government of Pakistan does recognize minority holidays. Mr. Manoj from the city campus told us, "IBA allows Dewali holidays as an option to its staff as it's a gazetted holiday by the government of Pakistan". The students not getting an off while the teachers enjoyed optional holiday seemed rather unfair but Mr. Roger Eli shed light on a different point of view: "Student life is when you're making something of yourself so you can't afford to stand against the rush and be left behind. The staff is merely enjoying the perks and payoffs of the efforts they put in to get where they are."
Interestingly, Pakistani Christians are lucky to have Christmas coincide with the winter vacations and Muhammad Ali Jinnah's birthday. However, they too are denied holidays on occasions like Thanksgiving and Easter as students or private sector employees. The Christian students we came across were generally just happy that they get to celebrate Christmas with wholesome zeal and zest, "our other occasions are secondary compared to Christmas". A highly esteemed member of IBA teaching staff, Professor Leon Menezes said the taking up the optional holiday can be a burden in itself "if faculty takes leave, he/she will have to conduct make up session later."
The students and teaching faculty at IBA generally think that although closing the University for every Minority’s Events would be a drastic step, it's only reasonable to at least allow the students leave on the days of their festivals. Just because they're a smaller group does not mean their feelings are any less important and giving them holidays on their festivals would make them feel much more welcome and valued. We approached Professor Bilal Munshi with this problem and he replied with what is the-cherry-on-top to this argument "You guys get off for all your Eid days, if Hindus getting Holidays on Dewali makes them happy- Why not?"
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