How Tamil Nadu collectors are dealing with both incessant rains and messages asking for a school holiday

“Stressed, ma’am”.

“I’m almost going mad because of the constant studies.”

“If I don’t score marks, everyone will ask questions.”

“Help me and everyone else by giving one day leave, ma’am.”

These were some of the other messages he sent to the collector.

And when Kavita Ramu finally did declare a rain holiday because of the heavy rain prediction, the student couldn’t contain his happiness and gratitude.

“Thank you so much, ma’am. You mean a lot to us. I can’t forget you ma’am,” was his thank you message. He further went to call the collector “the angel”.

Of kids and collectors

Just like anyone reading this, the messages from the student left Kavita Ramu in splits, and she decided to post the screenshot of these messages, along with other such school holiday requests from students, on her Facebook account.

Screenshot of messages received by Pudukkottai collector requesting for rain holiday.

“Sometimes these messages are stress-busters. The students message asking for holidays because they had not done their homework or they had some exam, etc. I even get calls on my official number asking for a holiday, Kavita Ramu told South First.

Interestingly, with the Northeast monsoon hitting Tamil Nadu, the inboxes/ timelines of several other district collectors are also flooded with similar requests.

For instance, according to Tiruvallur District Collector Alby John, his mornings these days begin with either responding to the tweets from school and college students or calls from the media asking if there is a rain holiday.

On 4 November, a Twitter user asked the collector if there was a possibility for holiday for colleges in Tiruvallur.

“Not today. Let’s wait for the next time,” quipped Alby in his response.

Not today. Let’s wait for next time 🤝 https://t.co/XVaUcSoiVP

— Collector, Tiruvallur (@TiruvallurCollr) November 4, 2022

Making up some rain

“Sometimes they ask for holiday claiming that there is four feet of water outside their homes and hence, they cannot go to schools/colleges. We get updates every one to two hours about the rain situation in various parts of the district. So, when we cross-check their claims, we come to realise that there have been no rains at all in that particular area,” John laughingly said.

Likewise, one of Virudhunagar District Collector Meghanath Reddy’s tweets responding to a holiday request had gone viral last year.

“Sir, there is heavy rain in Virudhunagar district,” a Twitter user named Siva posted with a folded hands symbol.

To this, Meghanath replied: “Thanks to your continuous prayers for a leave, it is raining heavily thambi (brother) in our district. So, schools and colleges will be closed tomorrow alone.”

The good news, however, came with a rider. “Use this leave to complete your homework!! Teachers will check,” said the collector, thus shattering the student’s hope of enjoying a lazy rain holiday.

While appreciating the collector for his “good heart”, another Twitter user by the name Hema Sundaramoorthy asked Meghanath Reddy to get the Chennai collector to declare a holiday as well!

Thanks to your continuous Prayers for a Leave, it’s raining heavily thambi in our district.
So, School and Colleges will be closed tomorrow, 26.11.2021 alone.
Use this Leave to complete Homework!! Teachers will check!
Stay safe.

— Meghanath Reddy J (@jmeghanathreddy) November 25, 2021

So how do collectors decide when to declare a rain holiday?

Speaking to South First, all three district collectors mentioned above said that the decision to announce a rain holiday depends on several factors such as the rain forecast given by the State Disaster Management Authority, prevailing conditions on ground, among other things.

For example, if it has rained heavily in the late evening and more rains are predicted for the next day (red/orange alert), then, hurray!, it’s a holiday. The officials also take into consideration the water stagnation on roads, the levels of rain received in different taluks, etc, before taking a call.

The decision is usually taken late in the evening or by 6 am in the morning, looking at the prevailing conditions and rain predictions.

However, there are also times when a holiday is declared by the district administration, but the sun comes out all blazing on that day.

Messages don’t stop even after declaring holiday!

But for the collectors, the messages from students don’t stop even after they declare a rain holiday.

A lot of times, the announcement is followed by complaints — that the officials were late in declaring the holiday in the morning; that only school kids were given priority, and not college students.

As for the three district collectors who spoke to South First, all of them said that they don’t discriminate between school students and college students while giving a holiday as the latter usually have to travel long distances and use public transport to reach their colleges.

In some other instances, according to Pudukkottai Collector Kavita Ramu, she received messages from college students from the bordering districts complaining that while the administration in the district where the students are residing had announced a rain holiday, there was no holiday in Pudukkottai where their college is located. This has happened to Alby John too.

My house is in chennai sir my college is in thiruvallur sir how can we go to college sir please kindly give us holiday sir

— akash (@akash64252386) November 4, 2022

It doesn’t end with that. Many Twitter users also complain to the collectors, asking them to take note of how certain schools/college continue to hold classes despite the officials announcing a holiday.

Hello sir in thiruverkadu Sri annai vidhyashram matric higher secondary school conducting school today please take some action

— shakthi (@shakthi41351184) November 2, 2022

In the case of the Tiruvallur collector, he even received a complaint from a student asking why schools were holding online classes during a rain holiday!

‘Glad to see these messages’

When asked if these constant messages irked them, all three district collectors replied in the negative.

In fact, all of them were glad that they were getting such messages from the “2K kids”, for it showed that people were aware of the channels they could use to reach out to the authorities to highlight their grievances or issues they were facing.

Interestingly, the collectors also get several other messages from children, apart from asking for rain holidays.

For instance, Kavitha Ramu recalled an instance where she got a message from a young student saying that her father, who was working in a government department, was under a lot of stress and asked if the collector could do something to help him.

“It is good to know that students and others have access to these platforms. In the past, it was not easy to meet the collectors and other officials. But now, they can communicate with officials with so much ease,” Meghanath Reddy pointed out while talking about the power of social media.

(Even as this reporter is writing the story, Tiruvallur Collector Alby John has announced a holiday for schools and colleges in the district on Friday, 11 November, as a red alert has been issued by the meteorological department. Hopefully, he won’t have to begin his morning tomorrow replying to messages from school students!)