May 25 is turning to be quite an eventful day; what with all the speculation about how many catfights to expect from Karan Johar’s Naughty@40 party tonight and all the heated discussions on whether Delhi will cream Chennai into the ground or not. And yet, everyone’s attention has been grabbed by two words: Towel Day. (And, no it isn’t a holiday created to celebrate Ranbir Kapoor’s towel dropping scene in Saawariya, so don’t get your hopes up for an encore). All around the world, and over our Twitter and Facebook newsfeeds, people are paying homage to Douglas Adams, the great writer in whose memory this day is celebrated. And people are commemorating this day by carrying a towel with them all day.

The true importance of a towel was brought out by Douglas Adams, in his famous book Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “A towel ... is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. ... You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V ... wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat. ... Any man who can hitch the length

and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with." And so important is a towel to a hitchhiker, that when Douglas passed away in 2001, he was cremated with a towel and his tomb read, “Never go anywhere without your towel.” Which is why, two weeks after his death anniversary in 2001, fans suggested that May 25 be celebrated as Towel Day and every year since, the day is celebrated with gusto by Douglas Adam’s fans from around the world.

To join in the celebrations, we recommend you to carry a towel with you conspicuously all day, in fact even upload a picture with it on to Facebook. Also, visit Towel Day’s official website to pay homage along with all the millions of fans from around the globe and also call in sick from work and spend the entire day watching the movie version of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s Towel Day after all, how many times a year do we get to celebrate our towels?!