Bank holidays 2018: Prior to onset of winter season, the months of October and November span a number of festivals in India. During these two months, banks, schools and other offices are closed, providing opportunity to working people and others to enjoy their holidays, but at the same time, this leads to problems regarding the availability of services. This especially applies to banking services! A number of holidays at a stretch sometimes cause inconvenience to people due to non-availability of cash in bank ATMs, and India is heading for that scenario in the coming days as well.
 
Banks will head into the Dussehra holidays - Navami is falling Oct 18, while Dashmi or Dussehra is on Oct 19. Therefore, on both these days, there will be a complete shut-down of banking services. Since Oct 20th will be the third Saturday of the month, the banks will not function and the next day is Sunday.
 
If we talk about the next month i.e, November, the first week will have holidays due to festival of Diwali. From Nov 7 to Nov 9, banks are likely to remain closed due to the festival of lights followed by Govardhan puja and Bhaidooj. 
 
After this, there would be the second Saturday on Nov 10, which is a bank holiday, and then on Sunday there will no banking transactions possible. All this taken together will comprise five days, therefore, the question arises of the possibility of cash crunch at bank ATMs. Considering that these are festive occasions, people will be celebrating joyfully and that calls for spending lots of money. So, everyone should prepare well-beforehand and withdraw the amounts they think they will need to ensure they do not fall short and their celebrations are cut short at the worst possible time!
 
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Although the possibility of such a situation is remote because banks make adequate arrangements, there have been occasions in the past that should make people cautious.