November 9, 2015
was the start of another power-packed, exciting week at the GetFriday office and it also happened to be a propitious day, as it welcomed one of India’s feted festivals – Diwali!
A Brief Background
Diwali is celebrated across the 28 states of India because it marks the end of the vile, ‘Asura-King’ Ravana (‘Asura’ is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘Evil Soul’) and the glorious homecoming of Ayodhya’s most adored king, Lord Ram (‘Ayodhya’ is a birth place of Hindu Mythological God ‘Ram’). In a turn of unprecedented, hostile events, Lord Ram was banished to the forest for 14 years, where he, along with his brother, Lakshman and Ram’s devoted wife, Sita, spent their lives as hermits in solitude. It wasn’t long before Sita was abducted by the Asura-King. A fierce battle ensued between Ram and Ravana in the kingdom of Lanka (Now known as the country Sri Lanka), and Ram came out victorious, rescuing his wife, defeating the king and returning to his kingdom. This glorious return gave birth to the festival of Diwali and is now, celebrated around the world by Hindu communities. On this auspicious day, houses are decorated with ‘diyas’ (earthen fire lamps), embroidered with colorful floor designs, commonly known as ‘Rangoli’, with communities getting together to burst crackers, eat sweets and indulge in merrymaking.
How GetFriday Celebrated ‘Diwali’
When the whole of India was gearing up for this auspicious, colorful festival and offices in Bangalore were festooned in lights, how could GetFriday be far behind?
The GetFriday office celebrated the festival in pomp and style. Employees were dressed in their ethnic best on this day and the workstations were bedecked in lights, earthen lamps and floral decorations. The office was buzzing with excited employees walking into office in their new, colorful traditional wear and distributing sweets among each other. Wearing new clothes for Diwali is customary and the women employees of GetFriday engaged in excited banter and displayed their new jewelry sets and saris, among other carousing.
The celebrations at GetFriday continued through the day, with a special lunch organized for the employees. This lunch consisted of all the popular delicacies from around India and a whole variety of lip-smacking sweetmeats. As twilight approached, GetFriday witnessed a dynamic “Rangoli-making” competition between the teams present. Each team was given standard pack of powdered colors and the idea was to come up with the most visually appealing, innovative Rangoli design using only those colors and nothing else! Revelry prevailed and every employee who participated in this event made sure that they put their best foot forward to make sure their Rangoli design was the best! The festivities continued well into the night-shift and these teams also competed to earn the coveted spot among the winners of the “Rangoli” competition.
All in all, the day was a grand success and every employee who was present in office on this day can only agree that the Diwali celebrations uplifted their spirits and set the tone for the rest of the work week! As GetFriday employees work incessantly through the year, it is festivals such as these that give them a chance to celebrate their hard-work and efforts and offers them a well-deserved break! GetFriday is now gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas, with double the fun and festivities!
