Reliving the 7th B'day

I wonder how many other companies have celebrated their birthday the way we did! It was an UNPRECEDENTED celebration. 

When the first bit of decoration was being put up the previous evening, NOBODY would have imagined the scale to which this would go. 

By next morning, it had gone viral. Nothing could control the attack. 

I remember as a child, for Ganesh Chaturti,  we would go around the houses in our locality. Some houses would have just the Ganesha idol and decorations. There were others that would go beyond and do a ‘scenery’, depicting Shiva, Parvati in their heavenly abodes. The themes would be so different. But they were all bound by a common thread, a common spirit, a common celebration.

Our celebrations were no different. Each cubicle had a theme of its own. Each one was beautiful in its own way. Everybody wanted their cubicle to be unique and the best. However, they all were all united in the celebration. They all joined with the same fervour and enthusiasm.
 

It was a scene straight out of Wonderland. So COLOURFUL! So LIVELY!

And what a cross-pollination of ideas it was. The diversity in the cubicles was a proof of this. The elegantly decorated ‘shaadi mubarak’, with it’s red and white colour theme; the ‘Aids awareness’ theme touching a more serious social issue; the beautifully done up cubicle with the soft and colourful chiffon dupattas; the ‘zoo’ with all the little animals; the art gallery showcasing the artistic talent of our fellow Ubiquian; the party zone with the disco-lights; the balloons, the streamers, the diyas, the candles !!  What an amazing display of creativity and enthusiasm it was!

What added the most colour were the black-and-white pictures of our journey over the last 7 years. There was an air of nostalgia around that cubicle. Misty eyes, lumps in the throat, goose-bumps…as we relived those moments as our gaze moved from picture to picture pasted along the walls.

We have had birthday celebrations in the past years. But this one stood far above the rest. 

Unlike the earlier ones, it wasn’t at any expensive club or resort. It was right here, at our very own office (which we fondly call as our second home). 

It wasn’t ostentatious. It was simple. 

There wasn’t alcohol smell in the air. There was the fragrance of comradeship.

The decorations weren’t outsourced to anybody else. We did it up with our own hands. 

It had all the ingredients to make it special and memorable.

It’s been a couple of days since the birthday. But, nobody will hear of stripping down the decorations. They remind us of that day. The day that strengthened our bonding even further! We  will want to keep it that way.

14^th Feb for all of us, is no longer Valentine’s day. We will always remember it as our Ubq’s birthday.

Ubq, we wish you a very long LIFE. We are committed to a LIFELONG relationship with you!

We are 7 !

A company is judged by the way it celebrates its achievements. And boy did we celebrate yesterday! The hangover has not gone as yet :-)

In all the years that we have been around as a team, I have never seen an event at Ubq that was so successful in generating so much excitement...and all this without leaving the office...and without serving alcohol :-). Never imagined that a simple competition to decorate cubicles would turn out to be such a major show of creativity all day long. And what a show it was! The pictures taken say it all.

Then, out of nowhere, we witnessed the birth of a Cultural Committee at Ubq. What talent we have! I say we start competing in all the Inter-corporate Cultural Programs from now on. What do you all think? Time to give Volleyball a break......oh sorry, we are on a break from that already :-)

Kudos to the UPL Committee. I think they managed the auction better than IPL auctions. :-) Great show! This added to the overall excitement that had already built up throughout the day. The only problem now is that TV channels will start lining up at Ajmera Summit to cover this event every time we have it in the future. So much energy and fun.....and the players were not even getting paid real money!!! :-)

To our team members not based in Bangalore, we missed you. Where are the Star Trek technologies when you need them most? Wish we could just beam you all in for the celebrations. :-) Thank you Alhad, Swapnil, Shruti Verma, Shruti Goel and Deependra for the cake that you all sent. Meant a lot to us.

Let's create more opportunities to celebrate like this in the future. As I mentioned yesterday (inspired by Neelakanth's poem), the 7 years have taught us the 7 notes. It's time to play the music. :-)

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