Carassauga

The festival of culture celebrated in Canada. All over mississauga, various countries setup their pavilion and display their culture thru songs/dance/food/jewelery/fashion shows, etc. We were lucky to see so many cultures in 3 days. Ranging from the Calypso, Reggae of Carribean to the Belly Dances of Egypt and Cyprus, from Magic shows of Italy to Kung-Fu of China, Wild dances of Hawaii to Sweet dances of Poland, Indian Bharatnatyam to Pakistani Fashion show...watching all this was an unforgettable experience.

TDC Goes Traditional

An excellent writeup by Surma on the Ethnic Day celebrated at TDC:

TDC goes Traditional !!

Toronto Development Center (aka TDC) has always been a fun place to work in, a cordial happy atmosphere that inspires professionalism and innovation. So when an e-mail titled “Ethnic Wear Day at TDC” floated into our mailboxes, it resulted in the normal buzz of excitement and speculation.

With a multicultural population ranging from Indians to Japanese to Russians and of course Canadians, this was destined to be a colorful event! For days discussions centered around clothes – a rare occurrence in the male-dominated TDC atmosphere! The air was charged with plans and guesses and finally…… who would win the Mr./ Ms Picture Perfect(to be awarded to the best dressed associate)!

30^th April 2008 – officially Ethnic Wear Day at TDC – dawned bright and shining. The cheerful sky was a sure sign of fun things to come! As the minutes ticked by, the cubicles gradually filled up with color and innovation. Every person was at his ethnic best – each individual mirroring his culture and tradition! Yours truly decided to step into the sidelines and play a true reporter! So here goes the report on Who walked the Red Carpet! And How!

Sailendra Kagolanu : In his starched white Vesti and dazzling Angavastram he was the perfect picture of South Indian superstar RajaniKanth! All that was missing was the superhero’s trademark dark glasses. Even that was taken care of by his style and presence!

Keren Bandner : Our favorite HR Keren was at her stylish best! In her inimitable fashion she was garbed in the Montreal Canadian jersey. That’s what we call a true Canadian to the core!!

Premjith PuthenVeetil : Trust this ever smiling person to pull that magic rabbit out of thin air! In his cream silk shirt and white Mundu he was Picture Perfect. And that is what the votes said as our TDC unanimously handed him the Best Dressed award! And true to his fun loving nature he graced the occasion with a fine catwalk!

Alex Korobchevsky/ Timothy Sung-To Li/ Allen Ko : Gave us wonderful glimpses of Russian and Chinese traditional wear.

Ankush Agarwal/ Grover Ankur / Sachin Gupte : This enthusiastic trio in starched white Kurtas sure stole the show! Ankur especially was seen strutting about in true Politician style.

Tejas Badani : In a blue kurta Tejas could be seen (and heard) campaigning really hard for the Picture Perfect award! With his every ready smile and fun loving nature he sure added a spark to the day!

James Cruz/ Muthukumar Muthukaruppan/ Sateesh Nandula/ Siva Pondugula : They are what we call in TDC as Brand South India! This group of young men came perfectly clad in stached white Dhotis and kurtas. They were fun and excitement personified!

Tyash Ghosh/ Amit Jagdish/ Khalil Khokhar : If you thought they were more Canadian than Indian… rethink! Tyash was the perfect Bengali Babu and Amit grabbed the limelight with his elegant white attire! Khalil was awesome in traditional Black!

Vernon Pereira /Surya Vivek Prakash : With their Canadianzed Indian attires these boys just managed to tread the Thin Red Line, but the precious gifts of smile and fun they brought to the party was much appreciated! Vernon is of course our eternal Cool Dude and Vivek manages to dazzle all with his Harsha Bhogle style commentaries!

And, not to forget the ladies, that is yours truly and Revathy Venugopal : We played safe with the evergreen traditional sari and salwar suit !

The day brought moments of good fun and entertainment! The photo sessions were great and the cake cutting that followed was awesome! All associates in ethnic wear were give chocolates! And a round of applause is certainly due to our photographers Nipun and Muthu!

In a world of fast food and faster lives, the Ethnic wear day was like a breath of Fresh air. It gave us a rare opportunity to take a step back and delve into our roots. That is how I shall always remember Ethnic wear Day at TDC – a day where I found a piece of Motherland in a wonderful land thousands of miles away from Home! A true Homecoming in every sense!