Festivals are a time of coming together, families, friends, communities, societies, countries and colleagues. Pongal is the harvest festival from Tamil Nadu, India, celebrated with much love by Tamilians all over the world. It marks the beginning of the new the new Tamil month, Thai, and exalts the Sun God for a successful harvest. At Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE), where the farmer is a friend and whose life we aim to enrich, Pongal was celebrated with much fan fare. It was a tribute and recognition to the farmer who is responsible for sustaining us all.
To start off proceedings, an interesting video which shed light on how society has forgotten the importance of Pongal with a dash of humour was played for everyone. The celebrations organized by the HR department included office versions of age-old traditional games and activities that have been part of the Pongal celebrations. The employees were first divided into random teams. These activities required the teams to perform traditional artistic forms of dance like Mayil Aattam, Oyil Aatam, Kolaattam, Thappattam, Gummi, Silambaattam, among others. The idea here was to get the team members to immerse themselves in these traditional art forms and soak in their significance.
The next team activity required each team to perform few lines of a given folk song with the accompanying traditional folk dance within ten minutes. For the final activity, people were guided to a separate location for ‘Uriadi’ (variation of Piñata) which was a hit among the participants. The celebrations concluded with traditional snacks that tied back to the message of respecting and fostering our traditions, while remembering the farmer for their indispensable contribution to our lives. The HR department must be lauded for #CultivatingtheWorld with this well thought-out and considerate event.
Scroll through the images to be a part of the celebrations.
