I generally try not to begin posts on my blog on the day of a festival on a negative note. But I am making an exception today because I really feel I need to make a point about something that struck me as funny this morning. I woke up at 6.15 AM today and idly reached out for my mobile which I keep under my pillow and started reading tweets from all over the country on Twitter.
I read tweets from several friends and to my chagrin many had tweeted wishing their Christian friends a merry X’mas. Why have we suddenly become so parochial in our country? Jesus Christ’s message of love was for all humanity. I was born into a Hindu family but I have been celebrating Christmas for a long time now. Frankly I do not consider myself affiliated to any particular religion. I celebrate Christmas with the same fervor with which I celebrate Diwali, Holi and Onam. My daughter exchanges gifts with her friends every Christmas.
Having said that, I would now like to extend a warm, wonderful, merry and happy Christmas and a prosperous new year to one and all. Usually I am in Kochi at Christmas time and we celebrate Christmas a day or two before 25th December in my office. But unfortunately this year I am in Chennai and missed the Christmas celebrations in my office.
During the celebration we all pick chits to decide our Christmas friend and exchange gifts. We are all supposed to keep the identity of our Christmas friend a secret. This means that though one knows for whom one has to buy a gift, one never knows who will be presenting him or her a gift.
I have already handed over my gift for my Christmas friend to the organizer of the celebrities since I will not be attending the festivities. I am eagerly waiting to find out who my Christmas friend is when I attend office on the 27th.
During Christmas celebrations our office gets decorated beautifully and looks simply wonderful. A beautifully decorated Christmas tree adorned with lovely lighting takes center stage. We conduct crib making competitions, carol singing competitions and also a quiz competition based on Christian lore and History. Alas, I missed all of it this time but thankfully my friends have posted some of the images of the celebrations on Whatsapp and I am including them in this post. Here are the images.
Beautiful decorations and celebrations at your office, it's great that your office follows the 'Secret Santa' tradition of gifting. Wishing your a Merry Christmas and prosperous new year.