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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Three Cheers for Instant Messages!

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Anticipating Dussehra Festivities

Before we left for dinner, I opted to leave my instant message application on, as I was waiting for a U.S. colleague to help me with a spreadsheet formatting dilemma. The dilemma's solved -- thanks, Mike! -- and even more exciting, I received a celebration invitation from an Indian colleague.

He invited Pat and me to join him and his friends in celebrating Dussehra over the weekend. My other friend Chitra is Catholic and so doesn't celebrate the Hindu holidays, and until this friend contacted me, I didn't think we'd be doing much celebrating.

Will I find ways to relate, i.e., that it's part of a nine-day festival with lights, like Chanukah is an eight-day festival of lights, and that the calendar of Hinduism is lunar apparently, too? Or will I feel alienated at the essential non-Jewishness of it? Or both? Or neither?

Whatever I feel from 10 pm-2 am on Saturday -- I can't believe we will be up that late -- I'm so touched to have been included in his celebration. "I think it will be worthwhile," he messaged.

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