2015 has been a roller coaster ride for Artoo. This was the year when our team size rapidly grew three times (of zealots who aim to conquer the Roman Empire). This was the year when we got our series A funding, when we onboarded a few new clients and completely revamped our product to a newer, better, faster, scalable v2.0, much like BB8 from The Force Awakens.
All of us at Artoo experienced this sinusoidal wave where troughs and crests of shaping the new product, discovering ourselves, our individual abilities and contributions, bogged us and simultaneously lifted us up to do better things. This was the year when we were gearing up, like the runner who got all his equipment right, got his mood set and now is standing on the starting line in his new Avataar, the new Artoo v2.0.
Being inclusive in every sense is one of the primary ethos of Artoo. Celebrating festivals is just an excuse for us to party, for the hungry hogs to satiate themselves with delicious food and for the intellectuals to throw some festive- gyaan here and there. In 2015, the last festival we celebrated was of course Christmas (we were all busy with our own private little New Year’s Party) and it had been a long gap of 20 days since we let ourselves loose. The first thing coming up this new year’s was Makar Sankranti or Pongal or Uttaryan, the festival that marks the onset of spring and is celebrated across the country. The two essential things associated with Sankranti were, The Feast (this was obvious) and kite flying. It was easy to get good food, thanks to the countless options in the city, but buying kites was a pain. Shameer and Shubham (who happen to be not just Geeks but Chief Entertainment Officers at Artoo) went around the city to find kites and came back to office empty handed but with a surprise. They dragged us to an empty cricket ground on the pretext of some new gliding adventure (which some of us believed!). And then came the surprise, under the open sky, bright city lights surrounding us and with people we believed in. Sky Lanterns!
Lantern festivals are part of many cultural ceremonies throughout Asia. The dazzling tradition signifies happiness, peace, prosperity, prayers and get-togetherness. Some also write their wishes on the lanterns and believe that these fascinating floating lights will fulfill them. All of us too lit lanterns and let them fly, up up and high! We stood there mesmerized by the spectacular sight of colorful, illuminated lanterns go higher and further away into the starry sky. There was a wave of joy, laughter and competitiveness of whose lantern goes the farthest. As we let out a loud cheer to our flying buddies, there were numerous Bangaloreans watching them in wonderment with smiles on their faces. Isn’t this what life is? Be happy and spread happiness.