Friday Faze - Special edition

Last year, one of my colleagues asked me if I would model for a photograph that was to go into a textbook she was editing. The photo was one of the racial harmony kinds, and I was to be the 'Indian girl' in it.

"So? Would you do it? Pleeease?" She asked.

"Over my dead body." I said.

Now don't get me wrong here. I am totally for racial harmony, and I love the fact that Singapore is a multi-racial country, and I do get the rationale of such photographs in textbooks to subconsciously instil the concept of racial harmony in the minds of kids. But to pose in an Indian costume with two girls in a sappy photo that screams, "Oh look at us, we're best friends, and we conveniently belong to different races. And oh, did you notice how happy we are?" I wouldn't be caught dead in that kinda photo.

Racial harmony comes from mutual respect, tolerance, acceptance and love. And I'm doing my part without having to pose for such photos. Take today's Friday Faze, for example.

Friday Faze is a recreational event in my company, organised on the last Friday of each month by a team of editors. The name 'Friday Faze' was coined by yours truly, as the event seemed to literally do that -- faze editors who'd rather finish their work and not have to take it home over the weekend, than attend a 'useless fun' event. That coupled with the peak season for textbook publishers, we had not had any Friday Faze in the last coupla months.

A few days ago, a couple of us were discussing how Deepavali and Hari Raya (Diwali and Eid respectively) were just one day apart this year, and we decided that we should do something fun to celebrate it at work. I managed to convince both my managing editor and my publisher to allow us to host Friday Faze again, albeit on a grander scale. We even got sponsorship, and my Marketing Manager agreed to throw in free goodie bags too. (So all that lending of SRK movies to her did bring something back!)

And that's how the planning of the Friday Faze - DeepRaya edition started. We put together a committee ensuring sufficient representation from both the Indian and the Malay (Muslim) communities. The plan was to have fun, freebies and food and bring the different overworked departments together for a chilling session.

We coaxed and cajoled people into agreeing to dress up in the best of their ethnic finery. We even told them that they would increase their chances of winning the best ethnic costume award if they "cross-dressed". Ahem, by cross-dressing, I meant dressing up in the ethnic costume of a race different from yours.

I had to decide what I was gonna wear. Now generally I don't wear a lot of Indian clothes. Only three days in the year see me in my Indian finery -- Diwali, Independence Day and Republic Day. Unless of course, I go nuts some time in the year and decide to observe a self-conceptualised India week.

Actually, I badly wanted to wear a saree for this event, but considering that when I wear a saree, I walk like a penguin in a kimono, I could not see myself going through the first half of the day at work. Also, I believe that wearing a saree is a full-time job in itself, and as the organiser, I did not see myself being able to do any organising if I wore such a hazardous costume.

Besides, I wanted to "cross-dress"! I would have liked to wear a Chinese cheongsam, complete with the sexy slits, but apparently, you need to get it stitched to get the perfect fit. So I decided to wear a Chinese cheongsam top with jeans instead. I went to Chinatown to buy one, and I got myself a real beauty. And I actually bargained! (I bargained in Singapore! Yeay!) Managed to pull the price down from 49 bucks to 35. (After all, I've been trained by the expert!)

My colleague convinced my publisher (she's Chinese) to wear a saree! And not only did she look gorgeous, but she pulled it off better than any Indian wearing the saree for a first time could! We even made her catwalk in the saree, and she was so graceful I was totally stumped! Even my managing editor, and many other male editors were sporting borrowed kurtas. And almost all the girls agreed to us putting on a bindi for them at the entrance. And since we had loadsa colours to choose from, we picked the ones that matched their clothes.

We had two competitions, rangoli making and ketupat making. To make things less messy, we got them to make the rangoli with coloured rice and the ketupat with ribbons. The guys' group actually co-won the rangoli making competition because of their incredible creativity. You'll see later what I'm talking about.

To end the evening, my managing editor did a screening of a Russel Peters video. That guy is hilarious! I must remember to borrow the DVD and watch it again.

Am posting some of the photos here. Can't post everything. To your dismay, guys, I really should not post photos where faces are visible, especially of my hot half-Caucasian, half-Malay intern, looking even hotter in a traditional flowing Malay costume. And oh did I mention she won the 'best costume' award? Oh how mean am I, huh? ;)















We decorated the entrance with ethnic stuff.
















The guys' table during the rangoli making competition. I had given them a reference design, which they had to reproduce using the coloured rice. But their design did not look anything like the reference design. What in heaven's name were they doing??
















Ahhh!! No wonder! Guys will be guys, eh?? :)
















The Malay goodies. I suggested that we have labels for all the ethnic food items to provide a bit of info about them.















And the Indian goodies.















We even had a henna stall with this very 'friendly greeting' I wrote.
















One of my illustrators got so excited when he saw the henna cones, he asked me if he could have one. And would you look at that?
















Oh wow! That dragon looks cool!
















And that's me, putting henna for one of my designers.

And that's all. Oh, what a fun day!