Halloween and November Release!!

Nopes!! There is no connection at all!!

Well November release D-day made all us feel that even Halloween is a rejoice!

Whats Halloween!!??

A really strange festival where the people make merry making fun of ghosts and spirits and Halloweens!!

It is the last day of October which is celebrated as this. We in India celebrate when we kill the demons and here the scenario is a bit different - they celebrate when they make fun of evil spirits! That is all I could know about HALLOWEEN.
More links to what it actually is and how it was traced back is on the side bar - the Halloween origin and History!

In Mexico, the custom of El Día de los Muertos — the Day of the Dead — may sound much like the U.S. custom of Halloween. After all, the celebration traditionally starts at midnight the night of Oct. 31, and the festivities are abundant in images related to death. But the customs have different origins, and their attitudes toward death are different: In the typical Halloween festivities, death is something to be feared. But in el día de los muertos, death — or at least the memories of those who have died — is something to be celebrated.

Many of us never bothered to know why the pumpkin cut with eyes and nose mark this occasion - Here is the fact from American mythology - This is based on an old Irish legend about the drunk, Jack. One day he was out in the woods and tricked Satan into a tree to throw down some fruit. Once Satan had helped him he carved a cross into the tree and trapped him there. He then struck a deal that Satan would leave his soul alone when he died. This backfired when he died since heaven would not take him either. When he kept bothering the Devil to let him in the Devil gave him a burning ember instead. He carried the ember in a hollowed out turnip (sometimes described as rotton) to light his way as he wandered through eternal darkness on the earth. Eventually this was replaced with the pumpkin in America and became the modern Jack-o-Lantern.

Enough of this one- Now some news on how Aetna celebrated Halloween. It was actually fantastic. This was my first time when i was actually seeing this happening in the office. An entire production floor was decorated as graveyard and was based on various themes. I caught a few pictures on my camera mobile. Here are they for you. It is actually hard to believe till you see them yourself. Boy! All darkness in the floor and various themes- as if it is the Infosys Cubicle decoration competition!!

Now.. November 2006 Release in Aetna!!

Ask anyone in Aetna about November and you would get a cold shrug of shoulders!

God knows how the time went.. I, along with all the others - be at onsite or offshore, all were actually begining to think if this will be the end of the world and will never end!
Anytime you open the mailbox you will find 45 emails atleast in the email box. All the systems crashed, thousands of defects open, boy it was nothing but plain and simple brutal torture of hell. At a point young modulus of elasticity also would fall short!

When the Nov 11 date was done, there had to be a chit chat go merry phase which was badly need to rejuvenate the entire crew. And for that the Party place was organised!

It started at 7 and ended at 10, but it was real fun.
Photo Links at the side as usual.. :)

Have a look at the snaps to know more!! :))