Holi Festival in-country and IBM CSC Triple benefits
Hi everyone! We're about 2 weeks away from our deployment. My departure will be on February 27th from Sao Paulo, Brazil to London, England and then from there to New Delhi, India - Arriving is estimated to be on March 1st by 1:30am IST. We're invited to participated of Indian Holi Festival, which I am REALLY looking forward to!
When I knew my CSC assignment was to India, the first thing I did was to see if my assignment would be during the celebration of Holi, because out of all Indian festivals, this is the one that really fascinates me. Our NGO partner explained all the background story about Holi and the meaning is what motivates me to participate. Find below a description taken from Wikipedia:
"The festival signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, end of winter, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair broken relationships. It is also celebrated as a thanksgiving for a good harvest. It lasts for a night and a day, starting on the evening of the Purnima (Full Moon day) falling in the Vikram Samvat Hindu Calendar month of Phalguna, which falls somewhere between the end of February and the middle of March in the Gregorian calendar. The first evening is known as Holika Dahan or Chhoti Holi and the following day as Holi, Rangwali Holi, Dhuleti, Dhulandi, or Phagwah."
This year Holi will be celebrated from March 1st evening until March 2nd and I will arrive on March 1st. Let's hope I can rest/sleep during my trip so I can be fully recovered to this event!
As I mentioned before, I could not be happier than I am now for have been selected to be part of IBM Corporate Service Corps (CSC). I applied other 3 times before being selected and to apply again it took a while to do so because I really wanted to be ready for this journey. Today, I feel ready, glad and being just 2 weeks away from my assignment, I am felling butterflies in my stomach and the responsibility weight in my shoulders. What makes me less worried is that I will be assigned with other gorgeous IBMers who will be like my family during these 30 days.
Today we had our weekly meeting between CSC India 38 team and the NGO partner who explained us about IBM CSC Triple benefit, which I could not agree more. They are:
1) IBMer participant (30 days deep experience in whole new culture, with other 12 different countries - Soft and hard skill improvement)
2) IBM company (Corporate Service Community giveback and increased presence in Social Media and increased Employee engagement and motivation)
3) Host organization & community (High quality selected consultants working to resolve identified issues and using the best of IBMers' quality to improve its processes and (if applicable) tools and this way also helping the community through the host organizations)
All these three will be benefited in many ways and putting all these three together to make a difference to the community is what really motivates me to be fully engaged in this assignment and giving all my heart and dedication to bring relevant results to this country.
Below you will see the result of a survey implemented to IBMers, IBM CSC Alumni:
I can say as CSC Participant that I agree with these indicators, even only being working on the pre-work activities because the interaction between IBMers from other countries and the NGO partner is already enriching my soft skills and cultural diversity awareness and I hope I can have the opportunity to apply all these knowledge in my assignment and after my assignment as well.
My next post will be the last one before my departure, so keep you posted on the preparation and packing check-list. See you!
