Corey writes:

Today was the festival of Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi in India. From Wikipedia:

The festival is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or holy thread by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The brother in return offers a gift to his sister and vows to look after her as she presents sweets to her brother. The brother and sister traditionally feed one another sweets.

Similar to other designations like aunt, uncle, and cousin; brother and sister here don't mean blood relations. In fact, people refer to each other as "bhaina" (brother) or "didi" (sister) here all the time. It's more like a term of endearment.

We first found out about Rakhi in an interesting way. Two weeks ago in Pondicherry we bought some pretty bracelets as gifts for the girls (or guys) at work. However, once we brought them to the office, people told us they were Rakhi and that we had to wait until the 24th to give them out.

We weren't sure what to expect exactly, but we came to work prepared with plenty of sweets. It was a lot of fun for an hour. Everyone just ran around feeding sweets to each other and giving/receiving bracelets.

Here I am being "Rakhed" by Smruti.

Gina "Rakhed" Satya like a hurricane.

Flashing my bling with Soumya

It made me feel good to get so many Rakhis. It's days like this that remind me of the relationships that I've worked hard to establish at SOVA, and that I really value. Our friend Soumya even invited us over to her house tonight for custard!