We had a Diwali Mela in office last Nov. It’s an annual do, and we try to get as many people involved in it. The proceeds (minus cost to the person) all go to charity. So we have stalls of some stuff, and make posters, to make it as big an even as we can. Employees are encouraged to bring their families … it’s a big happy family, with great stress busting, bonding time.

Since my interest is in food, I tried to figure out what I could do. There were many stalls – poori aloo, kababs, some jello shots, chocolates etc. But we needed something substantial too. So I had a stall of fried rice and noodles with another colleague. While that didn’t require much (we cooked this at home – in a wok, at least 4-5 times – to get a bg load ready). But then my creative side started pinching me… I wasn’t having fun… or rather as much fun as I wanted to.

So I decided to have a DIY stall. The main part of that was baking lots of muffins/cupcakes. I spent 5-6 hours the night before to bake several batches of muffins. Then I put together as many of the decorations that I could. I had bottles of : gems, honey loops, chocolate shavings, honey, chocolate syrup, coloured saunf and what not. SO I arranged a bog plastic box full of muffins, and had a workbench where everyone could come and decorate their muffins as they wished. And boy, was that a popular stall!!! First the adults brought their kids to have fun…

The kids had a ball… they tried to pile as many things as they could… some tried some designs… some tried the smileys… it was fun… many came for more

Then the adults grew more confident. They started coming in and trying out their creative sides… and that was even more exciting. Again, many came back…. however, there were a few who wanted just the plain muffin. Well, that, I told them, was not allowed. If they did not want to decorate, I would do it for them! Ha! That was my fun bit…

There was another section of decorating diyas with paints, sparkles, beads etc. That was popular too!

Well, the moral of the story (!) is that the ideas need to be small, and the execution easy… and then even the hardiest of them adults open up and have fun!!  Check out the shiny happy people in the pics!!  🙂