Fun in the times of COVID: Fyle Edition
Before you start reading this blog, take a moment to see why I wrote it.
Now that you know my most sinister reasons behind writing this blog let me introduce myself. I am Sanyem Gupta, and I work with the Engineering Team at Fyle. I initially joined as an intern in January this year and then converted to full time.
COVID-19 has not been pleasant for any of us, and a few months back, everyone at Fyle felt the same way when we had to go remote. This meant no more chai break conversations or sending “Getting Married” messages on our Slack channels from others’ laptops.
Yes, that’s a thing at Fyle, proof attached!
As the months went by, soon, many people switched cities or went back to their homes. No more chai breaks, no more workplace shenanigans. But, the People of Fyle still came up with many ways to keep everyone cheered up.
We had multiple hackathons, surprise goodies from Fyle, and even had a Secret Santa in the middle of Summer! (Yes, we try our best to keep things brewing!) :)
But even after ALL of this, something was missing. A platform for all of us to unite again in all our wit and glory!
Thus, I came up with an idea for an event through which everyone can loosen up and use their funny bone to describe their journey at Fyle. With my peers' help, Shahbaz, Yitzhak, and Kulasekar, we organized the much-awaited event.
Now I know you must be wondering what the idea was. Don't worry, you will get to know. We also made everyone at Fyle wait for a few days before revealing the event.
To add to the hype, before revealing the event, we made teasers just like a big-budget movie to create a certain level of excitement among everyone. Then, finally came the moment of reveal. And it wasn't just a normal reveal.
We made the event reveal in memes.
Yes, yes, memes. Those silly images/videos people create in 400*400 on a mobile phone.
Mehfil-E-Meme was an event where everyone had to share their Fyle Journey in the form of Memes. This could include everyday habits that distinguish folks from others or some funny incidents at office. We gave everyone about 24 hours to make the memes.
The surprise didn't just end there. We also asked all participants to keep their memes anonymous so that everyone could guess whose journey it was during the final presentation. The reveal got good reactions, and people from every department participated in the event.
The next day, we had about 65 memes, including some hilarious videos that came in. Then came the evening of Friday, the point where every individual generally wants to log off.
But we had something great in store for everyone in the company. Right before everyone logged off for the weekend, we presented all the memes while people guessed, and almost everyone was bursting out of laughter. It was like a perfect start to a weekend.
Here are a few memes from the Mehfil-E-Meme event at Fyle:
Wrapping it up.
I am pleased to say that we have recognized some very creative artists at Fyle. I have read many unpopular opinions in my life and formed a few of my own as well. The thing about unpopular opinions is that a lot of times, they need time to become a popular one.
(P.S. This does not mean that pineapple pizza is ever going to be acceptable).
So, I also formed another unpopular opinion while organizing this event. I think it's time that we also recognize memes as art and memers as artists. I will let this sink in for a few minutes and leave it up to you to discuss.