Strangers with the same DNA!

I want to share a secret today.

You see the cover picture of this post. It was clicked at the fag end of the Cognizant Hyderabad annual event 'Elixir 2024' on December 20th.

The picture has me and a bunch of young folks, having a good time at the event.

We all danced like crazy to the beats of the DJ. Me for the last 15 minutes while the rest of the gang was at it for the whole evening. You might think they are my buddies at office or considering my salt and pepper look they could be my team members or reportees.

Well, guess what?

They were all strangers to me. I met them just 15 minutes before that snap was clicked. And in that intervening period we danced like crazy.

Anyways...that's not the secret I wanted to share; there's more.

Before that, let me tell you how I met that bunch:

A chance encounter:

The event was going spectacularly well and I was basking in the glory of it all since I was part of the organising team. I was busy moving around capturing moments on my phone.

With just 15 minutes to go for the close of the evening, I stepped down the stage, straight into this bunch of energetic folks. I don't know what they thought about me but they invited me to join them, to dance with them.

I hesitated for a minute and then thought, what the heck...it's been many years since I shook a leg, but there's no harm in joining them. I said yes. But also told them "I will just copy whatever steps you folks are doing" and that they can expect only that from me.

So...start music, and I danced like crazy with that bunch; much to the amusement of my regular colleagues who never saw me dance before. These strangers somehow managed to make me dance. Their energy was extremely positive and infectious.

And then it was 10 PM. Time for the DJ to close the show. That's when we took that group snap.

I then casually asked that bunch which team they belonged to. They started looking at each other, with some confusion.

And they said "we are all from different teams".

I was like "great, you folks are friends across teams".

They again looked at each other and said "we don't know each other either; we all just met at this event".

My mind was blown!

They were dancing like close college buddies and not even for a second did it occur to me that they were all strangers to each other.

I was like "that's amazing to hear".

And one of the girls was like "we are all from Cognizant; that's common between us".?

And she slipped in an inside term, saying "we are all One Cognizant...1C (with a cheeky grin and a thumbs up sign ??)".

One Cognizant:

I was genuinely blown away by what I was witnessing. I was seeing in action something we've been talking about in theory within our teams.

One of the biggest reasons for hosting such events is for our associates to not only get recognised for their work and have some fun, but also to connect with folks outside of their regular teams. We've seen that happen during our ongoing Celebrating Cognizant events, especially on our internal social platform where people are looking for team members to form a cricket, football or throw ball team; or when people are part of the same learning cohort in whatever internal courses they are taking.

But seeing this happen right in front of my eyes was such a pleasant surprise, and I can't tell you how happy I am to get to play a part in creating the scenarios where such connections can happen.

The workplace is meant for more than just work - it's also a place to make connections and build a beautiful network of people that might stay with you for life.

It's like bonding with strangers who share the same DNA as yours.

I feel more empowered and energised after this experience, to enable more people to connect and form bonds.

This feels like my work has a very valid purpose to it, and I love it.

Cheers!!!

Kartik Dayanand Boddapati

PS. In case you are that rare person who is still wondering what the other secret was. I already revealed it - it's not about me not knowing the gang, it's about the gang not knowing each other too.