SouthAsians@ hosts month-long Cultural Showcase at Pinterest
By: Maddy Koushik, Software Engineer at Pinterest
SouthAsians@ is Pinterest’s Employee Resource Group (known internally as Pinterest Community) representing South Asians and our allies at Pinterest. Our mission is to share ideas and traditions to make Pinterest a more inclusive community, and a platform that represents our diverse users. We are highly driven by two of our company values — Put Pinners First and Be An Owner.
Our group has several focus areas, and one of them is ‘inclusion and culture.’ As part of this initiative, we organize events and create opportunities to share, discuss common topics of interest such as identity, culture, immigration and so on. We also coordinate events and activities with our members and allies.
Traditionally, every quarter we have at least one celebratory event that happens at our HQ. In light of recent global events, the SouthAsians@ leads got together to brainstorm ideas on how to continue the tradition of celebration and inclusion through our ERG, despite restrictions against gathering in the office. The inspiration for our month long cultural showcase evolved gradually and unanimously. In India, the duration of winter solstice (specifically September — December) is a festival season where we celebrate at least four major festivals and at least six other minor festivals. During this time, there is an explosion of color, music, art and literature as celebratory gatherings call for entertainment. The SouthAsians@ ERG leads also decided to celebrate the diversity of the South Asian diaspora in the month of September. We had external guest speakers who are industry professionals come talk to us, give demos and perform live. Our Pinployees also used this opportunity to show off mad talents we have in house!
The motivation behind this showcase event was to raise awareness and knowledge around the South Asian community as a whole. Given that there is a growing number of active users from the South Asian regions (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), it becomes increasingly important to understand cultural nuances so we can build a better product and are better equipped to address any region specific differences or issues. The Showcase, along with other initiatives, has boosted our inclusivity by providing broader perspectives in product and design.
We kicked off the showcase parade with an engaging panel discussion on September 2nd. Our kick-off event deviated from a typical showcase focused on food, music, clothing, dance etc., and we instead decided to focus on offering a nuanced perspective on culture, and disrupting the ways our communities are essentialized. Our guest speakers KJ Dhaliwal, Anahita Mukherji and Parveen Dhillon spoke about topics including love and dating, kids and their identities, immigration and domestic violence. This discussion sparked a lot of interest as it questions the stigmas and assumptions the South Asian community as a whole faces — both inside the community and out.
The following week, we had two professional musicians, Wishwas Mohan and Suhas Satyanarayana perform live for us. Wishwas provided a unique perspective on Indian classical music, its origins, branches and evolution. Suhas, a professional flautist, played live music and spoke about Bollywood music and its influence on the community.
When one talks about Bollywood, we know what the mind thinks of first — Bollywood Dance! We featured dance during one of the Showcase weeks, and invited Rohit R to come in and teach Bollywood choreography and Jasmine Singh (Senior Commercial Counsel at Pinterest) to teach us the art of Bhangra. Singh also explained the origins and foundations of this dance form.
Following that , we had an art themed week. Samira Mian taught us the beautiful art of Islamic geometric designs in a very simple and easy way which can be done by anyone and yet look elegant and sophisticated! Soumya Simha taught us how to work on the traditional designs of Kalamkari art. It may look very intimidating at first, but with Simha’s tricks and tips, it became as easy as grabbing your paint brush!
The final week focused on gastronomy. For those of us who are navigating the Pandemic’s stay-at-home orders on mostly self-cooked recipes, this was a delicious treat. Chef Pujan from Rooh SF demonstrated how to cook Masala Jackfruit tacos (Masala and Jackfruit are two ingredients that are very unique to the South Asian region), and Archana Mundhe taught us a super easy and simple one pot shot meal recipe that anyone can cook.
I am very thankful for Pinterest’s Inclusion and diversity efforts. I feel blessed and pampered to have access to such great learning and entertainment. I am no longer looking for a dream job — I am in one!
