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- The post explains that H2O bought a Diwali billboard in 2016 to celebrate the holiday of lights amid a difficult year in the broader technology industry.
- The post highlights Google's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella as Indian American technology leaders the post wanted to recognize during the Diwali campaign.
- The post frames the billboard as part of H2O's effort to promote inclusivity, drawing a comparison to how yoga and Chicken Tikka became broadly embraced in the United States.
It’s been a dark year in many ways, so we wanted to lighten things up and celebrate Diwali — the festival of lights!
Diwali is a holiday that celebrates joy, hope, knowledge and all that is full of light — the perfect antidote for some of the more negative developments coming out of the Silicon Valley recently. Throw in a polarizing presidential race where a certain candidate wants to literally build a wall around US borders, and it’s clear that inclusivity is as important as ever.
Diwali is also a great opportunity to highlight the advancements Asian Americans have made in technology, especially South Asian Americans. The heads of Google (Sundar Pichai) and Microsoft (Satya Nadella) — two major forces in the world of AI — are led by Indian Americans. They join other leaders across the technology ecosystem that we also want to recognize broadly.
Today we are open-sourcing Diwali. America embraced Yoga and Chicken Tikka, so why not Diwali too?