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?