A scene from the City of Love with all the Paris essentials- the Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triomphe, the Louvre Museum and the Seine River – was recreated at One MG this summer. Each of us did our bit in bringing Paris to life by playing with colors in our unique ways.

Some of us were over enthusiastic, keen followers of the ‘coloring releases stress’ paradigm. The first to pick up the color pens, these 3 musketeers, Anu, Devanshi, and Sneha were always seen lurking around the coloring sheet, marking their territory. Isaac was bitten by the ‘tower-bug’, a deep desire to paint all the tall, towering structures in Paris while Suresh, the tallest person in the office, took upon himself to color the hard to reach places in sunshine combinations. True to his work, he carefully branded our art piece as well – the banner of One MG now flies proudly in Paris.

Paris in colors soon played its magic and lured Baskar, Vivek, Karthik and Om out of their work cocoons. While everything that Baskar touched was given red and orange hues, Vivek bathed buildings in a cacophony of colors. Om and Karthik on the other hand stuck to parts that made up the whole – marching soldiers and men in manholes. Paris was introduced to psychedelic beauty through ducks and rhinos in trippy colors by Amrish while Hari and Nishant left their vivid footprints in different parts of the city. Mangai and Priya came late to the party, but once they started, they were hooked, like the rest of us.

Guiding these art novices and steering the whole project in the right artistic direction, was our very own Art wizard, RT Sir. Our vision was limited to the corners of Paris before Sir lay down before us the possibility of grander challenges. His welcome arty forays prevented Paris from becoming a garish, lurid mess.

Zen in Coloring

A growing trend, people are increasingly taking up coloring in a big way. In addition to providing an avenue for releasing creativity, it also works as a calming, anxiety relieving, almost meditative technique. Repetitive motion and staying within the lines allows people to focus and organize their thoughts, bringing in a certain mindfulness.

Coloring is usually seen as a solo, private activity, something that a person does alone, at his/her leisure. But we realized that it has immense benefits as a group activity too. Besides being a soothing activity, it also helped in team bonding and creating a fun space. Paris had become One MG’s local watering hole– we joked, laughed and discussed our next coloring conquests while standing around it.

Paris had become dear to us over the days and given its ability to relax and reduce stress while having fun, we at One MG have decided to create our own Paris, from scratch.