There was a time when a fake sangeet or shaadi party was novelty enough. Dress up in lehengas, dance to Bollywood, split into ladki wale and ladke wale, eat like you have survived three rounds of pheras and go home without anyone actually getting married. Gen Z, however, appears to have looked at that concept and decided it was nowhere near absurd enough.
The latest crop of themed events now includes a resignation party for corporate workers who desperately want to quit but still need their salary,, an ex ki shaadi for anyone who needs closure without waiting for an actual wedding invite, a birthday where everybody in the room is the birthday girl, and even a four-day destination wedding where there is no bride, no groom and, crucially, no relative asking when your turn is. If birthdays provide an excuse to celebrate yourself, Gurugram’s corporate crowd is being offered something perhaps even more cathartic: the opportunity to resign without actually resigning. “We try to build events around things people find relatable. We were sitting in Cyber Hub, which is such a corporate space, and realised how frustrated so many people are. So the team created a night where employees can rage-quit emotionally and still log in the next morning.
MitraMesh founder Vasu Vashisht says the idea for a “resignation party”, scheduled for August 21, came while organising events around for the section he has dubbed “corporate mazdoors”. Everyone has that thought, ‘Resignation de dunga’, but most people obviously can’t just do it,” he says. The theme is ‘Corporate Jail’, complete with a “bitching wall” where guests can anonymously vent about things they cannot say aloud at work, a resignation box for writing imaginary resignation letters and a countdown-style activity celebrating their fictional escape from corporate life.
The joke clearly struck a nerve. More than 300 tickets sold out within three days of the announcement, prompting plans to take the concept to Mumbai and Bengaluru next, according to Vashisht.
