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Journalism of Courage
Remember the South Korean drama Squid Game, which took the world by storm when released in 2021? The Netflix series was about a secret contest in which people facing financial hardships compete in a series of children’s games with deadly stakes in order to win a lucrative prize money.
If you are wondering why we are talking about the hit Netflix series, a man from Tamil Nadu won a prize money of 18,888 Singapore dollars (Rs 11.5 lakh approximately) in an event organised by a company playing games inspired from Squid Game, minus the deadly stakes, of course.
The migrant worker from the heavy vehicle leasing firm Pollisum Engineering won the prize money that was equivalent to one and a half years’ worth of his salary, The Strait Times reported.
The company’s dinner-and-dance event was held at Senoko Way in Singapore. The participants sported red tracksuit jackets with number tags, while game masters wore red hooded jumpsuits, similar to characters in Squid Game, where the players wore green tracksuits. Similar to the show’s piggy bank, a giant inflatable ball filled with money hung from the ceiling in full view of the players.
However, the winner of the show, Selvam Arumugam, 42, had not heard of the show before. He works as a rigger and signalman and is tasked with inspecting and maintaining cranes and lifting equipment. He has a wife and three teenaged children. He first came to Singapore to work in 2007.
Arumugam told The Strait Times that despite not understanding the rules of the games, he tried his best. In the Red Light, Green Light game, he copied what players in front of him were doing and ran as fast as he could and managed to escape elimination.
The company’s annual dinner-and-dance was attended by 210 employees, including mechanics, drivers and sales staff. Each employee went home with at least 188 Singapore dollars in cash, while 35 of them who were chosen in a lucky draw to take part in the games won cash prizes of 588 dollars or more, the newspaper reported.
