It was 1am. "Oh my GOD! At 6-30 i have to reach Magarpatta gate to make it to the team outing to Ananda-Valley, about 50 kms from pune." - i exclaimed. I bid my novel a good-night.
At 5-20am the alarm shrilled and after coaxing myself to get up, i finally got up at 5-40. And the feat was achieved, as i made it to the Magarpatta gate by 6-30!!
At 6-45 our journey kicked off with the 2 buses whizzing away from Magarpatta. It was decided to pick up other of our people at various locations in Pune like Camp, COEP, etc.
It was "pre-breakfast" time! Bourbon, Little Hearts, Appy made rounds. Then came the POEM session where i got a chance to read my simple poem in
front of the biggies of our team, whose appreciation of the same, i will remember for very long.
This was followed by very cool rounds of Dumb Charades between 2 randomly made teams in the bus. It is noteworthy that we gave each other tough, unactable and funny movie-names like "Murde ki jaan khatre mein", " 2 English men went up the hill and came down the mountain", and names which i could not even imagine/remember of.
we reached Ananda Valley by about 9-30am.
Breakfast was awaiting us, which we quickly had.
We set forth trekking! There was an appreciable density of greenery and trees which took us along a curvy and uneven path. There was a small hill to be climbed and then a sharp dip followed by a steep hill, which posed a challenge to many. My under-estimation of hill trekking in general took a jolt, especially here, as i came without even a pair of shoes!!hehe!! Trekking turned out to be super fun!
Then we walked back to the main ground where some team events were scheduled to happen.
There were good games organised amongst teams divided randomly which also included poeple from 3 other companies. Dynamically re-teaming, water-transfer with hands, walking over wooden pieces, etc are some to name. Meanwhile, some played volleyball in the adjacent courts.
Lunch followed after about 90 minutes of this gaming, at about 1-30
pm.
A magic-show succeeded lunch where the magician pulled people out of the crowd to make the show better. Yogesh, Bansi, Pranjal, Jyoti, Ashish, Saurabh and Punam were the Avaya-ites who were called by the magician when he was exhibiting his various tricks that included bringing water into an empty jug, bringing pigeons out of 'nowhere', taking a given ring out of a tomato, etc.
Soon after this, some of us went biking ATV bikes, while the girls went for a bullock-cart ride.
Here is where i pulled out a master-piece snap(though by fluke). It was an excellent example of panning photography, where the camera is moved with the same speed as of the bike. I know Manoj Thakur is going to pay me a fortune for that, hehe, as it was him on the bike!!
Meanwhile Rain-Dance had started. Harish, Chinmaya, Ajay, Ganesh, Ajit, Sanjay, etc took a leading part in this.
Meanwhile some of us played a few cricket matches which i felt was a treat to be a part of. It was much more interesting than a T20 game! Indeed there was so much of cricket talent in the team. And yeah, i understood one concept that if i concentrate on the ball, i dont connect well; whereas when i close my eyes properly, i connect each ball for a six!! hahaha!!
Then after the snacks/tea/coffee at about 6pm, there was a short karaoke session, where a large group "screamed" some songs with the background music on. It brought back the memories of the hostel where people used to sing(read 'shout') at the top of their voice!!
After a group photo session that followed, we got onto the buses to get back to Pune life again! ;)
Not so soon though! The return journey was unexpectedly very energetic, as i predicted people to doze-off/sit-silent after a long day of great fun and activity. A great variety of songs from movies, ads, and a variety of famous movie dialogues were delivered in chorus (and of course with some sarcasm which made us laugh our hearts out).
Special thanks to Sanjay, Ganesh, Ajit and Harish for making the return journey very amusing.
Overall an excellent trip which made me understand that corporate outings, or rather Avaya-outings can get as good as college outings too!
There was not even the least of troubles or hitches in any sense, and there was not a single moment of boredom!
Cheers to our team and the organisers for weaving out a beauty which will remain fresh in our memories for a long time to come!! :)
