TRIP TO CONFIDENT AMOON

About a month back our lab manager Arjun had sent out an invitation for the final team meeting of 2011 for the GE Water team. He had also professed that not only we would have the meeting offsite, but also that it would be followed by lunch. Arrangements for the gala outing commenced about three weeks in advance. Careful planning and negotiations on the best possible package that different resorts were offering, were on in full swing. Sathees was our point of contact for the occasion, but many of us bombarded him with ideas so that we could have a trip worth remembering.

Among the resorts shortlisted were PALM MEADOWS, CONFIDENT AMOON, THE LEELA and MATHAN. However, after many deliberations, discussions and brainstorming sessions, everybody zeroed in on CONFIDENT AMOON, a plush resort built in Egyptian style with a lot of serenity around, located on the Bangalore-Chennai highway about 35 km from our office campus.

It was 9.15 am on December 15, 2011. Four Toyota Innova SUVs had been booked for the occasion. Around 6 of us, hopped onto each one of them. It was an overcast and cool morning in Bangalore, with hardly any sunshine, just the kind of weather you crave for when you are contemplating a road trip. We were racing through the National Highway (NH 4) in about 20 minutes time and it was an absolute treat. To me, it felt like one of those romantic getaways in New Zealand, which I have always been infatuated about, but never ever experienced. The dark grey horizon added to the mystique and romance, and we covered about 35 kilometers in 30 minutes time.

A gigantic statue of Pharaoh Tutan Khamun welcomed us at the picturesque entrance to this glamorous resort cum spa facility. All 25 of us were inside the resort roughly within 15 minutes of each other, and we all were provided with a welcome drink that soothed our thirsty taste buds. First up, we decided to take a stroll around this magnificent facility. There were lovely cottages scattered around with dedicated mini-swimming pools for each. There was a miniature golf course with 9 holes and a huge ground with flood light facilities meant for cricket, soccer and volleyball, besides exquisitely manicured lawns. To top it all, the place was exceedingly quiescent, which was a therapeutic relief to our senses. We were overwhelmed at first sight.

It was close to 10.30 am when we entered the conference room that was booked for us. We had carried our own projector too, and it took some time to set the hardware up for Arjun’s presentation to begin. It was a team-building activity in itself. The only thing that was not satisfactory about the room provided was that it was too bright and illuminated for a projected presentation to happen. However, we chose the darkest possible spot in the room to position the screen and set the ball rolling.

The interactive presentation went on for about 2 hours, with Arjun exchanging his typical anecdotes in between, which made us burst into laughter every now and then. At lunch, the buffet arrangements inside a mini-cave personified both aesthetics and royalty. The lights were dim, the temperatures were cool and atmosphere was eerie. It gave us a feeling of being inside a real cave, the difference being, in this one, you had boys in uniform ready at your service.

We had a lot of chit-chat during the course of our lunch, which is not always possible on normal working days in office. If the food was great with multiple cuisines to choose from for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian lovers, the dessert items were even better. It was the first time that many people had the pleasure of having Lauki ka Halwa, but the Kala Jamoon, Rice Kheera and Rajbhog were equally good. It was a sumptuous meal.

After lunch, we decided that there should be some form of fun-filled physical workout that would help us in digesting all the spicy stuff we had taken! The consensus was reached to play cricket, and the management team of the resort kindly obliged by providing us the ground for about 90 minutes. The ground was named Thebes. It was agreed upon that a 10-over-per-side match would be played between Mohan’s XI and Chaitra’s XI.

The cricket match was the most enjoyable and hilarious part of our trip. Whether it was Vijaysai’s or Kalyan’s bowling or Madhuri’s batting or Siva’s umpiring or Anil’s dropping of catches or JP’s scorekeeping, comments were overflowing from all quarters and laughter was ubiquitous. Narain and Arjun were the frontrunners in witty humor; however we joined in for the laughter. It was tremendous fun coupled with a lot of frolic. Chaitra’s XI won the match in the end. It was after a long time that many of us played, and we were literally exhausted. We freshened up a bit, and decided to call it a day at about 3.30 pm.

The great thing about this occasion was that, it is not often that we get a chance to know our team members from such close quarters in office. This outing was one such opportunity for all of us to rediscover our relationship with peers. In our day to day office activities, we develop so many false impressions about people and react in unjustified mannerisms towards them. However, what I realized was, such outings help you mix with people away from work and help you to positively modify your perception about them. Eventually we all become better human beings.

As I mentioned earlier, this outing was supposed to be just the final team meeting of 2011, but it turned out to be a lot more enriching and enjoyable than that, in the true sense of the word. It was an outing every one of us cherished from the bottom of our hearts.

You and I - 2

About a week passed. He used to check his emails every day, but the one he was gasping for was not in sight. Patience was running out, love was strengthening its roots deep inside his heart, the assumption that “silence was approval” was slowly gaining weightage and expectations were getting stronger by the minute. It was Valentine’s Day eve – 12 am, February 14, when he finally found that she had replied. She wrote….

“I really do not know what to say to your email. I respect your feelings, but at the same time, I am helpless. I am literally dumbstruck and caught between the proverbial Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. I have always felt very relieved whenever I have discussed my little problems with you. Your presence in person and your voice on the phone will always be a gush of fresh oxygen in my life. Nobody can substitute that feeling of mine, not even my husband. However, the fact is that there IS strong emotional attachment, and a sense of loyalty and responsibility, between the two of us. I agree that he is not perfect, but neither am I, nor you. As we have started to grow in our marital relationship, as we spend more time together, our mutual understanding is getting better as well. Nowadays, he is much more caring and sensitive than he used to be 6 months back and I strongly feel that things would only get better. At this crucial juncture of our relationship, I do not want my infidelity to ruin it all. After all, we all belong to respected and educated families and I do not want to demean my family in any way, by taking a rash and senseless step. I understand that it might be difficult for you, but I would not like to stretch our relationship beyond friendship. I know there are a lot of unanswered questions in your mind, but this is all I have to say. I really want you to get married soon. Please do take care, for me, if not for yourself, because you are really SPECIAL to me. Best wishes…”

You and I - 1

He met her in a party a year ago and liked her at the first instant, but he was not sure whether that was love or not. It seemed to him that she liked him as well, but he was not sure. She was already married, and he did not have the guts to ask her about it straightaway. They kept meeting sparingly in different forums and he felt that he was getting deeper into attraction with every meeting. Finally after one year, he could not take it anymore and decided to send her a note…….

"Sometimes I ask myself that why on earth did we not meet earlier than we actually did. Or if we had done so, would life have been anything different for both you and me? I would never muster up enough audacity for elocution of my innermost feelings towards you. I do not want to be delinquent either towards certain people who matter, and I am sure you understand that. You might have liked many a people in life, much more than you like me right now, but that does not deter me from getting attracted towards you. There is something about you that pulls me. Your voice, your persona, your smile, your ebullience….I do not know exactly what that is. However what I can assure you that such feelings are not ephemeral, nor are such inferences a conjecture. The rare talents you have enthrall me and force me to respect you, and with deep respect evolves love. Sharing a few jokes and opening up my feelings to you makes me lighter, and I enjoy every little bit of you, whatever you give me. I sincerely wish that my words does not smell of perfidy. My relationship with you is much deeper than what the world perceives. I took a while to gauge you, but now I feel that you are the one who is made for me. Looking forward to your reply….Sincerely yours…."