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.