An outing had been planned across our office sub-departments which had got postponed multiple times and materialized yesterday.As my wife keeps complaining about how my driving is going from rash to rasher on a very consistent basis , almost everyday as I drop her to office , I felt very apprehensive of driving with office folks , some of whom I was not very familiar with. Got up early , washed my car and started off with Sunil (EEM Windows) and Bibhu , picking them up from BDA complex.
Too much of consciousness took away some of the fun off the driving but still enjoyed the drive to the first stopover point - Esteem mall where the rest of the folks joined in and we had our breakfasts in one of those stand-and-eat south-indian hotels.Mukesh Goyal had to go back home as his wife's viral fever was not subsiding.There were six cars or so - Mukesh Singh , Vamsi , Chandra , an indica taxi , Kalyan and myself.We followed Mukesh's car gingerely as we were pretty unsure of the route creating traffic jams in the way as my car was on second line and had to suddenly pull over as Mukesh Singh stopped for route enquiry.Once the directions were clear , it was easy to find the place and the route from breakfast to resort was a short and slow one.
Angsana was a prestige-group resort built using karinkallu granite with orange kerala style tiles.We parked our cars , some in the ground and some in the parking lot. There was one more car to arrive - Pradeep's which was not chained up at the restaurant.As we lulled , waiting for the car, a few of us kicked football around. It was a very novel experience - just kicking a football around!Devender shone as his experience as a district player as well as his passion and longing for the game manifested in his heartful and skilful jugleries with the ball.
We then went inside the resort and waited in the hall for Pradeep's group.A strange welcome drink disappointed us and various flavors of discontent arose from various team members.Welcome drink also made a place in the feedback report during bill payment.Pradeep and team joined soon and we were off to the cricket ground.While the teams were being formed , Bibhu , Sunil (Windows) , myself played with the football.It felt good to be able to have some control over where you are kicking the ball.The teams were set captained by Chandra and Mukesh and it was a ten-over game.I stood in the sun umpiring with six stones in my right hand to represent the six balls left in the over.Ace batsman Sai exited on first ball as he hit on his leg with the bat and had the pain all through the trip.Dipesh batted well scoring quite a few boundaries.Girls in the group also participated with under-arm bowling , no stumping privileges.It was a sabko-batting milega game and I got my chance as well.The first ball I hit a boundary , and many further balls presented great opportunities which I tried ambitiously to hit major strikes to be frustrated by my consistent inability to connect bat with the ball!. Chandra came in in the last over and started with a huge straight six.
Amidst all this , we had won ourself a good score.Mukesh's team was unable to meet the challenge and we won by 20+ runs.Devender played well from their team sportively hitting boundaries.On my bowling chance , I could throw all the balls straight and my second bowl saw Kalyan's catch dismiss Devender.I dont remember any major strikes from the Mukesh's team and we were the clear winners of the match.
Next item was all water.Water in the pool/water in the bottle.Yes - it is time for the booze party.Booze has become de-facto in the software industry.A spirited water polo game provided lot of color and life to the pool-time. I had not planned for a swimming session as I dont know swimming and had not brought the necessary attire.So , myself and Deepak Gowda used the time to play squash.True to what has been heard ,squash is arguably the most tiring of sports as a ball with apologetic bounce forces the players to run helter-skelter to hit the ball before the ball slumps.We could hardly play 5-10 minutes before taking cool water breaks.We had a good time all the same.Immediately after , we briefly contemplated buying trunks and jumping in the pool and settled for tennis rackets instead.This one was more of an ordeal as our inexperience saw us serving from one court to another court and continuing the game in the second court! In the mid-noon sun, ridiculous tennis did not last long.We retired and joined the pool group.
I kept sober amidst kinley temptations where Kinley mineral water bottles had some smirnoff mixed.Chandra played the entertainer here aligning his performance with the vodka blessing.I took out my digicam and captured the eager male swimming models - Kalyan , Pradeep , Prakash etc as they posed generously to the camera.Also , the spirited water polo game found a place in the digicam videos.As I knew everyone in the group , I could related how everyone was playing with what I knew about them personally and there were hardly any surprises.It was a good match to watch
Satish/Lakshmi had ordered one set of starters which I promptly laid my hands on and took one piece each.Later , Devender requested for more starters and these reached us at dessert time of lunch!As there was a huge set of items against the leftover appetite , I marketed the starters in the various table circles where we were having our lunch.The buffet lunch was below par and I did not have a lot of appetite anyway.
Next , we had the boring chit game in the lawn where each of us picked chits and performed what was written on it.The chit instructions were unanimously disliked.However,all of us had a good relaxing time lying down on each other in the lawn.Next in line was the "FullHousie" game.Satish and myself gave the slip and played a game of lawn tennis.This one was a much better one as Satish had some exposure and I was doing my part trying to learn.For energy reasons, we stopped the game at one set score of 2-6 ,myself losing.Where I was not even able to serve and cross the net,I was trying to serve aces!Controlled and slow serves from Sathish were met with smart forehand passing shots except that the net came in the way.. This was the best game experience in the day.It was like getting past the compilation errors with a new project.
When we reached the lawn back , a game of slogan-product quiz was in progress.This was going well and had cent percent participation and Kalyan performing the quiz master role to perfection.Then came the daily favorite pastime - chahe office me ho , chaahe jail me , chaahe resort me.That is right - it is tea time!We waited for a long time at the tea tables having seen the tea flasks and cups outside.After twenty minutes or so, we were to realise that tea would not be served at the table.Tea was really good and I had two cups - almost.
Once tea was done , we waited at the lawn for the bill and the girls in our team to arrive who were apparently taking a dab at the indoor games - TT et al.Mukesh was pretty much decided on leaving without paying but by the time the bill arrived.Returns were quickly planned and the ride back started.
