Xtreme Fun at Xtreme Zone

It's mid night and I reach home all exhausted, no… no… I was not working extra or over time, not even because I was late night partying, but because - that is what our usual office timings are, we work UK hours supporting the Recruitment and Staffing needs of our clients in UK. Well I won't get into work, I am here to be on a roller coaster ride and to pen down my experience of a much awaited office trip that was planned three weeks back. I know I am late in blogging this piece – all thanks to super busy weeks and even busier weekends. We are a team of 9 people and to add to much delight we had our BIG BOSS (Gaurav) and our best colleague (Jacqui from UK) to give us company on this trip, that makes the headcount of 11. I am sorry the jargons I use sound so recruitment Industry oriented, but I can't help it, you deal with it day and night and you start living and breathing it. :)

Well so before I hit the bed I set the alarm for 3 AM IST, wowwww, that’s really painstakingly early, but I am excited because I get to wake and cook some “poori aaloo”-  the Indian or rather North Indian breakfast that’s so cherished especially if you plan a trip or picnic, this is one recipe that goes handy and is very famous amongst the North Indians. Adding to my recipe was another Chef at work – Rakesh, our Bihari babu making some delicious “kachoris” – and that’s another North Indian delicacy…and.. THAT must be giving an idea how excited we really were.

We had all planned to convene at the office premises and then start the journey to our destination – Xtreme Zone, located in an area called Manchinbele. For exact location please click here.

I had to pick Jacqui from her hotel room on my way to office, which is hardly a 5 minutes’ drive from home, so here as expected I and Jacqui reach office first though we ourselves were half an hour behind the schedule, very much following the Indian Standard Time (only Indians know what it exactly mean and, that is, that we are never on time, this is a bit shameful but we live in a country where everyone is in a hurry but no one reaches on time. J))…

Anyways, so following us comes the rest of the team, we quickly have a sneak of the breakfast that I and Rakesh made, pick up our snack packets and drinks that were bought last evening to save time and was part of our great planning for the upcoming day to start our voyage. But hang on we don’t start a thing without taking pictures and I have to mention about the two awesome team members and AKA selfie lovers – Ambika and Ibrahim (Ibu), they in true sense follow the “The Chainsmokers” and the tag line ”But First, let me take a selfie” J and their selfies are great fun…Kudos guys! You two rock with the selfies…keep doing it!

Okay so finally we get on to our rented Innova and Santosh’s jeep. Well this seems like a planning but all the boys of the team went on the jeep leaving behind 4 girls, - Jacqui, Ambika, Gowthami and myself with the BIG Boss…never mind…we catch them on the toll gate and hang on… Big Boss too decides to get on the Jeep with the rest of the boys. That was not good but why should boys have all the fun, so we girls put on the loud music in our car and enjoy the little time we get away from the men. :D ;)

We all stop once or twice to shoot pictures, I told before, we can’t do it without capturing moments in pictures. We also stop by the BIG Banyan Tree, called Dodda Alada mara in the local language of Kannada, which is humongous and amazing. It is a natural wonder, a few hundred years old and spread over a few acres of land. To reach here follow the map and learn about this place by clicking here.

We click few shots here and there and start for our final destination but, hey! are we getting lost, asking the local people about how to get there? Wait a second, we are in 21^st century, in the era of smart phones and hi tech services, here comes out my google maps on GPS, taking us straight to the land of reservoir of lakes – Manchinbele.

We have just arrived and  a small and rather super easy trek on the rocky land was to be covered by us  for about a kilometre. We were good at it, thanks to Gaurav, Ibrahim, Rakesh, Abubaker (Abu) and also Gowthami and Jacqui for giving support to get me through some of the slippery and sloppy pathways..

We are finally at the place for the day long team building activities that were planned for us. We get welcomed by a nice breakfast and get started with the day on rope walking. I am sure some of us would have overcome the fear of unknown in this one day trip. Slow or fast, everyone finished the easy to medium to hard military obstacles on the rope way. It was super fun looking at how people made various strategies to get through the ropes. I by now had become the team’s professional camera person J and enjoyed clicking some of the most hilarious pictures that will make us laugh every time we will look at them.

After the rope way there were other activities like paint ball and some team building games that were played. The loser team in the team building activities had to do poll dance as penalty and we were amazed the way the losing team enjoyed and lived up to the moment around the poll, we witnessed some of the great performances by Ibu, Santosh and our best dancer Ambika, and yes we do have their videos which will stay a part of our great memory collection of this day.

Post all this fun we were called for a quick and relaxing lunch for fuelling ourselves up for rest of the day. The day later followed with rappelling, zipline and kayaking activities. I was thrilled to the core by seeing everybody enjoying all these adventurous sports, which made it more tempting for me but alas! I had to sit quite with my hurting back and sickness. But nonetheless, I enjoyed every moment of the day climbing up and down the rocks with the team.

The last activity of kayaking was the funniest of the day, I believe everyone must have learnt something new about themselves while performing this activity. Ambika and Ibu, never in sync with each other while rowing the boat went wandering around the lake. As they say to find oneself one must get lost at times. J. While Ambika and Ibu, struggled a bit, though I am sure they enjoyed it immensely, Gowthami and Gaurav, were in full swing going together left and right and round in rowing, it seemed to us, what an effortless rowing it was. All other boys – Abu, Rakesh, Kamlesh, Santosh and Harish, swam, struggled getting on the boats, surfs and made me and Jacqui laugh like never before, as we sat by the lake side watching all this happening and capturing photos of the team.

Time, as it’s habit is, slipped from our hands and we were called for tea and snacks and to relax by the lake side. By this time the nature was most beautiful and serene. We saw the moon rising up and its beautiful reflection on the water made the scene so divine. While the sun was setting at the other end of the lake, the smell, silence and tranquillity of dusk is something I treasured the most.

It was no time, when it was night, but it was moon lit night. Its calmness was soothing and relaxing. We sat in the hut like shelter for some more time in the dim light, played some nice music. People were all talking and discussing what all happened during the day. The talks and laughter of the team was funny and enjoyable.

We were later assembled for the bon fire, we were packed with our stuffs of drinks and snacks, which were taken out at this time. Our official barman, our own Big Boss, made some drinks for the team. We had Santosh’s skills of mimicry on display now, he mimicked some of the great actors of South India and was joined later by Harish, Abu, Ibu, Kamlesh and Rakesh for some amazing dance and singing performances. They sang in Telgu. Kannnada, Tamil, Bihari, Bangali and English – funny but it was the mini India on the rocks! I am not sure though If Jacqui could grasp anything of it, but what I know is she had a good time with all the crazy people around. Jacqui was hit by the stomach bug but had been part of it all. Jacqui, you prove to be so strong and thanks for being there throughout the day.

While I don’t know if it was the people who were speaking by this time or was it the whisky or vodka? But I have had some of the most cherished time with the team. Not to forget to mention about all the old Bollywood songs that I and Gaurav hummed around the bonfire and made people wonder about the Eastman timer songs we still remember ;)

The night was getting colder and I finally realised I had to crash before it’s too late and went straight to my tent for a good night sleep, by the time I was gone there were only Gaurav, Ambika, Abu and Kamlesh were awake, I have no clue when would they have gone to sleep.

The tents were cold and wet by the dew drops but as I was so tired I think I caught up with some good sleep. Early morning I heard few people speaking in local language of Kannada, I realised it was the coach who was asking Harish and Santosh to wake us up all. I really didn’t want to get out of the tent so I pretended I was still asleep. The funny thing happened when someone said there is only tea and no coffee and I screamed from inside for getting the coffee in Kannada and I realised everyone were laughing at me for this very incident. For the love of coffee, I had to wake up and get out of the tent.

Little did I know something amazing was waiting outside for us? The dawn was beautiful beyond its limits, the rising sun and its reflection on the water was mesmerising. The moving waves on the surface of water were so picturesque. 

The chirping sound of birds and cold breeze was breath taking. Nature in itself was so inviting, relaxing and comforting that I wanted the time to stop for a little longer. It was the best ending of the trip. I and Jacqui also had a last minute motor boat ride to the military camp and were astonished by the beauty of nature. The rocks were shining by the reflection of sun light falling on it, there were multiple chameleons on the rocks changing and adapting themselves as that of the colour of the rocks, making it so difficult to trace them.

We came back from the trip the same morning, all of us tired but rejuvenated. We all needed this break. Thanks to all my team folks and Gaurav for this amazing time. Cheers!

Really? Who should get the credit?

While I am like every other Indian feeling so proud of the milestone achieved by the team at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for setting a record of creating history by becoming the first country in the world for entering the Mars orbit at its maiden attempt, I am at the same time deeply saddened looking at our political parties on creating nuances and drama about which party should be given the credit and looking at the cat fights between the activists of BJP and Congress. I watched the show on Timesnow last evening and felt so very ashamed to see two well-known activists fighting like cats and dogs over why the Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not mention former PM Manmohan Singh’s name in the courtesy list. For heaven sake why should be there such kind of talks?

Along with me, I believe every sensible citizen of India must be surprised at this ridiculous act and mindset of these people. For when the entire nation should unite and rejoice the victory of the scientists and swell with pride, these good for nothing people come forward to seek attention and verbalize all nonsense just to make their presence felt and make points which are seamlessly irrelevant. My opinion and words could be brutal but this is the frustration that is bound to be shown.

The real leader is not the one who divides but the one who brings people together, one who doesn’t fight to get the credit but the one who ensures that the mission is accomplished giving no importance to who gets the credit, because action speaks louder than words and empty vessels always make more noise. So, you politicians for today you are not our heros, our heros are those who worked day and night to make this possible with stringent budgets and worked against many odds. They inspire us and motivate us to think and achieve which seems impossible. Moreover, to see the flip side I think it is good that you behaved the way you did, because it is an eye opener for us the citizens to know how injudicious and imprudent our politicians are who are not worth being at the position where they are.

A Retrospect in 2013

I was reading a blog by James Clear and got an insightful idea of looking back at the previous year to gauge myself at various parameters and plan for the coming year for the betterment of myself personally and professionally.

So before the New Year starts and I get busy in party bash on the New Year eve to welcome 2014, it’s an attempt to understand and analyse my previous year. It is not a resolution list but a review of what went well, what could have gone well and what am I working towards.

In the past few years, the little wisdom I have gained is that your life is your own, you are not bound with the way you see others progress and fail, but you have to measure your own success competing with yourself and learning from your failures. The up and downs become so critical in transforming you in a better person.  I know this is my personal process and it’s not about comparing how much or how little I did to someone. It’s entirely about my actions and what I want to do to myself.

So…Are my choices letting me live the life I want to live? Let me analyse.

What went well? (My Highlights)

Marriage – 2013, gave me the best life partner I could ever think of. I got to marry a wonderful person I have known and loved for more than 3 years. I see in him a great partner and a caring and loving husband. I am grateful that I could marry him against all odds. I am proud to say that though its only 7 months that I am married but I am very happily married and enjoying every bit of this relationship. Being in this relation has taught me so many things and made me aware of a different Amrita which I was totally unaware of.

Professionally – I started with “work from home” model. In May 2013, we setup the office and hired a team. It’s going great. Talk about numbers, the first hire in this year happened in March and then a few in the following months. I plan to work rigorously on sales target this year.

Swimming – I learnt swimming, something that I have been wanting to do all my life. My fear of water is still persistent though. I plan to get regular in swimming and overcome this fear eventually.

Weight loss – I managed to shed considerable weight in the beginning of the year, thanks to various emotions and mind strength for being regular in my workouts. Though I got distracted later and I plan to continue with some good habits that I acquired in the process of losing weight.

Travel – Starting from end of 2013, I travelled to Ooty, Mudumalai, Kunnor (Tamilnadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) (twice), Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Thekkady (Kerala), Mumbai (Maharashtra) which makes it 5 states. I wish to travel to see new places in coming years of my life.

Mindset – I have been achievement focussed all through my life and gave little importance to the process of achieving something, but in the last year I realised that the great success lies in the process and not always at the target. I learnt that it’s important that I keep doing and moving in spite of number of failures.

What didn’t go so well in 2013?

Reading – I haven’t been reading enough lately. I can think of only two books in the entire year that I read which makes me embarrassed. I plan to read at least 2 pages everyday so that I can count on the enormous knowledge existing whether in books or online materials.

Writing – I haven’t really blogged this year and I better get back to my writing. May be this review becomes the beginning of getting back and writing more often.

Exercise – Though the beginning and mid of the year was remarkable, I lagged behind in being regular for exercising and maintaining a routine of workout. I must do a 20 minutes workout, 5 days a week for this year.

Visiting my parents – Though I call them every day but visiting them personally is my top priority in the initial months of this year. I could not make it to visit my parents in Ranchi, now that they shift to Delhi, I must make a visit to them at the earliest as that would be my first ever visit after marriage.

Photography - I’m not sure that I got better as a photographer. The only way to get better at the craft is to do the craft, and I spent too much time doing other things. I’d like to fix this in 2014 by scheduling a handful of photography trips and start to write a few tutorials as blogs for my own interest.

Delegation and Management – I have been doing an okay job when it comes to managing my team. This year my priority will be to delegate more work to make my team efficient and perfect in what we do. Building a team of people who believe in the mission is something I want to become better at in 2014.

What am I working towards?

1)      Habits – I understand that all strength lies in developing the right habits. Be it following a routine or being honest. So, my top priority will be to set right habits like drinking more water, eating healthy, spending and investing wisely, regular workouts, no procrastination etc.

2)      Experience – I look forward to experiencing life in small moments, with loved ones, without being judgemental.

3)      Strength and confidence – Pushing yourself to extremes helps you raise your strength and brings great confidence. I will work on being more active physically, setting new targets and achieving them gives me great satisfaction.

4)      Service and Teamwork - Regardless of what projects I work on in the future, I hope they will serve others and focus on a cause that is bigger than myself.

I have many things to learn and these are just a few of the things that I would want to inculcate this year. I hope the New Year brings a lot of health, wealth and wisdom to all.

Goodbye 2013 and welcome 2014.

Are we fighting our demons or just playing blame game?

6 Olympic medals – India is a great country, 6 rapists – India as a country sucks, its government is incapable of protecting its people, police is careless, politicians are corrupt. Men are disgusting and women horrible. Across news channels and social networking sites people have shown anger and disgust…which is fair for any civilian. But what next? We will continue to revoke and protest till sometime and forget all this after a while. This is not the first rape case, and there are numerous assaults towards women that might be happening this very moment while I am writing this piece of thoughts on paper which is bothering me in my mind. We will all do this blame game and get over within no time. Will lighting the candle and placing black profile pictures give justice to the girl? No denial that there must be capital punishment for such atrocious crime, but by the time government will take action there would have been so many more such cases. Many will even be going unnoticed.

We will just continue to make this ill-fated and ill-timed girl even more unfortunate by reminding her that she is the victim for her entire life now. We will keep asking her and intriguing questions about this episode of her life, which none of us can even manage to think to what level of destruction it will cause to her own personality unless already been fateful to suffer the same.

Yes it feels awful and terrible to know that we are unsure of our safety in our own country, cities, home, offices and schools. It is disheartening to even hear something like this exists, but I think it’s not just the females who are under threat, it’s the entire community and civilization, it could happen to a man as well and it happens and It doesn't happen only in India, it happens in other countries too, the percentage of crime varies and their laws towards the crime differs. It’s the mental sickness of people which give rise to such crimes. Punishment will create fear, but will fear be sufficient enough to eradicate this problem. In a country like India, people know how to play and fool around with law..best examples are politicians with n number of scams in their resume….So what can we do to erase this?

What amazes me is we all are asking for justice by punishing the rapists, but what about the girl? Is anyone doing anything for her? Are we fighting our own demons or not? If the government is so incompetent, are we doing anything to sabotage this problem?

Can we not start talking to our teenagers about sex, misconduct, ill treatment openly and advice them of what is right and wrong? Can we not make it mandatory in all schools to have a self defense session for all? Can we not teach our children to respect and behave appropriately with opposite sex? Can we not have laws to cancel all such driving licenses and make it mandatory for the drivers, teachers, coaches and every professional to have a good conduct certificate? No these may not provide the complete solution, but this could be beginning…I know it’s happening at places but not everywhere, there should be a demand for mandatory and honest action on such programs. Every individual makes a country and if we can just talk about the issues and not do even a bit to improve ourselves…it’s just showoff and nothing else, we be-fool ourselves.

There are men showing anger at this incidence but how many of them behave appropriately with their counterparts in home and work places and how many of them do not get involved in eve teasing. All answers lies within us. I want to know if there is a man in the billions of population who will move forward and hold this girl’s hand and make her start her new life, I read she is no more capable of having a happy physical married life, is there a man who will still accept her and start a life may be adopt an orphan and look at the positive side of having a family, make her realize that world is not that bad and there is still humanity alive? Punishment to the culprits must be given but we must provide the victims best treatment and mental counseling to recuperate and start fresh rather than lingering over what’s happened and making their life more miserable.

  

When people let you down, Smile you have something to learn from it :)

I have no intention to challenge anyone’s abilities. I so far am a very potential believer that any human has ample competence to surpass any obstacle personally and professionally.
I am not writing because I think I should give a lecture. There are certain times when things said go out of hand. I am learning to laugh over trivial things to save big relationships. I hope I get the strength to do it further and always.
Now without wasting time let me come to the point. I was a little offended yesterday the way someone indulged in the discussion when I was asked a question. It is always good to give your opinion but not impose it on others. I was asked a question for which I was seeking an explanation to give an apt answer. It was not a “just a minute” contest where I hear a question and start speaking, it was the beginning of a good discussion. Intriguing in between us without being able to comprehend it, the person intermittently said that I cannot answer the question. When he himself had not listened and understood the question; He just threw his opinion that whatever would it be asked I wouldn’t be able to answer it. That was purely his conception about me. I am fine with it if he thinks I am dumb. It doesn’t really matter because he is not my boss whom I have to impress and I think he has accepted me with my incapability of being ignorant and not being as intelligent as he is. These are my perceptions about how he thinks about me. I could be potentially wrong. 
Now when the conversation was interrupted I had completely lost interest in the discussion. When anybody initiates a conversation it is very important to be patient enough to first listen and then give your opinion. I have this concern and believe that this piece of advice will help in a profession when one has to work in teams. It is imperative to appreciate people to open up and speak their mind rather than suppress the enthusiasm by some inappropriate remarks based on one’s prejudice.
I think I had understood what was being asked and replied appropriately. I don’t want to place my judgment, but my friend was not bothered about what was being asked or answered, instead the main motive was to prove that this lady is just not competent enough to answer any intelligent question rather she can’t even interpret it, forget about answering. When the person who asked me question looked satisfied and gave a rating of 8/10 (just because it was asked for to prove the point), further he was being forced to lower it down. It irked me a little more seeing that when someone seems to be happy with the answer he/she has got, some people have this tendency to culminate it down as to how can he/she be satisfied.Wohaa!!! what an inquisitive curious never satisfied people.Huh!!!
An active communication is not just speaking; it is more of listening, understanding and then responding appropriately. It is not when you already have some prejudices in your mind about a person and his profession, age, sex or any other protected characteristics. It is about being open to listen and think what people are saying.
Conclusion: 1) Interrupting when two people talk, is not a good manner. 2) Forcing your opinion about others cannot take you far. Let people decide how they want to reach to any conclusion.

He is anguished
And he is going through the pain
He needs recuperation
To get back in hale

He is strapping
But his signs fade
As he turns around
He should find people who care

His nights are caught
In your mercy
And the pain he has
Should be removed with your courtesy

Dear God! Listen to my prayers
As you do with all your children
Help him convalesce
As he sleeps in his den

For my friend and your child
Deserves the best of all
With love when you guide
His pain should subside every time you call
--Amrita

THE DREAM

I don’t know if dreams have any real connotation about one’s life. It is said that dreams unify the mind, body and soul. Dreams are mysterious and fascinating; they scare, amaze, give strength and break you down in pieces and what not. My confrontation with dreams is on every nap I take. In years, I haven’t seen a happy dream. I sometimes wish that it’s fine if I don’t have a joyful dream, but I should be spared from the nightmares. At times I run and go through such frightful torments in dream that I find myself awake as restless and exhausted as possible.

I have some recurring dreams too where I am either under water fighting for a survival, or some planes landing at my roof or some meteorites or similar things approaching me. I fear to sleep because there are moments during a dream that though I realize that it’s just a dream and if I open my eyes things would be fine, I find myself helpless and unable to open my eyes and let go the dream. It’s most likely a powerful thing which holds me tight and I can’t fight back. I also encountered my late grandfather a couple of times or more, he talks to me and says that he is around. I don’t understand if there is any meaning behind such dreams, if there is a signal or if I can interpret something by occurrence and reoccurrence of similar dreams.

Amidst all these tiring dreams I have seen you thrice so far in past few months, technically twice, because once it was only your voice which I heard. But whatever the case, I felt the magic when I saw you in my dream today. As usual the start of my dream was with running and trying to save myself from some random danger and then I enter a room where it’s only you and me. I stop and we smile at each other, my previous dream is over, there is nothing from which I am trying to save myself, I am not running. I look at you and you look at me and we don’t talk, we are very close to each other, we just smile and then we smile more and more…few minutes pass by and you say you are off to play football. We come out and you are gone, it’s the crowd and I am finding a place for me to sit. I don’t see you again and my dream is over as I wake up.

I am clueless what it signifies, or may be it doesn’t any, but if you are the only one who can bring a smile on my face and make me forget about all my worries, I won’t fear to dream. Whatever it is but I smiled in my dream after ages and I thank you for this. I want to sleep and dream, dream about you and me. 