My company employees were very excited about the offsite ‘14. The employees were planning about offsite for the last couple of weeks. They were planning about different topics like food, travel, dress, drink, games, etc. On the offsite day 21th Nov 14, I woke up early in the morning and reached Magarpatta City Tower 5 at around 7.08 am. The bus was waiting for passengers. Our bus was going through Hadapsar-Balewadi via Kharadi route. In between there were 10 bus-stops where bus would on-board the passengers. Pune city looks different in morning, no traffic, no pollution and lots of banners. Sometimes I think that Pune is a city of hoardings. Each and every traffic route and major traffic square was overcrowded by political, birthday, or ads banners. The real beauty of the city is lost behind flex boards. Bus was slowly moving away from Pune’s concrete jungle and nearing the greeneries of nature.
We reached Balewadi stadium at 8.30 am. In bus, we had sandwiches and Frooty for breakfast. The movie ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ was being played on TV. We had a tea-break for 20 minutes at Kailash Parbat hotel on highway. Soon after that, we started play Dumb Charades game. It’s an entertaining and fun game. People were having wild guesses for Hindi movie names. Sometime 2-3 people were not able to express a movie name. It’s interesting and lots of fun. In the bus itself, everybody started to plan their own course of entertainment i.e. swimming, dance, party, drink, beach, and games that they would enjoy in the resort.
We reached Radisson-Blu resort Alibaug around 12.30 pm. Hotel staff greets visitors by welcome drink. People were waiting in queue at check-in counter. Reception lobby was very well decorated with flowers, antic pieces, chandelier lamps and bamboo tree artworks. People who got their keys went to their respective rooms to refresh, and then went for lunch in the hotel banquet hall. My number was 62 in wait-list. So I relaxed on sofa and read paper, and magazine in lobby. After getting room keys, Instead of going to room, I preferred to have lunch. I felt refreshed after lunch. The lunch was good.
There were 3 games in Offsite group activities 1.Key punch 2. Bulls ring 3. Pipes and marble. All games involved group co-ordination and communication. I liked the second game i.e. bulls rings. 8-10 people needed to balance the ball which was on string and needed to move from one place to another place, and then to another. There were a number of rules. One of the rules was that we should not drop the ball from ring. Two people were blindfolded. It required lots of co-ordination in the team. So we decided one player should provide directives for movements. We achieved this task successfully.
We went to Varsoli beach at 4.30 pm. The road was blocked by a political party who didn’t allowed our bus to go ahead. We had to walk 1.5 km to reach the beach. And still then, our efforts were not that fruitful. The beach did not look good as we expected. Very few people were there. Actually the beach is made up of rocks and is not for swimming. So, all the swimming enthusiasts were disappointed. Nevertheless, watching sunset on the beach was a good experience. In sunset, you can see a range of reddish color from bright to transparent in the sky. The reflection of sunset in sea water looks very beautiful. Water color simultaneously changes with reddish color in sky. It’s a very beautiful view. Guys were playing volleyball on beach. Few people were simply observing sunset. Few were swimming, gossiping on rocks and few were looking for spots to take snaps.
We returned to hotel at 7.30 pm. Meanwhile I was having a friendly chat with a guy from another team. He is from Pondicherry. It is Union territory of India and the city was ruled by French nationals before independence. Our conversation was s nothing but a small crash course about Pondicherry. He told me that a number of people hold dual citizen ship in Pondicherry. A France passport holder can cast their vote in French election, while being in Pondicherry. In the Tsunami that blew over numerous parts of India and abroad in 2004, the half of Pondicherry was washed away. The foreign NGOs and Government of India helped to rebuild Pondicherry city.
We were super excited for the dance party. Everyone was ready to rock the floor. A few were watching dance moves with a glass of beer in their hands. A few were rocking the dance floor. Few people were missing from party and they were having their own party. The DJ was good. He mostly played party and Bollywood songs, with a pretty mix of both old and new genres. People went crazy on dance floor on hit Bollywood songs. A few were sweating from head to toe after rocking dance floor. The party ended at 11.30 pm after a note of thanks for the Admin guys. Dinner followed.
Next morning, I woke up at 7.30 am. We went to swimming pool and played volleyball. That’s a complete fun and entertaining game. We had lunch at around 1.00 pm. People started to be in mood of reaching home early. Guys who came with their own vehicles, left early before lunch. When we were having lunch, some of them even reached their homes. Return journey started at 2.30 pm. Due to heavy lunch, few guys started sleeping. Few were watching the Hindi movie ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ again, which we continue from the leftover point in our previous day journey. I had watched this movie 4-5 times. But again enjoyed a lot because of the funny dialogues. I read somewhere, this movie was not successful at the time of release. But got cult status due to famous dialogues. We had our tea-break at Kailash Parbat hotel. We were at Wakad at around 5.30 pm. Due to Pune traffic, Bus took 2 hours more to reach Magarpatta City. Finally I reached home around 8.00 pm.
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