At our company, we call ourselves i.e our team, 'The PTG'; 'PTG' stands for 'Platform Technologies Group'.
We specialise in various platforms/architectures.....Last thursday 7th Sep...our team went out to Placida, http://placida.in ... a resort in the outskirts of Hyderabad..Such going out and celebrating events are called 'outings' in corporate...donno why...
For the last few days..we had been planning to go out and celebrate the occassions that we had a few successful project deliviries. :)...thx to the members of the team and team leads...
So, we decided the date of outing to be 7th sep..and set out for Placida at around 2 p.m after our lunch...
we figured that Placida being very close to Madhapur..we would use our own vehicles rather than hire a bus or cars...(for an Indica we were being charged Rs.700/- :o )
Any way,we had enough bikes and two cars....so we set out for the ride....
I paired up with Baba ....but we didnot know the route ....Murali told us to take the Gachibowli road ....and so we did....all along the way there were enuf sign boards for Placida..so didnot have much of a problem there...
The ride was a bit smoother..as the Gachibowli road is gud one type...but suddenly Baba's bike started coughing ;) ....and all of a sudden we were out of petrol.... :( ..I could see Chary at a stone's throw...but shouting didnot help...so I called him on his mobile and asked him to turn around....
Chary and me went back and got a litre petrol for Baba's bike...and the journey resumed...the road after the Gachibowli road is kutcha road up to some distance...and then a pucca road then again a kutcha road....
All in all it would be a 25 min ride without any obstancles like...running out of petrol ;) ...
Finally..we reached Placida..the sky was already cloudy..and ppl were already playing 'pseudo-volleyball' and the organisers Srikanth, Prasanth ,Dileep & Santosh were already arranging for the games that would be played all along our 'outing'....
It had been around 8 months..that I had played cricket and I was very eager to play cricket.....but, then there were the games from Srikanth...
The first game was to empty a bucket full of water and fill up another bucket that was put at some distance in one minute......my team was Sankar, Hema,Harsha....and me ofcourse.. :D...
We had a strategy that two ppl would fill in and empty the glasses at each ends , respectively.....and others would stand in a line to pass the glasses....then after 20 secs. or so..we changed the strategy..and we started to run, collect the empty the glasses...Thanks to Hema..she was always ready with a filled up glass....and guess wat we filled the bucket to the utmost (compared to the other two groups)...and won...Thanks to Sankar who changed the strategy..in a fraction of a sec....
Next game was each of us would receive a chit with 3 names in it... the highlighted name would be ur name for the next few minutes...and u have to find the other two persons whose pesudo-names should be what I have in my chit.....and the game started.........and ppl were screaming like hell for their partners... :D...alas..but my team lost.... :(...
that was a fun game...
Next it was unianimously decided that we would play cricet....by that time it was already drizzling.......the teams were decided..Subu and Sankar were the two captains......Subu chose me .....we won the toss and we decided to bat....Sagar opened the bat with some gud shots...but was run out ....I batted 2nd down with a few 'not bad' shots and was run out...the others had put up a decent fight and we scored 33...all along we had played in a heavy down pour :D ....
the other team...led by Sankar came down to bat...I bowled the first over...got a wicket..gr8 catch by Sagar....and conceded only 2 runs :D ...I am gud bowler, u know..the batsmen from the other team also put up a decent fight ..but could not finish the chase in limited overs and my team won !!......Sankar's team and my team..congratulated each other and patted each other's backs for a very gud show of sportsman ship....and all along as I had said earlier..we were playing in a heavy down pour...it was one of my dreams....to play cricket in a heavy rain on a concrete pitch...with this match..half my dream came true.....the pitch wasn't concrete ;) ....
The highlight of both the innings' was Mrs. Neha... who took up the humongous task of 'umpiring' :p
All the time..she was in confusion whether to declare a ball a wide or not....or to give a run out or not... ;) ....ppl had to refer to the 'third umpires' (there were ppl from some other company there who also were on their outing )....She was definitely the highlight of the match...Thanks Neha ji.... :p
Next we had high-tea...(pakodas tea/coffee) relaxed for a few minutes...
and we broke up into ppl who wanted to play volley ball and ppl who wanted to play TT..I could have choosen to play volley ball...but I thought..why not play TT..
Played a few games of TT and then played caroms..after probably 3-4 years.. I used to play a game or two in college...but I really suck at caroms ;) :P
and then again I played TT ..and continuously played more than 15 matches...and was exhausted...
meanwhile others who knew swimming jumped into the pool...and played 'water polo' and ..frishbee in the pool....
and then Srikanth's games started..tug of war...and the other game was to
stick a paper on each other's backs and write stuff about each other...gud stuff at ur back and bad stuff on ur front ..was the motto of the game....
After the games and a wonderful and motivating speech from our manager, Manmohan...we had a delicious lunch.....and set out back to our homes...
It was wonderful day and I enjoyed it a lot...Thanks to Srikanth for all those games...to Subu, Sankar and Manmohan our manager who arranged for the outing...
