Note: This has been all the writing i have ever managed to complete in the past 5 months if you exclude my mostly fabricated project report that earned me my Engineering Degree. Now i'm supposedly an engineer(Yup thats what my card reads). This is an account of the team outbound that our company sponsored and was written for the inhouse magazine.
Travelogue
Disclaimer: All events are factual though the interpretations were taken liberty on. If anything in the following account can be interpreted in more than one way and one of them puts events in bad light, then I obviously meant the other one.
For all working professionals, the best time of the week is always Friday evening. And on one such joyous evening(28th Sept), the TPC, GPO and the InitMedia teams prepared themselves for the team outbound to Chikamagalore, graciously sponsored by Honeywell. Owing to quite a large number of pull-outs the number was 14 that included the entire TPC team, half the GPO and a representation from the InitMedia.
Pick up points strewn across the heavily congested Bangalore roads combined with Indian punctuality made it a slow and silent start. And it took about half an hour into the journey for our people to decide to get into high spirits.
An unexpected failure of lights led the group to break into a round of Antakshari that showcased Honeywell principles of reuse and innovation! (invented lyrics , remix versions and the same song hundred times over). Undeterred by the bus driver’s efforts to make us stop by playing loud music or fixing the lights or the under the breath mutterings of people who were trying to sleep, the contest went on and on till each one flopped tired and the teams called it a tie. While a few nocturnal souls extended the team building activities to forming sets and dealing hands, dawn met us in the scenic outskirts of Chikamagalore.
TexWood Resorts where we were accommodated is situated in a span of 250 acres of coffee plantation. The tall towering bamboos and the curving path amidst the greenery, not to mention the bumpy ride by jeep, helped switch gears to holiday mood. Away from traffic and civilization (no cell phone tower!), this was peace like never before. The resort looked into picturesque scenery and it was more of a home stay with pampering comfortable rooms and good food. Took some effort from our part not to surrender to the comforts and stay in all day. After breakfast the group got divided on the basis of love for adventure or love for cricket.
Pumped up by India’s T20 victory (and before the Australian demolished the same), the cricket lovers amongst us, decided to battle it out. A tricky pitch where the challenges just kept mounting, the stage was set for games of absolute spirit. Moss laded outfield, where slip was not just a fielding position, with towering barb wire fencing, it was a picture out of the World’s Most Difficult grounds. With Ravi managing to dispatch the ball with ease between slipping fielders and Srihari getting the most number of wickets, everyone had chipped in and had gotten in touch with their inner child. Blinder catches and Direct hit runouts, the playing lot sure did give some tips that can be useful to the Indian team. To describe in one word the efforts – Josh.
The second group, counting on the strength of the legs, decided to flirt with nature in the pretense of a trek. Accompanied by Ramesh (a Jimmy Hendrix inspired, silent TexWood employee) to guide us, and warned not to pluck the oranges from the orchard on the way (which meant we stopped at every orange tree), six of us set out on a 2.5 km trek through the forest which was, well, set up nicely with a “How much more to go?” two minutes into the trek.
With the camera shutters fluttering all the way and incessant yapping, we reached the fishing pond maintained by the resort. All the first timers tried our luck, with no intention of letting any of those fishes die (Pavani the most successful with 3 amidst Megha’s frantic “Let it go!!” from the second there was a tug on the line).From there, A few steep climbs and descents later we reached our next destination, a small stream with a wooden bridge, that was to become the 2nd most memorable event of the day.
Well, all of us were used to going with the flow. But when we got a chance to do it literally, believe me, it was an absolutely amazing experience (though our backs might disagree). Splashing water on each other and resorting to every possible antic that would have given an aquatic being an inferiority complex, that was the most fun one can imagine to ever have.
Still it was the 2nd most memorable event because after some nerve pulls and drip drying, our rendezvous with the blood sucking creatures began(I’m not talking about capitalists here). Though actually a painless affair, the sight of a leech wiggling on one’s legs is sufficient to scare the hell out of you claims Poornima. She would know better. With frantic reactions that kept any mistaken wild animal out of our path, the walk back kept all of us busy, mainly Vishwa who had to remove the Leeches every ten steps from the affected party’s legs. But that in no way dampened the yapping capabilities and we reached back thanks to a mid way lift, with gloating smiles of achievement and a glee inerasable from our faces recounting the tryst with nature.
After a few more games of cricket in the evening and a whole lot of set building in the afternoon, the preparations for the camp fire began. Intoxicated by nature, polluted by blaring music, everyone shook their legs around the campfire (of course after a lot of persuasion) immaterial of whether it was Himesh extending a single syllable unendingly or a typical “Dabbanguthu” in tamil (Manju deserves special mention for his amazing Dance performance). The show was completely stolen by a kid, from one of the families staying at the resort, who wanted to join in on the fun. Amritha, a kindergarten kid, was an amazingly fast learner who soon tired out her energetic dance mentor – Jyoti! Cheered on by the entire group, the kid truly rocked the party. Only the thought of the kitchen closing, made people break camp and head indoors after 2.5 hrs in the open, dancing (or simply sitting) around the campfire.
An early start the next day to catch up on hours of travel made us bid adieu to TexWood haven around 8.30 after breakfast. Ferried in jeeps to our bus and the spirit of adventure still not dampened, few of us decided to travel on the top of the bus!! Motivated by the driver’s encouragement (Friday night Antakshari effect?), eight of us took to our perch. I admit, I had initially imagined a “Chaiya Chaiya” type travel with music and dance, but I was proved wrong. Critical was the fact that we had to hold on tight all the way and get our heads out of the way of every low branch that greeted us (they expected us back at work on Mon). Managing to slip in a few ‘songs’ and cries for Vaishno Devi Matha (No, we weren’t getting all spiritual), this was really an exhilarating experience. Of course the weird looks we received from passers by and the waving we received from the kids on the roads only served to inflate our sense of accomplishment.
Next stop was Belur. The main attraction in Belur is the Chennakesava temple complex which contains the ChennaKesava Temple (dedicated to Lord Chennakeshava , meaning handsome Vishnu) as the centre piece, surrounded by the Kappe Chennigraya temple built by Shantaladevi, queen of king Vishnuvardana of the Hoysala dynasty. The temple is one of the finest examples of Hoysala architecture. The facade of the temple is filled with intricate sculptures and friezes with no portion left blank. The intricate workmanship includes elephants, lions, horses, episodes from the Indian mythological epics and sensuous dancers (Shilabalikas) flanging the entire outer periphery of the temple. Each of these sculptures depicted the varying innate characters exhibited by women, all modeled on the queen Shantaladevi. Inside the temple are a number of ornate pillars whose engineering brilliance, in addition to the heritage, would surely bring in a humbling effect on the present day architects. No two pillars are the same and the art work truly brilliant.
The sculptures with the intricate carvings keeping in mind the attention for details was mind numbing! It was impossible not to a let a small amount of worthlessness seep in, in the presence of such great art. Maybe, centuries from now, when programming might be declared an art, the lines of code we write would be appreciated for the intricacies of the “for loops” and deft handling of classes. Wishful thinking I suppose. Sigh.
With buses to catch and dinner appointments to be met, time just seemed to be in a hurry to fly and we had to head back to Bangalore. The mood in the bus was solemn and like the hallmark of any memorable time spent, silence characterized the goodbyes. After two back to back movies with a lunch stop, the cab reached back the HTS compound at 7.30 with just about 7 people, the rest dropped off on the way.
This team that has bonded beyond hierarchy, brought closer by shared enthusiasms and now gelling in to work towards the organizational goals, is a statement by itself to the success of Honeywell’s Team building efforts.
The memories gathered elicit a sigh even a month after the trip. I guess this is one hangover no one is in any hurry to come out of.
Disclaimer: All events are factual though the interpretations were taken liberty on. If anything in the following account can be interpreted in more than one way and one of them puts events in bad light, then I obviously meant the other one.
For all working professionals, the best time of the week is always Friday evening. And on one such joyous evening(28th Sept), the TPC, GPO and the InitMedia teams prepared themselves for the team outbound to Chikamagalore, graciously sponsored by Honeywell. Owing to quite a large number of pull-outs the number was 14 that included the entire TPC team, half the GPO and a representation from the InitMedia.
Pick up points strewn across the heavily congested Bangalore roads combined with Indian punctuality made it a slow and silent start. And it took about half an hour into the journey for our people to decide to get into high spirits.
An unexpected failure of lights led the group to break into a round of Antakshari that showcased Honeywell principles of reuse and innovation! (invented lyrics , remix versions and the same song hundred times over). Undeterred by the bus driver’s efforts to make us stop by playing loud music or fixing the lights or the under the breath mutterings of people who were trying to sleep, the contest went on and on till each one flopped tired and the teams called it a tie. While a few nocturnal souls extended the team building activities to forming sets and dealing hands, dawn met us in the scenic outskirts of Chikamagalore.
TexWood Resorts where we were accommodated is situated in a span of 250 acres of coffee plantation. The tall towering bamboos and the curving path amidst the greenery, not to mention the bumpy ride by jeep, helped switch gears to holiday mood. Away from traffic and civilization (no cell phone tower!), this was peace like never before. The resort looked into picturesque scenery and it was more of a home stay with pampering comfortable rooms and good food. Took some effort from our part not to surrender to the comforts and stay in all day. After breakfast the group got divided on the basis of love for adventure or love for cricket.
Pumped up by India’s T20 victory (and before the Australian demolished the same), the cricket lovers amongst us, decided to battle it out. A tricky pitch where the challenges just kept mounting, the stage was set for games of absolute spirit. Moss laded outfield, where slip was not just a fielding position, with towering barb wire fencing, it was a picture out of the World’s Most Difficult grounds. With Ravi managing to dispatch the ball with ease between slipping fielders and Srihari getting the most number of wickets, everyone had chipped in and had gotten in touch with their inner child. Blinder catches and Direct hit runouts, the playing lot sure did give some tips that can be useful to the Indian team. To describe in one word the efforts – Josh.
The second group, counting on the strength of the legs, decided to flirt with nature in the pretense of a trek. Accompanied by Ramesh (a Jimmy Hendrix inspired, silent TexWood employee) to guide us, and warned not to pluck the oranges from the orchard on the way (which meant we stopped at every orange tree), six of us set out on a 2.5 km trek through the forest which was, well, set up nicely with a “How much more to go?” two minutes into the trek.
With the camera shutters fluttering all the way and incessant yapping, we reached the fishing pond maintained by the resort. All the first timers tried our luck, with no intention of letting any of those fishes die (Pavani the most successful with 3 amidst Megha’s frantic “Let it go!!” from the second there was a tug on the line).From there, A few steep climbs and descents later we reached our next destination, a small stream with a wooden bridge, that was to become the 2nd most memorable event of the day.
Well, all of us were used to going with the flow. But when we got a chance to do it literally, believe me, it was an absolutely amazing experience (though our backs might disagree). Splashing water on each other and resorting to every possible antic that would have given an aquatic being an inferiority complex, that was the most fun one can imagine to ever have.
Still it was the 2nd most memorable event because after some nerve pulls and drip drying, our rendezvous with the blood sucking creatures began(I’m not talking about capitalists here). Though actually a painless affair, the sight of a leech wiggling on one’s legs is sufficient to scare the hell out of you claims Poornima. She would know better. With frantic reactions that kept any mistaken wild animal out of our path, the walk back kept all of us busy, mainly Vishwa who had to remove the Leeches every ten steps from the affected party’s legs. But that in no way dampened the yapping capabilities and we reached back thanks to a mid way lift, with gloating smiles of achievement and a glee inerasable from our faces recounting the tryst with nature.
After a few more games of cricket in the evening and a whole lot of set building in the afternoon, the preparations for the camp fire began. Intoxicated by nature, polluted by blaring music, everyone shook their legs around the campfire (of course after a lot of persuasion) immaterial of whether it was Himesh extending a single syllable unendingly or a typical “Dabbanguthu” in tamil (Manju deserves special mention for his amazing Dance performance). The show was completely stolen by a kid, from one of the families staying at the resort, who wanted to join in on the fun. Amritha, a kindergarten kid, was an amazingly fast learner who soon tired out her energetic dance mentor – Jyoti! Cheered on by the entire group, the kid truly rocked the party. Only the thought of the kitchen closing, made people break camp and head indoors after 2.5 hrs in the open, dancing (or simply sitting) around the campfire.
An early start the next day to catch up on hours of travel made us bid adieu to TexWood haven around 8.30 after breakfast. Ferried in jeeps to our bus and the spirit of adventure still not dampened, few of us decided to travel on the top of the bus!! Motivated by the driver’s encouragement (Friday night Antakshari effect?), eight of us took to our perch. I admit, I had initially imagined a “Chaiya Chaiya” type travel with music and dance, but I was proved wrong. Critical was the fact that we had to hold on tight all the way and get our heads out of the way of every low branch that greeted us (they expected us back at work on Mon). Managing to slip in a few ‘songs’ and cries for Vaishno Devi Matha (No, we weren’t getting all spiritual), this was really an exhilarating experience. Of course the weird looks we received from passers by and the waving we received from the kids on the roads only served to inflate our sense of accomplishment.
Next stop was Belur. The main attraction in Belur is the Chennakesava temple complex which contains the ChennaKesava Temple (dedicated to Lord Chennakeshava , meaning handsome Vishnu) as the centre piece, surrounded by the Kappe Chennigraya temple built by Shantaladevi, queen of king Vishnuvardana of the Hoysala dynasty. The temple is one of the finest examples of Hoysala architecture. The facade of the temple is filled with intricate sculptures and friezes with no portion left blank. The intricate workmanship includes elephants, lions, horses, episodes from the Indian mythological epics and sensuous dancers (Shilabalikas) flanging the entire outer periphery of the temple. Each of these sculptures depicted the varying innate characters exhibited by women, all modeled on the queen Shantaladevi. Inside the temple are a number of ornate pillars whose engineering brilliance, in addition to the heritage, would surely bring in a humbling effect on the present day architects. No two pillars are the same and the art work truly brilliant.
The sculptures with the intricate carvings keeping in mind the attention for details was mind numbing! It was impossible not to a let a small amount of worthlessness seep in, in the presence of such great art. Maybe, centuries from now, when programming might be declared an art, the lines of code we write would be appreciated for the intricacies of the “for loops” and deft handling of classes. Wishful thinking I suppose. Sigh.
With buses to catch and dinner appointments to be met, time just seemed to be in a hurry to fly and we had to head back to Bangalore. The mood in the bus was solemn and like the hallmark of any memorable time spent, silence characterized the goodbyes. After two back to back movies with a lunch stop, the cab reached back the HTS compound at 7.30 with just about 7 people, the rest dropped off on the way.
This team that has bonded beyond hierarchy, brought closer by shared enthusiasms and now gelling in to work towards the organizational goals, is a statement by itself to the success of Honeywell’s Team building efforts.
The memories gathered elicit a sigh even a month after the trip. I guess this is one hangover no one is in any hurry to come out of.
