DDW celebrates eight years!

The hangover’s died out. When I say this, I mean the hangover of the booze has.

Its five days since we have returned from our annual offsite. The three days at Murud Janjira were absolutely fun packed and spiced with incidents, many of which I remember and some that I don’t. We left office at around 4 in the evening and Raghu and Ivan made us assemble at the gate. They had arranged for some gunny bags and the bus was parked at a distance. We all had to step into the gunny bag and hop across to the bus. The fun had begun and it was a sight to behold, even for the people who were passing by but decided it was a better idea to play spectators to people playing Kangaroos. It was a while before everybody had boarded the bus; the singing had started before the bus moved and by the time we reached Sion the Vodka, Rum, Whisky and the Beer bottles were out. We reached the Resort at Murud by 11pm and we refreshed and assembled at 12 to raise a toast to DDW for completing 8 years. Minutes later, we could make out one voice above the din and it belonged to Vikas. Vikas had gone Ting-Tong i.e. he was sozzled. Moments later we had to drag him to his bed. A couple of rounds later, we all decided to call it a day as Ivan and Raghu had planned some activity for the morrow and we went to check on Vikas before we hit the sack. Vikas was changing his position on the bed so frequently that he was almost rotating and I was filled with a desire to switch off the fan and suspend him from the ceiling instead and conserve electricity. The next day our people threw a bucket of water on him to awaken him. He took it in the right spirit, the gentleman that he is. That day we were split into groups and each group had to make a presentation. It was eventful and fun but I won’t go into depth here. Night was again booze and music and dance. However, I had developed a headache and I hit the sack early.

The next morning Ivan and Raghu split us again into teams with me leading the Ferrari team, Ash leading the Red Bull team ('Double Bull' team, as he preferred to call it when he was a Double vodka down and 'Bull Shit' Team as we perceived it), Mel leading the Toyota team and Santosh leading the McLaren team. We were sent on a treasure hunt with clues leading to other clues back to back. Though my team was the last to leave the compound, we managed to gain lost ground when all the teams had to go to the market for the other clues and the autorickshaw that we hailed took us hither-tither at Ferrari speed. Team Ferrari was the first to reach the treasure and we won a gift voucher for a cool Rs. 5000. Celebrations for the win began and the booze started flowing while simultaneously we started playing a game of underarm cricket. I cannot recollect when I got drunk. One of the pictures, which captured me bowling, is enough to convince me that I was. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought that it’s a picture of someone trying to offer a piece of meat to some croc and is ready to spring back in case the croc decides to go for a bigger chunk. However we won the match too; don’t ask me how. We headed out to the beach and after some good fun in the water, we came back to the resort. This was where the camera captured me as the pirate, Capn. Jack Popat. After a good shower, we played a stupid game which involved passing the mint Polo using only the toothpicks in our mouth. Little wonder then, the pictures leave an impression of a party for ‘Happy’ people. I went to my room and grabbed a couple of hours’ sleep before I joined the gang for the party around the bon-fire. After a while, we started playing cards and lady unluck, miss fortune, simply refused to leave my side at I lost a good deal. We partied till wee hours in the morning and I had only gone to sleep when they woke me up so we could head back to Mumbai. I do not recollect taking the shower, but people tell me I did. I was having difficulty in packing my bag and my dear friend Ivan came to my aid. That ass simply dumped everything in. Before long I felt the sling on my shoulder and we were on our way out. We had lunch at Patilwadi before we took the route to Mumbai and as I boarded the bus I made myself a Tribal Mix(vodka in the bottle of a soft drink). Mel joined me in boozing and after a couple of good ones, I was on a roll again. I was full of the right SPIRIT but filled with the wrong one. I was blurting out stupid cracks and having a good time laughing and frolicking when the Guru Dutt in Ash came to the fore and he decided to go on the wrong side of the lens and capture all. Ash now has enough dope on me to blackmail me for a long time. I’m glad that the videos featuring me are not uploaded on the net. Thank God for small mercies. If my antics were revealed to my mom, I’m left with no doubt that she would disown me and expel me from the house with immediate effect. It’s been the best picnic for me in a very long time.

We were celebrating eight years and I was on cloud nine.


P.S.: I’m feeling terribly lazy to upload the pictures of the picnic. Those of you who wanna take a peek can check ‘em out at where my dear friend Ash has uploaded it. The sequence is page 4 bottom to page 1 up. Please do not check ‘em at http://www.flickr.com/photos/57218147@N00/page4/