... As I type it.... - Personal

Breast Cancer - Blogged from a Hospital

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 23:18:01 -0700

Everything was seeming to go well in my life and even last Saturday, when we went to Dakshina Chitra, we met a Palm Reader and when this person asked us to ask any question, we said, we have everything in life, we dont have anything to ask for. May be Gods overheard us and in the next two days dropped a bombshell in our lives with the intensity of the one that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

My mom claimed that she finds some lump in her breast, after examining her breasts as per the instructions they gave on one of the TV channels. We did not want to take it easy, so we took her to our family Gynaecologist, Dr. Lakshmi in T.Nagar. There, she went through some routine tests and we were asked to take her for a CT Scan. The results of which revealed that she had 'Cancer', the lump which was found in her breasts suddenly came up in our throats also. Then some confirmatory tests were done and then we were asked to test her Bone Marrow, Liver, Lungs, etc. Fortunately all these organs seem to be clear, still was nto affected by Cancer. Then it was decided that we have to admit her in the hospital and a surgery has to be performed on her breast.

She was admitted to the hospital on 24 March 2008 and then when the Oncologist was checking her, identified two more nodes in her right breast and told us that we have to do a biopsy of those nodes and incase those nodes are also identified as cancer cells, he told us that Surgery will not be helpful. So today, we went ahead and did some more tests and waiting with our fingers crossed.

With the situation being grim, I probably did not have any other option than to read my mother the book on Lance Armstrong's life to prepare her for the lifelong battle she would have to wage from now on.

Looking back, what is the cause of the cancer? no answer. Glad when the doctor says that this probably is the initial stages of Cancer, but in my mother's case the identification was just a chance. She had no symptoms or whatsoever, there was not any uneasiness, she was not feeling sick and absolutely nothing that could even give us a hint that she has Cancer. Even when we came to the hospital, we all came with loud laughter and I am sure that she was not feeling sick at all. But I am sure that when she goes out of this hospital, she would be a sick person. But, I am sure my mom will survive this and will fight the battle without giving up.

So, I would want to place a request here, assuming that anyone can get Breast Cancer, just ensure that you are aware of it and incase you have it, please diagnose at the earliest. There are a lot of websites and Non Profit Organisations which would give you all the necessary information for you, So be aware of it. Please spread this message to all the women you know in your life and ensure that they are doing the monthly self diagnosis by themselves.

Follow this link for the 5 Step Breast Self Examination:

http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/self_exam/bse_steps.jsp

Vinod Kumar Palani Kumar

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:21:35 -0700

Vinod is my good friend, he is in our finance department. As I was talking to Vinod and Bala from IS, Vinod wanted to know how I post all these articles. Being a good friend of mine, I feel that he deserves an entry in my blog.

Thanks Vinod for being my friend.

Visit to Bangalore and the Weekend

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:24:04 -0700

Was in Bangalore in the last couple of days for a Steering Committee Meeting, everything went on well and our Customer was very happy with the way the relationship has been in the last one year. This also gave me an oppurtunity to meet my friends in Bangalore and spend some time with them.

Back home, my daughter was sick and is down with severe cold and which resulted in ear ache. Took care of her during the weekend and so not much happened during the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon my wife and daughter were sleeping and I woke up before them. Thought I can surprise my wife by preparing Tea, I have never been to the kitchen before, except to drop my used plates for washing. Did not exactly know what to do? Took the help of Internet to prepare of the same. With great difficulty boiled the milk and prepared tea. My wife woke up before i could finish because of the noise I made. But it tasted yucky, by being thoughtful, looks like I spoiled her evening tea. Anyway will try and perfect it next time.

Posted from Shatabdi Express - On the way to Bangalore

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:58:22 -0700

Started the day very early as I had to catch the train to Bangalore, going there to attend the Steering Committee Meeting with my client. My train was scheduled to leave Chennai Central at 6:00 AM and as usual planned to wake up by 4:30 am and leave home by 5:00 am so I can be at the station well ahead of time.

'Man proposes, God disposes,' With great difficulty woke up at 4:50 am and found that there is now power due to the more than normal rain. In the darkness somehow managed to take bath and dressed up and boarded the cab at 5:10 am. As it is very early in the morning, the drive from would not take more than 30 minutes time and as I we crossed the Kathipara Junction, the driver stopped the vehicle and then I realised that one of the tyres have become flat. Thought I will take another auto, but the driver assured that we will still make it, so trusted him.

Then he changed the tyre and suddenly I had a feeling that I am in some F1 circuit, near Nandanam we nearly hit one two wheeler. Then told the driver that it is fine even if I miss the train, I can drive down to Bangalore as my meeting is only scheduled late in the evening. I had more suprises near Spencer's Plaza, as we saw vehicles being diverted to one side of the road, as a lorry had toppled on the other side. Meanwhile, I was supposed to check the tickets this morning for the time and the coach number, which I did not do because of the urgency. Then when we reached Simpson, the time was 5:50 am and I was wondering if I am supposed travel today, as I did not get a call from Suresh. Probably, this is what they call it as telepathy, he called me and asked me where I am? I told him that I will be there in 5 minutes time and got the Coach No and Platform number from him.

Then reached my coach just in time and told Suresh about the encounters I had on my way and he smiled and probably that smile told me that he did not beleive me. I would not blame him, as he has reasons to smile, last time when we travelled together, I was late to the station, because the cab I travelled met with a minor accident. I dont know may be I am jinxed when travelling with him.

Truly, Madly, Deeply - Savage Garden

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:29:22 -0700

 I'll be your dream
 I'll be your wish I'll be your fantasy
 I'll be your hope I'll be your love
 Be everything that you need.
 I'll love you more with every breath
 Truly, madly, deeply do
 I will be strong I will be faithful
 'cause I'm counting on
 
 A new beginning
 A reason for living
 A deeper meaning
 
 I wanna stand with you on a mountain
 I wanna bathe with you in the sea
 I wanna lay like this forever
 Until the sky falls down on me
 
 And when the stars is shining brightly in the velvet sky,
 I'll make a wish and lead to heaven and make you want to cry
 The tears of joy for all the pleasure in the certainty
 That we're surrounded by the comfort and protection of
 
 The highest powers
 In lonely hours
 And the tears devour you
 
 I want to stand with you on a mountain
 I want to bathe with you in the sea
 I want to lay like it is forever
 Until the sky falls down on me
 
 Oh can't you see it baby?
 You don't have to close your eyes
 'Cause it's standing right before you
 All that you need will surely come
 
 I'll be your dream I'll be your wish
 I'll be your fantasy
 I'll be your hope I'll be your love
 Be everything that you need
 I'll love you more with every breath
 Truly, madly, deeply do
 
 I wanna stand with you on a mountain
 I wanna bathe with you in the sea
 I want to lay like this forever
 Until the sky falls down on me
 
 I wanna stand with you on a mountain
 I wanna bathe with you in the sea
 I want to live like this forever
 until the sky falls down on me

I just love this song very much and also this is my current caller tune.

Crescendo 2007

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:33:51 -0700

Crescendo 2007, this was an event conducted in my company in the last six months. Our office was divided into three teams based on DNA Imagination, Action & Joy. The events comprised of Quiz, Antakshari, Dumb Charades, Creative Writing, Debates, etc. and Sporting events including Volleyball, Throwball, Badminton, Table Tennis, Football, Gilli, Goli, Bambaram, Cracket ( a modified version of cricket ). This event came to an end of 29 February 2008 with a grand finale. The main event in Finale was an event which we named it as 'Two 2 Tango', in which some 12 pairs performed a variety of programs which included Skits, Dances and Songs.

Though we had teams practicing for the main event since October 2007, this event had to be postponed for various reasons and finally when we decided to conduct this event, the original teams was not in a position to practice and perform. Thats when we started thinking how to successfully do this event, we conceptualised 'Two 2 Tango'. It worked out very well and everyone enjoyed this event, a very special thanks should go to the bunch of Interns who showed their talent, enjoyed the event and made others enjoy. Shown below are some pics from the event, I also got some prizes and medals in this event

Vish, I admire

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:23:43 -0700

Crescendo'07, atlast came to an end on 29 February 2008, no, I am not going to talk about what it is all about. Its an experience and i just lived through it in the last Six months.

After the event was over, Vish, Priscilla, Pallavi, Rakesh and I went to Andhra's Bhavan, a restaurant in Besant Nagar to spend the time together. Then I dropped everyone and was returning back and thinking over everything. Vishwanath (Vish) was one of the key person behind this event, I admire him a lot. The talent he possesses, versatility and the amount of energy he has and the way he spreads it across, these are few qualities I admire in him.

Looking back, my admiration for him started from the time I saw him on the Graduation day on 13 Dec 2006 in MindTree. The way he danced for Main Aisa kyun hoon from Lakshya and to the wonderful talk he gave that day. The confidence I saw in him when he was doing both these activity made me his fan, the only thing I knew about him at that time was that his name is Vishwanath. I was thinking what an asset t

his guy would be in the team that he would be in and wished if I could get him on my team.

Then when I got transferred to Chennai, to my surprise I found him in Chennai too and unfortunately he happened to be R&D, so I knew that I would not be able to work with him on projects. But Rainbow and now Crescendo did give me a lot of oppurtunity to work with him. On that day when I was taking a video I saw him mentoring another Campus Mind, so my thought became more important as i see how he has grown from Campus Mind to a Senior mind.

Keep up the good work Vish, I admire you a lot.

Vish singing in Two 2 Tango in Crescendo

I'm Back

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:54:45 -0700

Again, I am giving an excuse for not writing for a long time. Pretty busy with my relocation and the new projects and responsbilities. The challenge has now extended more with the 3 hour commute everyday to and from work. No complaints, life is interesting as it has always been with its twists, turns and dead ends.

Lot of things to share, 3 months of continuos working, Cricketing endeavours, Corporate Tournaments, My new interest - Badminton, my US Trip, my Promotion....

Will ensure that I take time and keep filling up the pages on this website.

Love Story..... Valentine's day Special

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 22:15:39 -0700

There was a contest in our office about writing love stories for Valentine's day and this is my entry for the same.

Little did I know that a marketing call would have such an impact on my life, one fine day with Life and Business being as usual, I got a call on my extension informing that someone had come to meet me and was really not able to understand from the call as to who and why they have come to me.

Moving out of seat being such a difficult task, reluctantly started walking to the reception slowly and saw an average sized, dusky woman waiting in the reception and the first looks I saw, a lightning struck me and butterflies were flying in my stomach, just pooh poohed those feeling and had a talk with her, I still dont remember anything about what she spoke, was just gazing at her, may be I should have probably sung Partha Muthal Naale.

Even though I was not interested in the product that she sold, I wanted to meet her, so I asked her to come after 2-3 days. Then on that day we were supposed to meet again, dressed myself well and groomed myself more, so I can look smart and handsome. All set for my second meeting, but Man Proposes Manager Disposes My Manager asked me to go to clients place for some work, hesitantly left and did not inform her that I would not be in office, as I thought I can still come back.

Before I could come back to office, she was already there and she called me and I asked her to meet me somewhere near my clients place in a restaurant, she shot that idea down without a second thought. Bearing the shock, informed her that we would meet later, then I tried to sell her product to all my relatives and friends, but I ended up with disappointment and failing in all the attempts that I made to impress her.

There was a lull period and we lost touch and nearly after 4 months, I suddenly got a call from her and the first word I heard from her was Hey Gunda, how are you doing? and that Gunda sounded like I Love you for me. Then we started speaking to each other regularly and the duration of the call also slowly increased.

Then the relationship progressed and we met a couple of times and I started meeting her and was nurturing my love for her inside me. She was talking about everything and confided everything with me and which made me think that she considers being a good friend, so was hesitant to open p my love for her.

And days passed with me building my castle of love, but not disclosing the same for the fear of losing her. Then one day she called me and said she would want to meet and discuss with me about something and she asked me to meet her in Rams Milkyway, T.Nagar. I was very excited as I was hoping that the love bug would have bitten her also. As usual I was late for the meeting and she was waiting for me in one of the tables and I saw her from the stairs and she was looking like an angel in her brown printed saree. Then I went to the table where she was seated and greeted her and took the opposite seat and then ordered for an ice cream and around one hour we both were just smiling at each other without talking a word and then its was around 6:30 pm and it was also a Friday, she said it was getting late and she left.

That weekend I traveled to my native place and all 48 hours I was thinking of our meeting and did not sleep a minute and was waiting for my next meeting. Fortunately it did not take long, she called me again on Monday and said I wanted to meet you in Globus, T.Nagar and on that day I was early and she came there and we did not know what to do and then we just went up and down in the lift in Globus building like school kids and just enjoying each others company. Once we got down at the fourth floor and I said we will walk down the stairs and she agreed too. Then as we were descending on the stairs, I caught her hand and held on to it tightly and walked down with her. She did not resist the same, but I was not able to take it as an acceptance of my love. Then again the silence persisted and unwillingly we went back to our offices.

My mind was filled with thoughts of her and was also feeling melancholic as I was not able to disclose my love for her, Puzzled, I was sitting on the compound wall of my office and all of a sudden, my mobile rang and I saw it was her. With Butterflies flying in my stomach, I picked up the call and she straight away asked me Are we in Love?, not wanting to lose this opportunity immediately shouted Yes, Yes, Yes. Then the fairly tale continued and later when I disclosed that I fell in love with her on the very first day, she did not believe the same and still does not believe so.

Eventful Month......

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 22:36:13 -0700

Its been sometime since I published my thoughts and what an eventful month this has been for me, some excerpts:

1) Got the Half Yearly Award for Innovation and Reuse

2) Went for a trip to Ooty and Bandipur with my team, The Country Club resort was just too good.

3) Osmosis - Our Techfest happened on Dec 14th

4) Attended the PMP Training

5) Got released from my current project

6) Last but not the least, Trasnferred to Chennai, Just waiting to be back in Chennai.

7) Entertained my In-laws who visited us.

Waiting for my Sister and Brother In Law to come to our house.

No excuses for not writing.

Perception....

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:01:18 -0700

This morning as I came to office with a colleague of mine as I left my vehicle in office last evening. As we approached our parking lot I just saw my vehicle was parked haphazardly and it was blocking the way to small parking area. At that time when I parked there were so many vehicles, so I just had to park like that. This morning for anyone looking at it, it looked like the person who parked was an idiot and lacked any sense at all.

I noticed it, got down from my friends vehicle and moved my vehicle a little so it was no more a disturbance to others. There was another person who was trying to park and he saw me doing this and said "Thank you", as he thought that it was someone else's vehicle and I am trying to help him. I accepted the thanks and just thought about the whole incident.

Now in the mind of the person who was trying to park the vehicle, I would like a good socially aware person, but at the sametime my colleague would have felt how badly I had parked my vehicle, as he knows it was my vehicle. The same way, many times we build perception about another person with one incident and we carry the same impression about that person, in this incident it was fine that this person had a positive opinion about me, but there may be many situations in our life where we could have misjudged some people based on an incident and built our perception about the individual based on that incident and would have taken lot of decisions based on that, which would have been wrong.

Typically in our industry, which involves a lot of team work and relationship being the most important factor for the success of the team, these kind of perception building will lead to lot of trouble and ultimately lead to the failure of our project. So lets give a thought before we create any perception about any individual around us, Many times what we see and what we hear may mislead us.

Busy Days......

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:58:04 -0700

I wanted to apologise for not writing for a long time, have a lot of things to share but was occupied with lot of personal work and My daughters birthday, Passport, also a month long carnival we did in our organisation, will share a lot of details on the same in the following days.

Project Yercaud

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 03:35:11 -0700

Project Yercaud Joy and Bonding in the Hills.

MindTree Minds working on projects for the Affinion Group decided that they will go out for an outing during one of the weekend in June or July 2006. After various agreements and disagreements it was decided that we will go to Yercaud on 8^th and 9^th of July 2006. The responsibilities of organizing the same were given to Manju, Deepanjan and Mohit. Everything was planned and meticulously organized and on 8^th morning we all assembled in MTV to get going for what we thought would be a memorable trip.

We all got seated in the two Tempo Travelers, as per the seating arrangement already decided by the organizers, with lots of snacks, soft drinks, enthusiasm and expectations. The cabs were very neat, banners proudly displaying MindTree Consulting (Affinion Group Team). As the team entered the bus, a note was stuck on the back of everyone, which will have the name of the celebrity and the people will have to find who they are by asking questions to their co-passengers, meanwhile the travel started, even before everyone could complete finding who they are, we reached the Border Check post, where we stopped to pay the entry tax, all the Romeos got down and Thiru increased the decibel levels on the quiet Hosur Road, by shouting Ochchamma and the team followed by shouting oh ho. Now adrenalin has started flowing in each and every team member and the fun just started.

Halted in Hosur for breakfast, where we continued our Who am I then proceeded towards the Krishnagiri dam. On the way had a glimpse of the Historic fort of Tipu Sultan on Syed-Basha Mountain and one of the team members told the others about the history of that fort.

The josh of the trip continued at the Krishnagiri Dam, standing in a circle and making ourselves joyful by telling the names of all the in the team beginning from a particular person. We also we given a minutes time to introduce ourselves, so we can know about each other.

After the initial entertaining game of introduction, we went up the dam and were thrilled to see a huge stretch of water in the water catchments area. We enjoyed the strong but soothing breeze and geared ourselves for the next round of events, some planned (like the mafia game) and others unplanned (like the boat ride, the interesting part being that the boat was anchored at the bank)

During the journey from Krishnagiri to Dharmapuri we had some cool games organized by Venky. He started with Horse riding game using cards. Kshitij our young jockey liked the horse ride without the horse, but did not realize that he was taken for a ride, literally, as the horse refused to take off. The race was really neck-to-neck as the horses were chasing by inches. Our grown up jockeys were no less in action with the imaginary horse and enjoyed the joyous ride.

Then Venky gave some tips for faster mathematical calculations using Vedic mathematics. Then it was Sudhakars turn. He showed some wonderful magic using playing cards. After all these we got down at Saravana Bhavan in Dharmapuri for lunch. By the time we reached Dharmapuri, it was hot & humid and team felt their energy level was little low after playing series of well organized games and again thanks to our scheduled plans of having lunch break at right time.

We planned to have lunch break at 1:30 pm and our schedule was spot on. We entered Saravana Bhavan A/C room and it took no time for Sudhakar to order food as team was ready to fight against hunger. Team tasted yummy south Indian traditional food and Rasam served by restaurant was highlight. After raising our energy levels we started towards Salem!

After getting recharged in Saravana bhavan, seating in the cabs has been changed to have more relationship among the team. During the journey from Dharmapuri to Yercaud, we played some interesting games like Anthakshari and Dumb Charades. Most importantly Truth and Dare, where husbands had the opportunity to tell about their dream dates and fall at their wives feet and wives had the opportunity to slap husbands.

We reached Salem around 5 o clock. While going from Salem to top of Yercaud, we enjoyed a lot by seeing the natures of Yercaud hills and lot of monkeys throughout the way and reached TamilNadu Hotel where we stayed.

People were given sometime to rest. By the time everybody were refreshing, our Treasure Hunt game organizers (Deepu and Mohan) were on their way to survey Hotel TamilNadu premises. After this break people were recharged for the evening. By the time campfire was arranged we started with Anthakshari. When we reached at campfire venue we realized that another bigger group was already there with their own campfire. Though our campfire was small but our josh & enthusiasm was as big as Venkys belly. As a result, within 2 hours the other group was packed up. By that time our music system fall sick and people made full use of microphone to sing their own songs. We danced for some more time and then our schedule keeper raised an alert for the dinner. We were tired but our hunger of fun was still not over. Deepanjan, Ramesh, Rajesh and Raghav under leadership of Venky started dancing & singing (really loud) in the dinner hall. This helped the restaurant people to serve us fast. After having food we wanted our extra fun requirement to be fulfilled. So we went to campfire and there we started another round of the party. This time the party was so hard that even other people staying in the nearby cottages also gelled with us and enjoyed. This party was ended with a real hard & loud THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNKKKKSS from Rajesh & Ramesh.

Since everybody was so tired so we re-schedule our trek next morning from 6 am to 7 am and went to sleep

We started our second day with a nature walk, where people divided into 3 teams and went in different routes to explore the beauty of nature in Yercaud; we walked in a route which is full of greenery, valleys, coffee plantation on both sides.

Once we came back from the nature walk, every one was rich with knowledge about Yercaud. Our team (Raghav, Shalaka, Dips, Ramesh and Mohan) was bit late to reach Hotel. What we can do? Yercaud nature holds us back to enjoy its beauty. Once all teams were assembled in the Hotel reception, Mohan and Deepu, who organized Treasure Hunt, took charge. Again its time to divide the team, team was divided into four groups. Once we received the first clue, every one scattered here and there to find the second clue. In another 10 to 15 minutes we were able to find the treasure. The team led by Deepanjan was the first one to find the valuable treasure a pack of chips. Funny thing was that every one returned to the reception but it was over 15 to 20 minutes the first team found the Treasure; still one team (Mohits) was in search of there 2nd clue. Some how they came to know that already treasure is traced and they returned to reception. Of course man we had photo session for the winning team. Now it was time to pack up from the hotel.

After playing the Treasure Hunt now it was the time to give presentation about Yercaud & surrounding. So the team comprising of Venky, Thiru, Rajesh, Manju, Mohit, Deepu, Ravi, which did research on vegetation in Yercaud gave the presentation. Not to damage the nature this Team used audio video technologies to capture vegetation ad present it to others. Venky gave an extraordinary presentation with the things team collected during the trekking like jack fruit , tobacco leaves, Honey, fire wood, Vadas, banana juice, Dutch roses, etc.

After hearing Venkys much hyped and morphed presentation, team went out to their rooms, had bath and packed their bags, Now It's time for some sight seeing. First of all we all went together for boating. It was just awesome, had superb time with everyone, cheering and egging everyone in the water boating. After that we had some nice mangoes, ice creams and snacks. After one hour of fun extravaganza we boarded our cab on course to Shervaroyan temple on the hill top.

When we reached Shervaroyan temple, we thought of a usual visit to a temple, but we had a good opportunity to see such wonderful architecture of keeping the gods idol inside some rock filled cave which gave an experience that can not be sentenced. This is also one of the vista view points of Yercaud from where we can see one of the popular dams in TamilNadu called Mettur Dam. We took enough photos here. Some of our energized people joined together and lift the others to the watching tower there to test their stamina. They took many trials to lift our slimmest team member Venky but failed. Finally they could manage to lift him. With this joy filled mind, proving actions here and there, we started our journey to the other vista view points of Yercaud called Ladies seat, Gents Seat and Children Seat.

It was 2 Oclock in the afternoon when we reached Childrens Seat. It is at top of the hill and we have a nice view of the surroundings and greenery. We were able to spot even the lake in which we had a drive in the morning. After having a look at the surroundings we sat down and enjoyed the nice breeze. Once everybody settled down somebody asked for some game. Deepanjan suggested Anthakshari and everybody agreed. Within no time two groups were formed and we started singing songs in Tamil and Hindi. From one side Sudhakar was shouting for the lunch break but nobody was ready to move and continued singing songs. It went like this for 15 minutes and finally we started for lunch (thats what most of us thought). Then came the major twist (especially for few guys) of the day when we stopped at a shop.

While getting down for the Children's seat spot, there was a snack shop displaying various type of Bonda's especially egg-bonda. So after enjoying the Anthakshari and the beautiful view, we were ready to go for the next destination - country farm. All of us sat in the van, but the van didnt move for a while. Investigation showed that few of our food lovers are stuck in the bonda shop as they could not resist the temptation. We could see the innocent "joy" on their face of desi bonda after the eating "action" and probably "imagining" that while going towards the children's seat. Also some members started acting like children after visiting the children seat, not to take names and put them on the spot.

After the fun eating we started for country farm. The avocado and country jackfruits were on the display. Everybody gathered around the shop cart but was not sure about what to buy and eat. The shopkeeper cut one of such ripe and fresh jackfruit. The aroma of the fresh fruit tempted all of us to eat and some of us to try the first taste of the jackfruit. There were few who were very clear that they do not want to accept this tasting (not testing!) change request. But the rest SIMPLY LOVED IT!

Our next stop was to buy some souvenir. We stopped at Bhavani Perfumes. After inquiring we got to know that their perfumery is right at the backside of shop. They offered us to show the process of making perfume. So the whole team headed towards that. We learnt how the leaves & herbs are used and boiled together to extract the oil that gets collected and distilled later. We also saw the real herbs from their garden.

Our next activity was to test various oils and perfumes. Most of the gentlemen were fascinated by the Brahmi Oil for the hair loss (some for the need and others in anticipation of it) and ladies purchased the Aloe Vera for maintaining their everlasting beauty. Few of our young (thinking young) members kept away from this and enjoyed the balcony view of the perfume movie. Especially the heroine was center of attraction. Some of the members in the group blindly followed the instructions given by her. It was fun to watch and the balcony members wondered are they hypnotized. Some also made comments like if this charm works, I will be the brand ambassador for the product (looks like Sachin Tendulkar will be soon out of ad business). We literally dragged few members out of perfumery but they wanted the damage to be done to their pockets. The team enjoyed this damage and the joy was priceless!

After tasting little honey from herbal aunty, it was 3.45 PM to reach Shervaroys Hotel to have our lunch. People started ordering their menus to boost their energy level but for some people energy level got boosted before reaching the Hotel itself. Especially one big face was glowing like a diamond. After taking the lengthy order from our people; the hotel boy started servicing the dinner food. With frustration, people started filling their stomach rather tasting it. Our half slept boy Sathish was finishing the dinner at the end. At 5.30 PM organizer lighten their pockets by making the payment to the Hotel.

Hope every one can guess whose face was glowing? If you are not able to guess reach out to the team at any moment.

Then, started the Award ceremony function, in the same Shervaroys Hotel, where we happily made use of the arrangements made for some other team. People got award for different reasons like Highly Energetic man, First & Best JOSH Song - OCHAMMA, Active Participant, Best obedient Boy, Good dress sense, Best Game organizers,  Keeping Time etc. The organizers shared their experience with the team that how they started this project Yercaud, what was the different phases involved in the same, how they map this tour to a software project starting from Analysis Acceptance criteria.

With minds filling the brilliant analogy the organizing team has drawn we started our journey towards Bangalore, we all slept in the bus for sometime and some where watching the movie  Kuch Kuch Hotha Hai they did not want to waste the Video coach we hired. Then we started playing Thwibly Thop game with words and we were having fun at the expense of the person who was trying to make his mated guess the right word.

Then on the way by around 9.30 pm we stopped at Kuruburappally to taste awesome Tandoori Chicken, Delicious Kheer, Lassi, Rotis and other side dishes in Vijay Dhaba. People, who said that they cannot eat anything, silently sent inside even two cups of Kheer. Then as we were hogging the organizers conducted a Feedback session, which they said is equivalent to the Post Harvest Meeting, and took the feedback of all the team members and documented the same.

At the end of it we could see a victorious smile on the faces of the organizers for having accomplished the vision of the project, having satisfied the stakeholders on all grounds. Then around 12 midnight we reached MTV, feeling bad about missing the FIFA World cup finals and also feeling worse that all the fun has come to an end. But, went home, with a feeling that MindTrees DNA Imagination, Action and Joy was there in plenty throughout the trip.

Basu's Marriage Party

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 22:58:29 -0700

Basu, my teammate got married a month back in his native place in Orissa and we were not able to attend the same as it was away from the city where we live. After he joined duty, he organised a small party for all of us, so that we can meet his wife.

He had planned to conduct the same in a restaurant name Maharaja in Koramangala, he asked me to help me in getting the invitation done, so I just put my creative thoughts to get a nice invite done and we sent across to everyone that we will have the party on Saturday, 28 June 2006 at the venue mentioned above between 1 to 3 pm.

On that day, after watching the Worldcup football till late in the night, woke up by around 9:30 AM in the morning and started a real lazy day. Then had breakfast and really not finding anything worthwhile to do, called Ayush and fixed an appointment for a rejuvenating Ayurvedic Massage by 1:30 pm. In the meantime, my wife who always believes that the best way to get into a Man's heart is through his stomach and fails miserably in all her efforts, started preparing a great lunch for me.

Then at around 1 o clock, when I was about to leave the house for the massage, Basu called me and asked if I am able to locate the place and only then I realised that I need to attend his party, but managed Basu saying that I am stuck in Traffic Jam. Then shouted at my wife for my poor memory and started to the lunch poorly dressed and troubled everyone asking for route, and cursed traffic jam for my delay, actually there was not any, finally reached the destination by around 2 pm, when everyone is already tired.

Collage of Photos taken in Basu's Party

Then as usual came up with some game and had fun at everyone's expense and had a sumptuous lunch, which included some chosen menu and then cam eback home. On the way apologising to my wife for having shouted at her for no mistake of hers, fortunate that she does not know to put her price up.

Only sad part in that party was the attendance, we had invited around 50 people an finally only 24 people landed up for the event and Basu had to unnecessarily pay for 40 people, so incase you know that you will not be able to attend any function, please tell the hosts before hand, do not give false commitments, it will help is minimising lot of wastages.

A Mega Treat

connectvb@gmail.com (Venky) — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 22:27:41 -0700

Being in a big team, we get a lot of excuses to celebrate and have fun birthdays, anniversaries, marriages and promotions. Dinners, lunches, ice creams, juices the team just got bored with all these. As usual we had some events this month Deepu and Sudhakars birthday, Thirumalai becoming father, Nevin losing his bachelor status and again we forced them to give us a party and in one of the weekly meeting there was a proposal as to why not these people give a joint treat and then there was a lot of discussion on the place, activities, etc., right from Wonder La to Amoeba. We just wanted to fulfill all our wishes at their expense!

Then it was decided that we will go on an outdoor activity for half a day. We decided that we would go to the Country Club on Mysore Road, Kengeri on 20^th June 2006 and spend the evening there between 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. The hosts did all the arrangements right from fixing the events, dinner to commutation, even rescheduling the conference calls so the entire team could attend.

Then, on the day of the event, we all decided that we would leave the office by 3:40 p.m. and as always, we left office by 4:00 p.m. and reached the venue by 4:15 p.m. Then we were served with a welcome drink, after which we all decided to play the games of our interest and the team occupied themselves with badminton, swimming, snooker and table tennis, but majority of the crowd was on the cricket pitch.

Two teams were formed under the leadership of Deepanjan and Manju. Deepanjans team had some star players like Thiru, Venky, Ravi, Deepu and Navilaveni. Manjus team won the toss and elected to field. Their idea was to bowl out the opponent team fast and win the game. Venky and Thiru opened the innings and in the first over they scored 2 runs, in a six-over a side match and then to help his team Venky called Thiru for a run and without moving his feet, took the wicket of Thiru to the excitement of everyone in the ground.

Actually Navilaveni was doubling up as scorer and the way she was telling the score reminded me of the robot in the serial Small Wonder. Then with some good shots from Ravi, Deepanjans team scored 21 runs before they were all out. One highlight of that innings was Sureshs diving for fielding the ball; we really wondered if he wanted to catch the ball or want to have his white shirt dyed brown. Then Manjus team completed the formalities with Manju himself scoring most of the runs. The highlight of the whole match was Venkatahareeshs Bong (Bong means cheating, I am not getting the right English to get the right effect), he was fighting for each and everything. Without any physical activity, the joints being rusted, everyone knew that each and every part of their body would ache, moved for another activity.

In our weekly meeting, we used to spend 30 minutes every week to have a joy activity and the members of the team would take turns to co-ordinate the same. Similarly we thought that we will play a game here. The team was separated into 4 teams, and the teams were named as DJango, Snail, Winners and Sky. Everyone in the team will have a handicap either they will be blindfolded or their hands or legs would be tied together. The objective of the game is to build a castle with natural items available on the premises. It was fun watching and participating in this game as we could see all the teams fighting tooth and nail for the same resources, limping and jumping to overcome the handicaps, etc.

Finally, everyone built castles; some creatively used the trees as pillars of the castle and some using themselves as the walls of the castle, which was objected to by the other team, for the clothes they were wearing.

Then we assembled in a gazebo and Suresh sang Pettai rap, Rajesh did a bhangra with Venky, Navila sang a song, Manju sang one which was dedicated to his fiancé, Deepanjan and Venkatahareesh became Aamir Khan and Rani Mukherjee to do a Aati kya Khandala, Raghu and Venky did a Jungle dance, who were joined by the entire team.

Then as usual we had a sumptuous dinner and filled our stomach, as our heart was already filled with lot of joy. We lived up to MindTrees DNA of Imagination, Action and Joy.

Finally, when we were about to leave, we played music and said every person will have to dance for 30 seconds, and some voluntarily started and in that josh, people who had not moved their feet for music, danced even after the music had stopped and went home satisfied.

An event which was supposed to be a treat became a Mega Treat as people participated instead of just attending.