The week that was...

The week, which started on Monday 18^th December, 2006 and continued till Sunday 24^thDecember, 2006 was full of pressure, deadlines, anxiety & excitement. I think all these emotions weren’t only for me but for some of my friends too.

That week had two special days or occasions; to which almost everyone, who were associated to it was looking forward too. The first one was Thursday 21^st December, 2006: the day for Annual Christmas Party, this year, we named it as iCE Carnival ’06. The other was our (i-leap batch) trip to Alibaug, which was scheduled on Saturday 23^rd December, 2006 & Sunday 24^th December, 2006.

Party:
As usual that week too began on Monday morning, with lot of last minute activities to be completed for making the party a huge success. A usual checklist mail from Santanu was there in my mailbox and I began my day with completing those items present in the list. It almost became a routine to remind each other about the tasks which needs to be completed by the other one.

After rounds of checklists, approvals, meetings and reviews, arrived the final day. It was a day, for which our team had been working atleast from past one month. I don’t know about others but that day there were butterflies inside my stomach.

The excitement for the party started building up quite a few days back with posters put across the office and the mails sent from time to time kept the momentum going and set the grapevine buzzing about the most happening party of the year.

And a rocking party it was… with a packed house with people turning up in full strength accompanied by Family and Friends. The party began with full of enthusiasm and energy, where people also played games. Later they all set the dance floor on fire.

Kids section was another place which was really rocking; people playing with their kids, kids jumping & dancing all over the place. The party gave equal amount of space to all the parents & their kids, dance lovers and also to the people who just wanted to chill out with friends and colleagues.

The party came to an end around 2 a.m. And by God’s grace none of our efforts were wasted, everyone seemed to have enjoyed the party.

Alibaug Trip:
Eleven of us finally agreed to go to Alibaug on Saturday. Each of us was equally excited to enjoy this trip.

We nominated Rohit as our Event Manager for the trip. He planned all the necessary requirements and even made the proper arrangements for them. He tried to cover the minutest details and even planned our scheduled; frankly speaking he proved that he deserves to be an event manager. A Tempo Traveler was booked to carry all us, to our destination.

In the morning, travel agent ditched us. After trying hard for hours, for hiring another car, we somehow managed to get a Scorpio and an Indica for us. We were late by more than 5 hours as per our schedule inspite of the delay; it didn’t affected much since everyone was very keen to go there. We started our journey from J.B. Nagar around 12 noon instead of 6o’clock in the morning.

After hours of traveling, the first beautiful sight which we came across was the Sunset: the most admirable one which I’ve ever seen in my life. Next was the Kashid Beach, a white sand beach. This was our first stop; we spent more than an hour there.

Around 8 in the night, we reached our destination – Nandgaon, a village forty kilometers ahead of Alibaug. The cottage which we had booked was awesome. After having dinner, we had camp fire. You guys won’t believe that for putting the fire, we used Blender’s Pride Whisky instead of kerosene oil, ask Nishant and he’ll tell you how bad he felt at that moment. Our discussions, jokes & singing continued till 3 in the morning.

Next morning, most of us were ready by 7:30, for going to the nearby beach. Meanwhile others got ready, we all warmed-up by playing football, cricket and flying disc. Now came the beach time, most magnificent beach I’ve ever seen, greenish-blue water, white sand and mountains at the sides. What an amazing view, it was? Initially we played at the beach but once we entered into the sea, we had the real fun…

Afternoon was the time to visit Murud Zanzira Fort, located at an island. We reached fort by a boat and hired a guide too, who told various stories, which weren’t sounding true to us. Even though the view was good from there but it was a tiring too. On our journey back to Nandgaon, we had supper in a beachside restaurant, Anand Vatika.

Finally we left, Nandgaon at 8 o’clock in the night for coming back to Mumbai with only one slogan on everyone’s mouth, “Ganpati Bappa Morya, Agle baras tu GOA le jaa…”

Although the whole week was very hectic and tiring but it was one of the best weeks of this year.