"InfoAnalytica's Day Out - IA checks in @ the Amazing Maze"

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! infoAnalytica is an ardent believer of this time-tested ancient proved. Life at infoAnalytica is not just about a grumbling, juggling, and banging heads to meet deadlines. We do get our much-awaited Sabbath from time to time in the form of parties, outings, picnics, and all those fun-filled activities.

What can be a better way to chill out than a farmhouse picnic? After tons of debate, we all finally agreed upon spending our Saturday in a farmhouse playing games, eating, and other fun stuffs. I was among the first to reach the office early. I was quiet taken aback to find Amit sir busy on a computer. My initial thought was– maybe Sir is busy with some leftovers of Friday. But to my great surprise, he was actually preparing for a game. Helping him was Busy Dinesh….the busiest Dinesh I’ve seen till now. It was not that I had no idea about the game (The Treasure Hunt). But it was really nice watching both of them so enthusiastically engaged in some last-minute preparation. I reckon no outsider could have ever guessed that a game preparation was going on.

Gradually everyone poured in the office. We had our little warm-up session playing dart. And then we left for the venue. It started off with cricket, the funniest cricket one can imagine, with a plastic chair playing the part of wickets. This humble chair-cum-wicket was frequently shifted to and fro to irritate the batsperson (I can’t be sexist in my language usage as there were girls playing as well!). It was fun watching petite Palak doing something that appeared like batting and Anjali giving Jumping Jack a run for his money. I’ve never been a cricket person so I occupied myself by playing dart. As soon as the afternoon reached its peak, we moved on to playing one-minute games arranged by Christina and Daniel. There were games like orange peeling, tongue twisters, paper boat making, etc. By the time the games got finished, we all were feeling extremely hungry. Vishwa had arranged a nice lunch for us. We quickly savored our lunch and started waiting for the most awaited game of the picnic, Treasure Hunt. We had no clue what exactly was it going to be.

Amit sir and Dinesh explained us the rules of game and chose 7 leaders who picked up 2 team members of their choice. The game was divided into three phases and we had in total three clues to look for. We were brimming with excitement and were fully prepared to run for the clues. We all were waiting like school children ready to rush toward school gate when the closing bell rings.

The Treasure Hunt was not just about finding clues. It included other interesting competitions as well such as filling a 1 liter jar with water. The competitors had to do it by filling water in their mouth at one end and spitting it in a jar positioned at some distance. Allwyn (my team leader) did it in a record-breaking time of 2 min 15 sec. The next competition was that of eating. Sounds easy… huh! Even I thought so before looking inside the neatly covered plate. Seven big green chilies were lying on the plate accompanied by few pieces of raw unpeeled garlic. The site of the plate was just enough to scare anyone. Kudos to all the brave hearts that eat those items – Rajiv Bhai, Palak, Kalpesh, Ullas, and Vinay. I can’t resist myself from mentioning how Vinay did it. He took in 3-4 chilies at one go! It really takes a heart of steel to do such a thing.

The teams with the lowest score gradually got eliminated. In the end just 4 teams were left. I was in one of the teams. We went bananas looking for the final clues. The funniest part was collecting the items mentioned in the list – flowers of specific colors, metal cap, broken glass, brick, string, a piece of poop, blah, blah, blah! Although the items were easily available, Ullas’s team was the first to reach the judges. Vinay’s team came a close second and Allwyn’s team came third. After a gap of some minutes came Jimmy’s team, which received a big round of applause from all of us for their game spirit. Amit Sir presented awards to the winning team and the runner-up team. Ullas was surely feeling like a million dollars! And thus the game ended happily. The game did have its share of controversies and confusion, but overall it was fun. Credit goes to Amit sir and Dinesh for taking so much effort and coming up with such an interesting and thrilling game.

The picnic ended on a happy note, a lively experience for all of us..........a TRULY ZINDA HU MAIN EXPERIENCE!!It will perhaps remain one of the most memorable outings at infoAnalytica. These great outdoors activities are a great way reconnect with ourselves and the people we work with.