Trip to Confident Cascade

What happened on the trip to confident cascade? I sang!! On stage!! AND PEOPLE LIKED IT!!!!

I'll start this story the way I always do:

March 12: The whole, 48 strong "high flyers" team from my workplace decided to get together at a resort on Bannerghata Road, called Confident cascade. The reason behind that name is simple: If you take an aerial sweep of the area on a helicopter from a height of approx. 200 meters and look at the place from a certain angle, you'll see the words "Confident Cascade" painted on one of the boards.

The day started off with a short ride on a bus we'd rented from TISB (the International School, Bangalore) which, judging from the bus, must be a freakishly expensive school. As we picked up various team mates from the different pickup points, we'd shout "(name) ji ki. JAI", where (name) is the name of whoever just walked into the bus. Once we got there,

I sang!! On stage!! AND PEOPLE LIKED IT!!!!

Oh wait...Lots of things happened before that.

We got to the resort at about 10 a.m, and were greeted by the Confident staff with a watermelon juice. That is, they gave it to us in cups. (I have no idea how to get that first sentence right.) Then, we entered the place and saw some very cool buildings: the office and hotel, the multi-purpose hall, the swimming pool, "Chess Land", etc. On the other side was a big field for cricket, tennis, volleyball, etc. It's a great new resort indeed.

Having explored the place for a bit, we gathered at the dining hall for breakfast. The breakfast was, to put it mildly, deplorable. After breakfast, we split ourselves into four teams of twelve, for the team-building activities: the "winners", "whistlers", "heavy-weights" and "sportives". My team was the "sportives", and we gave ourselves that name so we'd have something amicable even if we lost (which we did).

We played a few team games till noon: longest chain, tug of war, that blindfold game, frisbee, "football", etc After which some people (including me) decided to go for a swim in the pool, while most of the "high flyers" sat around in chess land and played games like dumb charades. I figured, even though the hot sun and the chlorinated pool would make me red as beet, it's nothing that a dozen layers of cream and three different face-washes cannot get rid of. I was wrong. I'm still slightly red.

At about 2 p.m, we gathered again at the dining hall for lunch. Everything other than ice cream (manufactured) and fruit salad (natural), involving more than minimalist cooking was awful. Post lunch, we gathered in the multi purpose hall, which served two purposes: the singing session and the hot seat. This is where the good part comes:

I sang!! On stage!! AND PEOPLE LIKED IT!!!!

The song was Carpenter's "yesterday, once more", which holds a place in my heart because it's like the official song of ILP kolkata. Back then, the manager had played us that song on the valediction day. The emotions attached with that experience come back to us each time we hear this classic song. Although I sang only for a minute, this represents the first time I went up on stage and did something right for a change. This song helped me lose my stage fear and is the reason why this entry is so long. I must thank the GL for having noticed that I was practicing and calling me on stage. My close friend, Divya “DJ” Jyothi “DON’T ever write about me” and Keerthi also sang very well.

After the singing, there were some more team games which, being a “sportive” team member, I don’t want to talk about. After that was the Hot Seat session where some of the popular team members were called on stage. The GL was last to go on the seat, and revealed (this is just the most shocking thing to me) that he wanted everyone in the team to finish their work and go home at 5.30 PM, including himself. He envisions the team to be unique, in as much as personal life is concerned. Till that point, I thought the team mates were being “under utilized”. It’s good to have a GL who believes in work-life balance.

After Hot seat, at about 5 PM, the Confident staff used tea and snacks to bid farewell to our team. (I’m trying all permutations and combinations till I get that sentence right.) We played antakshari as we went back home on the TISB bus.

I must thank Nagarajan, Venky Boss, GL Srinatha, and the others who vanguarded this little get-together. Thank you all for a great, memorable day. A day in which:

I sang!! On stage!! AND PEOPLE LIKED IT!!!!