A day at Aamby Valley

A day at Aamby valley! well, i was finally there.
The journey to the place started at 9 in the morning, and we were there by 11.30 a.m. Welcomed by a parade of 'dhol taashe'and a huge crowd from the event management team. Armed with the keys to our cottages, we headed towards them in a battery operated open car. it was like travelling thru heaven. the place was so beautiful, so clean, so organized, (well, i am not proud to say this) it didnt feel as if we were in India!
Freshened up, we went for a magnificant lunch (which eventually became heavy also) and then headed up for a treasure hunt! Well, this part was not really fun. The basic purpose was some sight seeing and playing the game. but it all turned out to be just running around and getting baked in the sun! i will need a month or probably two to lose all the tan that i've got in these two days.
Next came the evening party, where we were to perform. We got all ready and came and sat in the open air theater to see Navjot Singh Siddu standing in front of us on the stage and addressing the crowd! And we were standing there, dumb struck, and cried out, 'Oh My God!!'
well, the performance of Siddu was as usual fabulous, in the end giving the message that if you want to excel in something, all you have to do is be yourself. That is what will make you different from others! how very true!
The performance was followed by a presentation and a award ceremony. The award ceremony was punctuated by our performances. We sung first. And i'll tell you, it went pathetic. The orchestra was horrible, we missed our pitch and everything went hay wire! Well, we were not doomed by that because our main performance was yet to come. So after that, we went in for some last minute practice for the dance. We danced on "jhoom barabar jhoom" by the way, from the new movie with the same name.
and suddenly we were called upon. We went on stage, all ready, all excited and all with a strong want of winning the prize. In our positions and the song started, "mungala, mungalaaa, mungalaa.. main gud ki kali...." we were just standing there, waving our hands at the music co-ordinator, looking bewildered and wondering 'now what to we do???'
well, the music co-ordinator was confused because the boys from our troupe were also going to perform on the same song.. it was not entirely his mistake! Anyways, so music stopped, and we resumed our positions, the song started (correct this time) and we danced our way thru as never before in practice. Perfect syncro, all with full energy and we had a blast out there. People were excited because of the performance, and we received a once more! (well, we were going to receive it anyways. with a full support from the entire factory staff, what were we going to expect?) But when BB came over looking as if we had already won the prize, congratulating all of us, then we were quite sure that we had indeed given a spectacular performance!
Then came a surprise, the boys asked us to dance on their next number (mungalaaa) and that was so sudden! we didnt know the music, we didnt know their steps, nothing! all they told us was that when we sit down and do a rowing like action, you come in and do something. and there we were, setting the steps for our guest appearance. All was set, we had gone and changed into our party clothes and then, finally we were called. They went in, started their performance and then suddenly, AM calls us and say, 'come on.. come on..' We enter, though this was not they entry point decided previously. And then SG and PS look at us and mouth "you are early". 'What do we do?' and then AM throws in the answer, "ab kuch bhi karo" (now do anything you like). and then we went ahead to give one of the most chaotic and unsynchronised, on the spot performance of the century (i suppose)
But anyways, this performance was the most fun of all! we enjoyed and danced carelessly without any fear or consciousness. It was fun all the way!
To our greatest surprise, we won the first prise for our dance (not mungalaa, for jhoom barabar jhoom) and gave another of the worst performances on stage when we went up there to receive the award.
The night after that was, well, rocking.. We danced till 1'o clock in the morning and then stayed on till 2.30 a.m. or so, singing songs and cracking jokes and laughing till our stomachs hurt! 2.30 a.m., our HRM finally threw us out of the place and ordered us to get back to our rooms. Well, not so easily we said, we didnt take the car, but decided to walk back (4 kms! :)) but unfortunately after walking 1/4th of the distance, the event co-ordinator got the information somehow and hit us with the information that 'it is so unsafe wandering around like this in a totally secluded area in the middle of the night on your own!!!!!!' (yeah right!) so he sent us a car and we got back to our cottages safe and sound.
After reaching back, we had a session of gossip about the hot-shots in our company. Listening to the stories, all i was doing was rolling about with laughter. OMG! the gossips that go around and the stories that have been built up are absolutely hilarious! I could believe it for a second, but when people (reliable resources) started telling what they had actually seen, then the things started dawning on me. I am not going to spell out any of it of course, not even with the abbreviated names. it wont make sense to anyone anyways, would it?
So, finally we slept at 3.00, for four hours, in a wonderful soft bed and then the deep sleep was shattered by the musical alarm of my mobile phone. Getting out of the warmth of the bed, cursing myself for having slept so late, i still eagerly got up and got ready because i awaited the coming day with much anticipation.
With a stumptuous breakfast gone down in the stomach, we then relaxed into one more gossiping session. That, was broken though because we had some more games lined up for us. Caterpillar race (i dont want to explain it now), tug of war, a cricket match.. and everything again right under the nose of the blazing sun! Anyways, so with the end of games (our team: team blue; won by the way!! :)) we had the closing session where everyone was given blue and white balloons which we let go of together.. and they went higher and higher up in the sky. That was one beautiful sight!
After lunch and heavy deserts, we settled in our buses to head back to our homes. We were so tired that deep sleep engulfed almost everyone and we got back up after we had travelled almost half the distance back home. And it was hot inspite of the A/C in the bus. That was saturday.
Sunday was spent eating and sleeping; eating and sleeping; eating and sleeping and doing nothing else (i did cook food in the morning though). But the entire event was now turning out to be very tiresome! Every inch of my body from the tip of my hair to the nail of my toes was screeming with pain. Sleep was the only alternative, which i did. But not fitfully. I kept on getting wierd dreams, which gave me a very disturbed sleep again. Probably the fear that now my happiness should not get shattered in the depths of troubles and irritations and anger and frustration. But fortunately nothing of that sort has happened.
So this was it.. some photographs from aamby valley are put up on my orkut album just in case nyones interested to see that..
Now, to get back to work.. but will write soon.. till then...