-by Samatha & Nithya
Want to have fun and feel home while onsite. Come to
Schenectady:
Huge numbers aggrandize the PICNIC 2001 organized on
Sunday, the 29th July at the Moreau Lake State Park located North of
Schenectady at about 30 miles.
It was a midsummer morning with lots of sunshine.
The TCS ’ERs and their family members started coming in to the park by 9 AM. in
the morning. The park was full of tall trees and greenery, with the Moreau Lake
enhancing its beauty. Everyone seemed enthusiastic and curious about the picnic
and the events to be held on the day.
All the community folks gathered under a reserved
pavilion in large. The American breakfast was waiting on the table and people
had an introductory chat during the breakfast.
To ensure everyone’s participation in the games, the
community folks gathered, were divided into four groups Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald
and Topaz aptly named after the types of
precious stones!
The events took off with a flying start with the
first game being the “Four Poles”. The participants had to go around the four
poles - India, U.K., USA and Australia while the tantalizing music was played.
Yash and Zankhana organized this grand event. When a pole was randomly called,
during the brief pause of the music, people at that pole were out of the game.
Finally Anand won the game by sticking on to the Indian pole.
Group events took a start with the FORTUNE-10,
comprising of Amitabh Movie and Most Famous Cars. Yelling & Whistling
the teams vied at each other and made lots of guesswork. Emeralds took the lead
in this round. Next to come was G.K
Quiz, organized by Srilatha & Srinadha Reddy. It consisted of questions on IT, Geography, Personalities, Cricket,
Politics and Movies. This round kept everyone busy with some serious thinking.
Emeralds continued their dominance by winning this also.After a brief gap the
third round, dumb-charades was started. People were at the pinnacle of their
excitement while trying to interpret what their group members were enacting
Thanks to the Food and Beverage Committee for a
continuous supply of beverages through out the day. The next event was
Anthakshari splendidly compered by Chakri. With the moods being ecstatic Topaz
came on to the limelight this time. The star of their team was Raghavendra who
was called “Jukebox of Hindi melodies”. ‘Water of India’ was the final group
game. Sapphires won this game, but it resulted in an overall tie between them
and the Emerald’s. This prompted a tie breaker relay race. Each team sent 4 of their best sprinters. Anil Ron, the
BRM of GE-PS raced fast to take the lead for his Sapphires team during the
final spell.
After the team events Musical Housie was started and
it went on intermittently for the rest of the day. Everyone participated in it.
as they were listening to songs, at the same time they were anxious to know
what the next song would be and who would be the lucky winner. Some of them
sang and also danced to the songs, which disentangled them from their daily
chores.
Musical Housie went on intermittently for the rest
of the day with active participation form all the members - some of them
singing & dancing to the lilting tunes of both old and new Hindhi
movies.
Soon hot and delicious lunch was served comprising
of various “Indian Cuisine”. Hats off
to the food committee for ordering a mouthwatering “desi” food to the delight
of everyone.
The cultural events unfolded one after the other, the first one being a group song in Hindi “Zindagi Milke Bitayenge” from the film “Satte pe stta” sung by Suchitra, Lavanya, Padmaja, Samata, Raghu, Senapati & Raghavendra, followed by a group dance by Soundararajan, Rupesh, Anand & Karthik. The spectators were thrown in rock & roll fits of laughter, when the imitation of movie love-themes were being enacted.
The skit “Offshore Se Onsite Thak” played by Shiv
& group deserves praise as it showed the official life of a TCS employee
& also depicted the current layoffs in USA and its influence on the
employees. It was concluded by
showing that TCS is a company, which is still recruiting people at this stage,
and that it is the best, which brought back the smile on audience’s face.
The picnic-mela continued with couples participating
in the “Ball Race” game, eventually won by Venson & Jayanthi receiving a
lot of encouragement from the crowd.
The veterans Kalpan on the Thabla & Sheker Das
on the Hawaiian still Guitar rendered Bhajans and songs effortlessly,
captivating the crowd. The audience was
spellbound by the breathtaking performance of Pradeep Senapati & his
counterpart who presented the “Lallu Prasad” interview.
The birthday boys & girls and the wedding
anniversary couple (Srilatha & Srinadha Reddy) of the July 2001 month went
on to cut the cake as people enjoyed the evening snacks.
The day ended with the distribution of prizes by
Anil Ron to all the winners in the picnic-day events and tournaments like
Cricket, Carrom, Chess etc., conducted prior to the Picnic-2001. The kids of the community got special prizes
as a token of love and affection.
Anil Ron in his speech conveyed his appreciation for
all the committee and also to all the members of the TATA community who had
toiled so hard to make the event a grand success. Vote of thanks by Manga Sreenivasu and a group snap of the TATA
folks followed it. Finally all the
members busily engaged themselves in discarding the trash, cleaning the
premises.
It was a long and lovely day drawing to an end with
everyone sharing the fun and frolic, taking home a “GARLAND OF MEMORIES”.
