Today there was a picnic planned by my organization and I was eagerly waiting for it from long time when it was first announced. I got up early and then packed up my bag with water and stuff and also put a smiley badge on the t-shirt I was wearing. I started my journey by walking towards the bus stop as the picnic spot was almost 25-30kms far and we all had planned to go by bus. I reached the stop and met my friends Preeti, Poonam, Vrushali and greeted other stop members as well. Our regular bus was late and the bus coming from Aundh came early and Preeti boarded that bus. We all were waiting for our bus to arrive which came around 30mins late.
We boarded the bus and started singing songs, enjoying the sunny ride and cracking jokes as the journey was long. First we all thought that the bus driver was on the correct route until we realized that the bus has gone off-course towards Khadakwasla Dam. We all started to panic a bit as we had been off-course for around 30mins, all took out their phones and started searching on GPS about where the place was and to our bad luck, there was bad network range and neither data network not GPS was functional. We started calling our friends, some of them already reached the venue and some of them were about to reach the venue, about the potential directions and landmarks which we missed. We then stopped near Khadakwasla Dam for pics and for a break as we were traveling endlessly without having any clue of our picnic spot. After staying for around 10-15mins near the Dam and enjoying the view, we planned to move on after we acknowledged the exact route of the spot. While en-route to the spot in the bus, we spotted 4 of our friends on 2 bikes after they overtook our bus. Finally after 3hours of traveling we reached our picnic spot Splendour Country Club.
After we reached the Splendour Country Club, the destination spot for our picnic, we saw the big gate which really excited me a lot and got the fun feeling of a picnic which encouraged my childish behavior to enhance my presence at the time. I saw so many of my colleagues and greeted everyone as I met them in person at the venue. I then took breakfast with my colleagues after which the fun was about to start. We were handed with threads of various colors for which the next game was about to start. We headed to the place where the next game was about to start. It felt completely boring to me to see the game so me and some of my friends left to explore other areas of the spot. We then came around a Zip-Line which started from the entrance of the venue which was at almost 50 meter height. The steel ladder towards the top of the zip-line was so scary and had to literally climb 1 feet above to get to the top. I watched the other guys who were in the line to be sent and was really excited and had a smiling and laughing moment with them. After waiting for around 30min, I was strapped up and then was in the next 10 to be sent through the rope. Until my turn came, I was laughing enjoying and there was no pressure, but when I was tied to the main rope and then standing on the verge of the slide, my heart started beating faster, I was nervous as I had never done that before in my life and was still having some scare to attempt it. Then there was a zeal inside me which encouraged me to curb the fear and get out of the situation, I told the rope attendant that I`m not gonna hold both my hands onto the clip and I will hold only one hand onto the clip and in the second hand I will record it through my mobile phone. Then the rocking moment started, there were people down playing other games and I came in like gate crashing the event and shouting, “here I come…..wohoo…” with a phone in my hand recording the moment. Everybody who were playing their games stopped for a moment and started looking at me coming down the zip-line.
Then we went to the place where the next event was about to be held. To our surprise there was a pool table near to venue and also there was a swimming pool. Me and one of my colleague Swapnil Paranjpe started playing Pool. After some time the HR guys were there who wanted us to stop the game and wanted to end the pool game so that the other event could be continued, but me and Swapnil didn`t stop and we played one game after another an after some time all spectators started watching our game and were amazed by the level of play that we had. Everyone including Swapnil came to know that I was a very good player and then the ambience was rocking like everyone wanted to see my trick shots that I used to play. We then stopped playing after we got tired after 2hrs of rigorous play. After that we thought to have lunch and during lunch, I met my CEO of the company Mr. Gireendra Kasmalkar with whom I shared the experience of the zip-line as I had done that first time in my life. Giri Sir said that he had done that many times in his life and was happy to see me sharing my experience for the first time. After that we had lunch with other friends Ranjeet Karade, Prasad Shirurkar and some of their friends. After having a heavy lunch, Me, Ranjeet, Prasad and our common friends found a shady place where we sat down for chat and for some time laid down to relax. We then heard music coming from one end where there was a DJ being setup to play the music. I walked and checked that there were people who were dancing and singing and enjoying.
I saw that there were still people who were on the zip-line and waiting for their turn to come. I rushed to my friend Ranjeet and told that I had done the recording from my end while doing the zip-line and I want him to do the recording from the bottom while coming down. Ranjeet came with his phone told me to go to the zip line and he was waiting with the camera just like the move “XXX” where Vin Diesel is performing the stunt and his friends wait below with the camera to shoot my zip-line stunt the second time I attempted it. It was a superb moment and I was happy and shouting at the second attempt. We then went towards the pool where the music was being played and for around 2-3 hours we danced to the music near the pool and saw all the girls who were going in the pool and clicked lots of pics. After staying there for few hours we departed towards the high tea section as we were tired and needed some refreshments. After we had our refreshments, we departed towards our buses and waited for our friends to come. After enjoying the whole day with lots of fun and lots of friends, we then headed back to our home. It was almost evening time when we left the venue and during the ride back home, we were tired and happy to get the cool breeze coming to us. The environment was superb and evening breeze was such a bliss, I should say a day well partied and well spent 🙂