A cool treat for this summer - Ananda Valley

20^th Mar 2010 was dedicated to Wealth Management (My Team) Picnic in Nature's Lap at Ananda Valley with unlimited fun and great team work learning and many more which made this day memorable for everyone.

Cast and crew

Destination: The Ananda Valley is in a small village surrounded by hills and greenery. It is just 45 minutes drive from Pune. 

We started our journey from Pride Accord at 9:00 A.M. We played Antakshari in a Bus till we reach destination, we got opportunity to listen to some Kishore, Mukesh, Lata and Himesh from our group in this Antakshari session. We also played some good games suggested by Mandaar like Scream and Man vs. Bear.  

Fun during Journey

We had a quick breakfast @ Ananda Valley & then we roamed around the place. We were having lots of options like Cricket, Carom, Badminton, foosball (Soccer-based game played on a table) and Volley ball etc.

We started with some great team building games organized by Ananda Valley people. We played Bricks, Tug War, Water Passing and many more.   

After that we had delicious lunch. Few people were about to take a nap when a magician came and presented an awesome show. Some of us enjoyed foosball, Carom.  

Kodak Moments

We spent evening with exiting Rain Dance, Volley Ball and Carom. Then we had ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) and bullock cart ride. We had some photo session there with different, good as well as weird poses (that is definitely not here).

  

Little Photo Session

While returning we all were tired and not willing to have any more games, so we had a peaceful and quite soothing journey (yeah that was soothing due to tiredness).

Entire group appreciated the hard work of committee to make these activities successful and memorable for all of us. We wish to continue with this fun in future.

A Memorable Trip To Nashik

Nashik is generally known as city of Pilgrims and there are around 2,000 temples in this city. But I have some different reasons to love this city. I spent nearly 4 years in this city while I was doing my bachelor (After getting my bachelor degree in 2005, I had never been there)

2nd January 2010 @ 9:00 PM I got a call from my family friend, they were planning to visit Trimbakeshwar and they asked me to join. I thought Trimbakeshwar… yes man, it is near to Nashik … If I will go then, I can get a chance to visit that place again and I can meet my old friends (जो हमेशा बोलते है साले कभी तो मिलने को आ, डिग्री ले ली तो कभी आता नहीं).

This reason was more than enough to join the trip and I said yes to them :)

We left Pune @ 12:00 AM as we had planned to have Morning darshan in Trimbakeshwar. The journey from Pune to Nashik was awesome during midnight. Traffic was less, climate was cool and soft songs made it worthwhile.

We reached Nashik @ 3:00 AM and everybody was in need of a coffee. So, we stopped at CCD near Satpur to have coffee. After having a refreshing coffee we started our journey for Trimbakeshwar. We reached Trimbakeshwar @ 4:30 AM, my god the climate was so cold that we all were shivering. Somehow we found the temple and it took nearly 3 rounds to around the temple itself to find the entry gate (yeah I had never been to Trimbakeshwar)

The darshan starts from 5:30 AM. So, we got some time to fresh n up, then we joined the queue for darshan. The biggest advantage of having darshan in morning is that the queue is not long and you get enough time to stay in Temple.

After darshan we had Tea @ Trimbakeshwar and we proceeded to Nashik. My family friends wanted to meet some relatives in Nashik and they asked me to join them. I was not at all in a mood to meet some stranger. I said, you people carry on I will join you while returning back to Pune.

I have some good things to do, I can meet my friends, can go to my college Katta (Some place around college where we use to hang out), the missal wala, Sharma Ji ki Adrak wali Chai n all (I said to myself).

I called Kaustubh, Sunday 6:30 AM, I knew that waking up an IT guy on Sunday morning and that too 6:30 AM is really bad, but I didn’t have any choice.

Kaustubh was sleeping (it was expected)   

Kaustubh: what??
Me: Are yaar, I thought you must be in gym but you are sleeping
Kaustubh: Today is Sunday please let me sleep, I will call you back
Me: you can sleep later on, come to CBS (Central Bus Stand), I will be there in 20 min
Kaustubh: you are in Nashik? Okay I will be there.

Next Call Dhananjay Sunday 6:45 AM (I am very bad I know :D)

Dhananjay: Pushkar please let me sleep, I just came to Nashik @ 5:30

Me: Then why you are sleeping for couple of hours come to CBS in 15 min
Dhananjay: Not now I will be there in 1 hour
Me: I will be leaving in one hour
Dhananjay: Okay I will be there in 30 min

Next call Pawan, Nayan, Sukhad, Harshal, Anil (All started the conversation with Gali then I called them to CBS)

Kaustubh came to CBS by 8:15 (Idiot slept again after hanging up the phone). Everybody was there by 9:00 except Pawan and Nayan and we decided to have Misal Pav @ KV (Krishna Vijay), after 5 year I was there having Misal Pav and Takkar (2/3)

Nayan came there and then we went to College Road. College Road, the most happening place of Nashik (though it was Sunday). We stopped at our Katta there, some gapshap was going on then Pawan came.

We decided to go to Nayan’s Place (he was going to Banglore that day and he was getting late). Me & Pawan went to Nayan’s place (Remaining had some important work, important work on Sunday huh I feel they might be sleeping till 11 if I was not there)

After saying B-bye to Nayan, we (Me & Pawan) roamed around the city. Nashik has changed a lot of big shopping malls, multiplexes n all have come up.

2 PM, I called Vaibhav and decided to meet @ CCD, Mahatma Nagar. That reminded me of an incident, once me and Vaibhav went to CCD (It had just opened in Nashik at that time). We scanned  the whole menu and found that Black Coffee (30ml) is coming in our budget :)

We had few cups of coffee there. Then I went to meet my land lord Kiran Bhau. From there we went to Panchwati (my family friends were calling me since last 1 hour).

Panchwati is famous for temples and Sita Gumpha caves, KalaRam Mandir, Ramganga n all.  My friends asked me where these temples are we want to visit that (I thought, please ask me where is Ram Bar, girls hostels, Circle Theater :P)

Somehow we found those temples. These temples are beautiful and worth watching. Why I had never been there during my 4 years stay.

Then we went to Tapovan, here Laxmana - brother of Rama cut the nose of Shurpanakha that’s why the city is named as Nashik/Nasik. We had some photo session there and came back to Pune.

I must say this was one of the memorable trips of my life. I met my old friends after 5 year, went to same CCD and had cappuccino where I could afford only Black Coffee during college days. I visited temples and historical places of Nashik (which I had never seen in when I was sdutying).

Dumb Charades

First time I played Dumb Charades game about four years ago; being a rookie player there was some hesitation while acting. But now, I just love this game and I am ready to play anywhere & anytime.
Being a great fan of Dumb Charade, I want to share the knowledge and some modifications of this game.

Summary

Dumb Charades is a word/movie guessing game. It is an acting game in which one player acts out a word or movie name, and the other players guess the word or movie name. There is specific time limit decided to do the act and guess the word or movie name.

Standard Rules
The rules of Dumb Charades can vary depending upon number of players, language, choice etc. There are some rules which are common to most players:-

1. The players divide into two teams.
2. Word/movie name should be written on chits and team will pick one chit from it.
3. Only one person (Actor) comes in front to get a chit from the pool with a word/ movie name.
4. Actor stands at least 5 feet away from partners.
5. No sounds or lip movements are allowed. Actor cannot point to object or person to show something.
6. Actor will have 5 minutes to explain the movie name and if their team will guess the correct movie then they will get 100 points

Modified Rules
Bidding :---
1. After reading a movie name actor can bid that he/she can do it in 2 minutes (Though, they will still have 5 minutes to do it)
2. If their team will guess the correct movie name then they will get 150 points if they complete it successfully in 2 minutes
3. If they cannot guess it within 2 minutes then they will lose -50 points and they can continue with rest of the time to make 100 points
4. No other negative points will be for not guessing a movie name

Spitting word :---
1. If actor feels like they cannot do this act without breaking/splitting a word, then the person can raise his hand and ask for break a word permission
2. Then they can split a word only once but they will have to lose -20 points for that

Changing Actor :---
1. If actor thinks their other team member can do it easily then, they can call some other person from their team. They will have to lose 20 points for it

Some Standard Protocols
1. First with fingers you show the number of words. Then for each word one can explain with fingers how many letters in it (if it is allowed).
2. You can thumb down for Hindi/Guajarati word or to show it is old film
3. Thumb up for English name or to show new film
4. Little shake of the horizontal hand to show medium time period film
5. You can show numbers when words involves some numbers
6. Sign like box to show that the film has a name or something like that.
7. You can use shake your hand a little so as your partner understands that he should change a little grammar in the letter.
8. Point to moustache to show you are explaining a hero's name in case you know who lead actor in the film was and point a finger to your forehead to show that you are showing heroin.
9. Touch your finger to ear to show sounds like means… Sona, Khona, Hona, Rona

Some Standard Signals
Color :---
Point to your tongue, then point to an object of the color you're trying to convey.

Close, keep guessing :---
Frantically wave your hands about to keep the guesses coming, or pretend to fan yourself, as if to say "getting hotter".

Not even close, I'll start over :---
Wave hand in a wide sweep, as if to say "go away!" Alternatively, pretend to shiver, as if to say "getting colder".

Stop yelling at me, all of you :---
Throw your arms down to your sides, like a mummy, and jump up and down 3 times like a little baby.

A synonym :---
Clasp your hands together and then, rotating your clasped hands from the wrists, simulate multiple figures 8's.

The antonym :---
Form each hand into a hitchhiker's thumb signal, then with the backs of the hands facing away from you, cross your forearms and make the thumbs travel in opposing directions, thus "opposite".

Stop, work on something else :---
Hold both arms out in front of you, palms of your hands waving, facing your teammates, while simultaneously shaking your head, eyes closed.

Some Difficult Hindi Movie Name

Malhaar --- Maqbool --- Kasoor --- Asambhav --- Zubeida
Chitchor --- Astitva --- Anurodh --- Yalgar --- Virgati
Ankansha --- Virasat --- Sultanaat --- Shalimar --- Thakshak
Parineeta --- Vajood --- Insaniyat --- Majboor --- Haqeekat
Khwaish --- Dharmatma --- Gardish --- Aagnishakshi --- Vishwatma

You can give some difficult word as well if movie name is easy to act.
Hope you all must be excited about it, and all set to play this game.... have fun cheers :)