Patni Annual Gathering - Perpetual Melody

Some candid moments

I still have those moments clinging to my eyelids, some in the danger of being washed away by yesterday’s enthusiasm and tomorrow’s goals; the beautiful noorani faces and singing silences; Devdas’s incessant calls to Paro; damsels losing their sleep over Jingo Tango; cool breeze flowing from the southern lands and eyes glittering with exuberance… all under the canopy of a ballooney sky!

Change is the only constant thing in life… in fact, the fact that you are experiencing change indicates that you are alive... today is better than yesterday and tomorrow will be better... ‘Yesteryears to Years to come’ was the theme of our annual day at Pune, which was celebrated with great fervour and élan on the 18^th of Feb 2006.

The opening lines of the evening were ‘Har ghadi badal rahi hain roop zindagi, chaav hain kahi kahi hain dhoop zindagi…’ and yes, everything revolved around this theme – the awards, dances, skits, everything; and the audience swayed and danced with aplomb to every beat as the anchors, Ridhima, Sonal, Ashish, Jahnavi, Archana (yours truly) and Radhika kept them tuned in to the evening.

With the beautiful sunset at the backdrop, the traditional lamp, the source of energy, was lit by V. Umamaheshwar, the location head, which was followed by the prarthana. And thus started the evening in an aura of positive energy.

The mood was set by the duet ‘hansta hua noorani chehra’, dedicated to all smiling faces in the crowd, sung by Dipti and Prajakta, and we soon had the audience tapping their feet and sufficiently warmed up to enjoy the kids’ event that followed.

The future of India lies in the hands of the little ones, and who knows where their able feet lead us tomorrow? We did our bit to encourage them by appreciating their talents, with Col Ramtree conferring the young achievers’ awards on all those who excelled in academics. The skit followed soon after and the kids enchanted everybody with their histrionic talents. These young lads took up the task of educating the audience on the process of evolution, and also providing a sneak peek into the future. Right from depicting the life and style of the stone age man, to the medieval era, to the modern day homo sapiens, right up to India’s freedom struggle, and also a preview of what modern day schools on other planets would be like in future, they enacted it all with great skill.

Love and music have no language, and this was rightly demonstrated by ESD with their dance that set the stage on fire. The language was not understood by all, yet the audience was up on its feet, humming and cheering; and the mood was carried ahead by the duet ‘Dil tera deewana hain sanam’ sung by Majid and Aditi in their voluptuous voices.

This was followed with the corporate speech with Satish Joshi delivering the company vision in terms of growth and revenue. After Satish’s speech it was time for yet another scintillating dance performance by PES’s ‘albelon ki toli’. With numbers like ‘Jai Jai Shivshankar’, it had the crowd matching steps with them. With attires from the 70s and 80s, they lit up the evening and had the ground reverberating to their tunes.

And after the high-energy performance, the time was ripe to mellow down and watch some ‘nautanki’. ‘Shh... Nautanki Chalu hai...’ is about a countryside nautanki troupe that is rehearsing for its next play. The arguably poor actors find it hard to get through with their rehearsals. Adding to the chaos, the god of death Yamraj, enters the stage determined to take away one life. The nautanki troupe tries various tricks to please Yamraj until it is revealed that he is actually a mental asylum patient! Innovative!

As the evening settled down and stars lit up the sky, as the noise of the crickets was subdued by the enthusiastic crowd, it was time to hold the breath, let the body relax and let the silences sing. Suvomaya and Gauri sung ‘khaamoshiyaan gunguna ne lagi’, tanhaaiya muskuraane lagi’ along with the hush of the night, and romance was in the air indeed!

The following dance performance by MFG’s ‘Deewano ki toli’ got the audience out of the night’s spell. After the enthralling and magical performance by the team, the awards distribution started off in its usual grandeur with Radhika and Archana announcing the names of the high performers and the HR team supporting from behind the curtains. The awards were given away by Lokesh Bhagwat for SPA and Krishna Shastri for EPA. In addition to that, large posters of the Team Award winners were displayed at the entrance to the venue.

Then the team from TBU took over and stole the hearts of the audience by rendering an excellent dance number.

The special event was something that will be cherished in our memories forever and will hold a special place in the hearts of all those who witnessed it. The audience stood up in respect of the song ‘Vande Mataram’, and as it ended, the volunteers distributed balloons in saffron white and green to the attendees, who a while later, released them into the sky. As the balloons reached out to greater heights, their size kept diminishing to mere specs, and the sky was an awe-inspiring panorama with a tangle of colours. Just like these soaring balloons Patni aspirations will keep conquering newer horizons and scaling newer heights. It was a moment, which was magical and emotional; a moment of pride and solidarity – a symbol of completeness moving together in synchronicity to achieve a common goal; and a moment of glory and respect for the nation. As the audience, about 2100+, looked up and saluted the tricolour, the soft breeze kept moving in magical waves captivating one and all in its spell. Sheer magic!

The evening did not end with this. Yeh dil maange more, and there was a lot waiting in the wings. Team Josh from EAS took over and rendered a spectacular dance performance, which was a great hit with the people.

‘IT Mahabharata’, a hilarious skit, followed next and had the audience in splits. What if there would have been a slip of time and the IT companies would have gone back into the epic era? This is what the skit revolved around. There were two rival companies – Pandava Technologies and Kaurava consultancies, respectively led by the Pandavas and Kauravas, of course. When Kauravas realize that the share value of Pandava Tech is far higher than theirs because of Draupadi, they decide to win Draupadi over to their side in a game of chauras, and they do win her, but on a condition that she be the major shareholder there, and the company be named as D&K Technologies. Delighted, the Kauravas agree only to find later that they were duped by Krishna and her, and that the official name of the company was Draupadi and Krishna Technologies.

And how could any show be complete without the quintessential ‘Kajraare’? The crowd was dancing to frenzy with the pulsating music, matching steps with the many Aishwaryas and Abhisheks on stage.

Yet another dance number, and the audience was more than willing to receive it as the Saturday night fever passed on to them.

What followed was an absolute treat. The ‘Hamara Safar’ was a play that attempted to pull a spoof on the IT scenario - the phase in between jobs, the training phase, the joy of landing a job, slogging it out in office, and about being unlucky in love for lack of time. Devdas and Paro who acted as the joining threads for the numerous anecdotes throughout the play, were major attention catchers. Unlike the movie, err novel, our Devdas and Paro bore the pangs of separation due to the long working hours and the unsynchronized onsite assignments that kept them apart.

The song ‘Hum se dil ka hain kya haal’ was sung in melodious voices at the apt moment. The gathering was marked by numerous dances and skits and songs this time, which allowed the employees to showcase their talents. And boy! The audience wasn’t complaining! Yet another dance number ‘Jingo Tango’ was staged by the IBU team, and had the crowd crooning once more.

This marked the end of all performances, and all artists were called on stage for thanksgiving. They deserved it for making the evening very memorable and giving us company through the evening.

HR Manager, Sunil Deshpande gave a vote of thanks to all participants and the organizers. Then the DJ took over with an excellent display of fire throwing and flame juggling which had the floor rocking literally. In their zeal, they jumped up the stage every now and then and every time they had to be summoned down to stop the stage from collapsing down.

To match these tantalizing performances, the food was yum. Attendees gorged on everything right from snacks to the main-course to desserts.

As the curtains came down on a memorable night, all of us realized that the Annual day - commemorating the time gone by and looking forward to a brighter future – was a befitting one as we managed to put up a great show. The blood and sweat and after-office labour was all up there on stage for everyone to see.