Its Grail day today - the second anniversary of this start-up, Grail Research, that I am a part of. And it was an exhilarating day at the office, with a lot of fanfare, colour and immense cheer all around (not to mention the complete absence of motivation to work!).
The festivities actually began before everyone got to the office in the morning, when our worldwide CEO sent an enthusiastic email to everybody highlighting the firm’s achievements, and recognizing key milestones in the last 2 years. He also set the tone for the times ahead with future challenges and also acknowledged some key performers since the inception of the firm.
As soon as I entered the office premises, I was greeted with a majestic, yet colourful view of endless workstations decorated, ceilings hooked up with red and white balloons. There was more to come -, flowers and garlands at the office main entrance, wonderful artistic decorations (rangolis) donning different spots in the office, posters with photographs from the past capturing some memorable moments such as the offsite at Dehradun, training sessions and birthday celebrations in office etc.
The mood in the office was extremely cheerful, with people smiling at each other and celebrating the spirit of the day in colourful attires. Of course, the highlight of the day was the theme that each "set of workstations together i.e. bay", came up with. There were diverse themes floating around the office with some bays taking the pains to actually source real ingredients to reflect the authenticity of the theme in question. For example, there was one bay on the 7th floor that came up with the theme of a dhaba (an Indian traditional, countryside food joint); another bay came up with the theme of a jail; another one thought of converting their bay into a bar; yet another bay sold their idea to the intellectuals with their theme of a knowledge centre.
There were a handful of folks who did not participate, but that was more on account of the premium on their time in the recent past(read, client pressure!).However, they did come up with a last minute wisecrack full of hoardings that marked arrows to other bays in the office and suggesting that they would have done a better job than the rest of the pack!
Our bay was full of folks filled with energy and creativity. We came up with the Grail Disco!I almost did not recognise the place that I sit in everyday, what with pictures of dance partners, frilly material, designer cardboard, bartender indications(water bottles depicted as beer bottes!) etc. We coined our theme as Groovy Grail, and also had a disco ball that was affixed to a bulb on top of our bay!(Its a different story that the ball kept falling down, every other hour - but it was a rotating ball, you see!).
As the evening neared, the entire office congregated on the 7th floor and there were announcements on promotions, special awards for people who had made key contributions and a few other formalities. The fun committee(responsible for deciding the best themes in various bays), then made their announcements - and we were the second runner-up! Not a bad effort at all, given that a large number of ideas actually hit us only an hour before everything had to be ready!
After this meeting, there was beer, pizza and garlic bread - on the house, which was just what the doctor ordered for the vibrant set of under-30 folks in the office!
The festivities actually began before everyone got to the office in the morning, when our worldwide CEO sent an enthusiastic email to everybody highlighting the firm’s achievements, and recognizing key milestones in the last 2 years. He also set the tone for the times ahead with future challenges and also acknowledged some key performers since the inception of the firm.
As soon as I entered the office premises, I was greeted with a majestic, yet colourful view of endless workstations decorated, ceilings hooked up with red and white balloons. There was more to come -, flowers and garlands at the office main entrance, wonderful artistic decorations (rangolis) donning different spots in the office, posters with photographs from the past capturing some memorable moments such as the offsite at Dehradun, training sessions and birthday celebrations in office etc.
The mood in the office was extremely cheerful, with people smiling at each other and celebrating the spirit of the day in colourful attires. Of course, the highlight of the day was the theme that each "set of workstations together i.e. bay", came up with. There were diverse themes floating around the office with some bays taking the pains to actually source real ingredients to reflect the authenticity of the theme in question. For example, there was one bay on the 7th floor that came up with the theme of a dhaba (an Indian traditional, countryside food joint); another bay came up with the theme of a jail; another one thought of converting their bay into a bar; yet another bay sold their idea to the intellectuals with their theme of a knowledge centre.
There were a handful of folks who did not participate, but that was more on account of the premium on their time in the recent past(read, client pressure!).However, they did come up with a last minute wisecrack full of hoardings that marked arrows to other bays in the office and suggesting that they would have done a better job than the rest of the pack!
Our bay was full of folks filled with energy and creativity. We came up with the Grail Disco!I almost did not recognise the place that I sit in everyday, what with pictures of dance partners, frilly material, designer cardboard, bartender indications(water bottles depicted as beer bottes!) etc. We coined our theme as Groovy Grail, and also had a disco ball that was affixed to a bulb on top of our bay!(Its a different story that the ball kept falling down, every other hour - but it was a rotating ball, you see!).
As the evening neared, the entire office congregated on the 7th floor and there were announcements on promotions, special awards for people who had made key contributions and a few other formalities. The fun committee(responsible for deciding the best themes in various bays), then made their announcements - and we were the second runner-up! Not a bad effort at all, given that a large number of ideas actually hit us only an hour before everything had to be ready!
After this meeting, there was beer, pizza and garlic bread - on the house, which was just what the doctor ordered for the vibrant set of under-30 folks in the office!
All in all, a red letter day(our logo is red too!) for everyone Grail Research!
ps: It is also the cricketing legend, Sachin Tendukar's birthday today!:)
2 comments:
Hey Arun
Great description of the anniversary celebrations !
Kanika
Good to read and good to feel that as well, never thought it can be so beautiful, hope it's back as it is always Worser than bad..lolz....Ex-Grrrr
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