Cloudjet Labs goes to Mango Mist Resort

It was a perfect getaway for the Reactore team that worked hard on its first version. An outing to a refreshing location is all we needed to recharge our batteries and that is exactly what we ended up having.

The Hunt

As the first schedule of the product neared completion, the talk about going on a 2 days trip got everyone excited. The hunt for a great location commenced soon after. After much deliberation, it was either Mangomist or Guhantara resorts that were to be our destination. Our HR/admin Mr. Vadya and Prasad visited the places, pilot-testing them for the whole CJL team to descend later. Mango mist won the scrutiny. The dates were agreed upon to be 14^th and 15^th of August. 14^th, a gracious holiday from the company and 15^th, the national one.

The Anticipation

We were forming two teams. A mail was sent to Murali asking him to be the captain of one of the teams. Vijay was asked to lead the rival team. Murali hit the team-leader-offer-ball into Praveen and Tushar’s court :). So Praveen and Tushar picked their teams, the teams got named SKY WALKERS (green) and HIGH FLYERS (blue). They were so named, to sync with the theme of the company name, CLOUDJET LABS. Aman, our nifty graphic designer, designed the logos and the t-shirts for the teams. Finally, when the printed t-shirts arrived office, the excitement in everyone’s heart was palpable.

Six of us were getting our spouses, Rishi and Vaibhav, the little ones of Murali and Shridhar would join us too. This added more hue to the already colourful congregation.

Off We Go!

The previous evening of the D-day, everyone logged out of office a tad earlier than usual, we needed to get ready for next day, it felt like we were back in school getting ready for a school trip.

And the day finally arrived. We boarded a Tempo Traveller from office. As the vehicle sneaked through the famous traffic snarls of Bangalore the guys at last seats (like anywhere) made merry on the go.

It was half past noon when we reached our destination. The 26 km ride (for 90 minutes) hadn’t dampened our mood a bit, thanks to fine weather too. Murali and Vijay with their families and Yadu, all of whom had already arrived, met us outside the gate. Murali welcomed Cloudjet Lab’s extended family (the spouses). We all proceeded to the reception for the check-in formalities. In a happy coincident the manager of the resort happened to be the school mate of Praveen GJ and Navya, this resulted in us getting a tad better treatment for the next 30 hours.

Mango Mist is a resort built amidst lush green mango orchard, that’s how it gets its name too. There were no mangoes on trees since it was off-season, but there were mango-shaped lighting bulbs instead. We sighted Ostriches, rabbits, turkeys and love birds beneath the trees.

We proceeded to Mallika and Manjeera, our cottages for the rest of our stay, got ready for games and entered the ground. Cricket competition soon kicked in. Tushar won the toss and the Green team decided to bat. The team amassed 68 runs helped by good batting from Manoj and bad bowling (ample wides) from the blue team. The target of 69 was no match for the blue team with some good hitting from Vijay and Chinmay. They reached the target without much fuss, the fussing part was reserved for other blue team guys Manju and Praveen who were craving to bat but had no runs to chase! Everyone who wished to play got their wish fulfilled, the game was reserved for fun, not for one gender, age or designation.

We proceeded to the eating area by the pool after quick freshening up at cottages. Cricket had been a great appetiser, we were all hungry. We were treated to a four-course buffet lunch, the lunch was delicious and filling. We were stuffed when we trot slowly to the adventure activities area after our lunch.

We rested beneath the Mango trees recovering from the onslaught of good food, and later some of us took to the rope adventure activities; Quake walk, Burma Bridge, Jumaring, Rope ladder and the easiest, Zip line. Others spotted the nearby fish spa.

Fish spa at Mangomist was a 10×10 feet pool with Garra rufa (doctor fish), which naturally occurs in the rivers of Middle East countries. It creates a tingling sensation when these fish start nibbling at feet to gorge on dead skin, for most of us first timers, the hesitation to plunge feet into the water was only natural. When the fear faded we enjoyed the leg-dip time.

It was time to hit the grounds again, this time for a bigger ball game, volleyball. The Blue team outperformed Green team in Volleyball helped by Praveen, Vijay, Shridhar and Manju. The Green team won the Badminton matches, the only game that it could dominate! Murali and Chinmay were engaged in flying the drone all along, recording the happenings from the drone’s eye.

As the sun said goodbye for the day, we bid adieu to the ground and got ready for the next activity. Mist dance, with DJ playing party songs and laser lights flashing in tandem, was cool. Some of us got into the middle of the dance floor for some desi-moves. The music stopped after some time, we had had had enough fun. Barbecue food was awaiting us next, in veg and non-veg avatars. For those of us hungry again, from dancing, it was time to fill in. Some of us loved it, others hated it.

It was 8 pm when we headed to pool. The water was cold, but that didn’t stop a couple of us from testing the waters by diving in. At about 10 pm we got out of water and headed for dinner. The food was as good as it was at noon. After the sumptuous dinner, we moved to an open ground where tents were fixed in semi-circle for our night’s rest, there was a bonfire in the middle too. We sat around the fire while it drizzled. Some of us sat there till wee hours, playing antakshari and jabbering about random stuff while the rest retired to tents for the much-needed shut-eye. It was a long, tiring and an eventful day.

We took to guns to settle the rivalry between Green and Blue teams. It was time to head for paintball arena. In an exciting shootout that followed, bullets flew from one end to the other squashing into the target (The blue and green soldiers) with a flash of colour. The Blue team had a close shave with losing the battle and with the quick thinking of Devidatta, who claimed the Green team flag from Green bastion, Blue had won the gun contest. The second battle went the same way. It was an adrenalin pumping and exciting experience.

We dispersed from paint ball arena. There was one last group event in the evening, until then we were free to engage in any activity. Sachin, Manju and others did rock climbing, Shridhar, Praveen and others did archery, Chandrashekhar, Manoj & others did land zorbing, some went back to fish spa and Vadya, Praveen & others went to pool again, Murali was busy mastering the drone that little Rishi had grown insanely fond of since he had discovered it. The curious little kids and their parents at the resort huddled around to witness the whirring machine fly.

In the evening, both teams gathered in ground again to show their physical strength, in one last competition, tug-of-war. Everyone tugged at the rope trying to out power the other team while Anupama (Vijay’s spouse) recorded the show of strength. The Blue team, for an umpteenth time, won this too. The skill and strength among the teams weren’t distributed equally after all!

More than the result of any competition, playing in the spirit of game and the having fun were primary and we had tremendous fun competing against each other, these games reminded us of our good old school and college days. What we sorely missed was the presence of Prasad, Archana and Rohit, whose involvement would have made the experience complete.

Parting Thoughts

When we stepped into Mangomist, we thought We would have grand fun, but when we stepped out, exhausted and rejuvenated at the same time, we were walking away with some beautiful memories, of good times together with the Cloudjet labs family.