FPL

This one was for our Intranet portal, Sparsh, highlighting the event coz the event went on to become a huge success!


Prologue
You’ve seen the ICL. You’ve heard the IPL. Ever heard of FPL.
It’s the FESCo PAYROLL LEAGUE – the unconventional version of the games event.


FPL
The stage was set for the big battle. The war of words had begun ages back. It felt like everything was at stake. And now the teams had finally taken the centre stage to fight it out. The organizers had a week long preparation- long discussions, extended meet ups- to decide on the venue for the big battle. It had to be a breathtaking location and so it was, the Taramati Baradari. The backdrop of the amazing rocky monument of the Nizam’s time made it a perfect spot for event.
Wondering, what’s this all about? It’s the new face of the FESCo’s quarterly project party- FESCo PAYROLL LEAGUE (FPL) - aptly bottom-lined, ‘fesco thunders…Infy wonders’. It was the fight for pride. It was the fight the coveted crown, the FPL champs. And the fighters were four teams from the FESCo HRP – the Lookup Leopards, the Payroll Penguins, the Flexfield Falcons and the Accrual alligators. Each team was given a colored ribbon (Yellow, Red, Green, Blue in that order) to help building unity among the team and for the looks of-course. It was made sure that nobody missed out on the fun; hence the entire 40 odd team was divided into groups of 10+ each.
Fun and frolic starts with cheers and screams and as the enthu was building up amongst the teams the event started getting exhilarating. The team gathered in the bus where the fun began. Cutting across all the rules of the FPL, ‘What an idea!’ was the event which sprang people into motion. Earlier, each member of the entire FESCo team was given a chit with a name of their colleague in it. They had to pen down something creative and interesting for the name in the chit to perform. And now, as each chit was being read out people started to cheer the participants and some times mocking at them in an attempt to make them perform.
The event gained momentum with the next game, as the war-of-words still on and persistent shouts of ‘Blue Rocks!’, the dog-and-the-bone. It was exciting to see all the big guns of the team getting ready to out smart their opponent (with all the strategies they could build out of their experience). The Penguins outplayed the Leopards in the first round and the Falcons proved too good for the Alligators. So it had to be one among the Penguins or Falcons to taste the bone but we had to wait till the final round before which there was the ‘EK-and-a-half-minute’ game. This was another brilliant entertainer with three rounds of fun-filled games. The first one, Dumb C, was based on a mixed theme of a movie, a personality and the surprise, an Infy web utility (say Performagic). After the interestingly setup first part, the second part was even better. It was the ‘Ad Zap’ where each team was supposed to promote a beauty soap called STOVE (you got it right; it’s the twin of DOVE). The creativity of each team was at stake and every team was equally ready with their ideas.
The Penguins sought a scientific way; they proved that their soap would get you the tanned look you always carved for. The Leopards took the help of Lord Krishna! They got him fairer and so Radha started using the soap herself. Romance was the way to go for the Falcons. The love-guru suggests the hero to use the soap to impress his love. And the Alligators chose the traditional way to sell their soap with the kids in the family protesting to their mom to change the soap for which the mom seeks the help of his (yes, it is his coz the role was played by a guy) husband. This entire round was quite amusing and the ‘mom-guy’ was applauded for his performance. The final round was a sitter – a literal sitter- which made every team – 2 members each- to bend down on their knees to finish as many biscuits one can as a pair in 2 minutes. It looked easy but was damn difficult swallowing the dry, tasteless Mariegold biscuits. It turned out that every team found them equally unsavory and all managed to eat 8 in a pair.
As the sun set deep in the west the night was falling hard. It was getting dark so we had to for-go one of our most-voted-for game ‘the pittu’ or the seven stones game. But then we had the real fight ahead. The Tug-of-War, where the only the mighty team would win. Before this we had the final round of the dog-and-the-bone, where the Falcons were to face the Penguins. The Penguins may be the weaker animals of the two but not when it came to snatching the bone from the claws of the Falcons. The Penguins won the dog-and-the-bone game and were leading on the points table with just one more game to go.
The rope was set for the next game. The tug was between the Leopards and the Falcons. After an initial slip the Leopards managed to put down their paw to push out the Falcons. The Penguins were no match to the Alligators as they slipped down to them without a fight. Now the only way the Penguins could be the champions would be when the Leopards would crush the Alligators. The final tug was the longest and had to be so. The Leopards put in a valiant effort to resist the mighty Alligators, but only for a short time. The Alligators used out all their might to push aside the Leopards and forced their way to the top of the points table to emerge as the winners. The Accrual Alligators were named the FPL champs for this, the opening version of the, event. The Blues did rock.
The dinner was rather serene and quite. The food was good and so was the cooling dessert which was a much needed relief after all the heated arguments and the tough fights. Everybody strolled back to the Bus and the Bus itself started its stroll to the Infy Campus. After an eventful day, the tired out expression on everybody’s faces spoke for itself. The fact that given a chance everybody wanted to bunk office the next day was something that the organizers were proud of, coz this was they were looking for, complete fun without cricket or DJ. But the fun was not over yet. ‘What an idea!’ was back to announce the ‘Best Idea’ and the ’Best Performer’. And people caught along again. They were ready to perform just for fun and it started all over again. This is what an overdose of fun can do to you. So beware people.

This is not the end, but it’s just the beginning. The beginning of a new era, the FPL.

"You are your own enemy" - NRN

I've been wanting to post something desperately for a few days now. But just not finding time is not the reason, I was just being lazy :-P

So things started quitely on a summer afternoon when another version of the Infy awards ceremony began. Employees thronged the venue of the webcast (relayed from B'lore) , per my belief, only to listen to the esteemed guest of the afternoon.The unit head of ES, Mr.Kakal presented the crowd with some mind-boggling numbers. ES as a unit was set to cross the billion mark this financial year. It took Infy, 24+ years to reach that coveted mark of $1 billion. And as contributors to the remarkable acheivement, the crowd felt prowd and why not. But then I was waiting impatiently for what I had come for- just to listen to NRN.

As Mr.Murthy took the stage, the hall broke into a thundering applause and suddenly disappearing as the thunder itself, the applause died down. The crowd didnt want to miss a word. He began by congratulating the unit for the achieving the remarkable feat in half the time Infy had taken.

'But, INFOSYS took less than two more years to reach the $2 Billion mark. So,now you all have a challenge ahead of you.' The crowd bustled out of amazement with scattered laughter. 'You are your own enemy! Once you set a standard and reach a goal, the next time, you are expected to better it!! I'm sure you can get there!'.

He spoke only for 10 minutes but he made sure his message was clear.He is a man of honour. Everytime he speaks, he inspires. And so he is and will remain the Mentor of INFOSYS. I have a wish and hope it would come true. I would want to speak to him in person....someday.