It was a bright and sunny Saturday morning. I woke up with a sourly face. I looked at the watch through sleepy eyes, taking around 5 minutes just to figure out the time. "7:30 ???? How can that be ? CRAP !! I'll be late for work." These were the thoughts going through my mind at super fast speed. Then, I realized that it was Saturday, meaning NO WORK !! Now I had a big smile on my face as I prepared to go back to sleep. Suddenly I remembered something else and my smile disappeared. It struck me that my office was holding a tree plantation drive and I had signed up for it. Also, I had to reach the designated meeting point, Army Public School, by 9:00 am. My lazy inner self chided my by saying,"S**T !! why did you sign up for it ?? You've ruined Saturday completely !! Now you have to get ready and rush like everyday..." I ignored it and got up from the bed to get dressed.
I reached the meeting point by 9:10. There were only 5-6 people present out of the odd 30 who had agreed to come. We waited for the others to arrive and then proceeded towards the actual tree planting venue. The venue was the Rajputana Rifles training center, deep inside Delhi Cantt. It was an open, airy and a beautiful place. We were given approximately 50 trees to plant. The army men at the training centre had already dug some holes for planting the trees and plants. But, some of us were really excited about the whole thing and wanted to try our hands at digging. So, we took the equipment from the center people and started digging ourselves. It was a very difficult and physically taxing task. But still, I dug two holes on my own and helped other people in digging 3 more holes. At the end of it each one of us was filled with sweat, mud, soil, manure and what not. But, instead of feeling tired or dirty we all felt a sense of achievement and a different kind of satisfaction.
The real "fun" started after we were finished with the plantation. The training center had organized many activities for us. The first one was SIMULATION SHOOTING. We were taken into a small room. There were 3 monitors (computer screens) kept there and a rifle was attached at the front of each screen. In simulation shooting a target appears on the monitor. The person with the rifle focuses on the target on the screen and shoots. The rifles were placed with different orientations. The first rifle was such that the person shooting with it would do so while standing. For the second rifle we had to kneel down and then shoot, while for the third rifle we had to lie down on our stomachs, completely on the floor. It was simply Amazing !!!
After the shooting we had a small demonstration on rappling, rock climbing and slithering. Rappling is when a person comes down a rock with the help of ropes. Rock climbing is self explanatory, and slithering is the procedure of landing on the ground after jumping from the helicopter. The army jawans gave us demonstrations for all the 3, and even allowed some people of our group to try out these things.
Third and the final activity was horse riding. Well, it was not much of a ride because it was a small round and only for 5 minutes, but we felt ecstatic just sitting on top of those magnificent, shiny, beautiful and tall animals. The name of the horse that I rode was Chetak..:D
Finally it was time to leave. But, the day still hadn't ended. The grand finale was still left.
After leaving the army area we went to our Managing Director's (also the co-owner of the company) house for brunch !!! Well, the M.D's mom is a minister so he took us to her official bungalow in Chanakyapuri. OMG !!! it was a gigantic house..The main house had 9 bedrooms, 3 gardens (with swings) and there was another smaller house on the same property. We sat in the garden and chatted for a while. Then we went inside for the feast. There were a lot of things to eat and drink. Both veg and non-veg food was available. We were famished and so all of us stuffed ourselves. When we had finished, we roamed around inside the house, marveling at its size and the interior decoration. Then we proceeded outside and suddenly something happened to all of us. Everyone took to the swings. Some were on the slide, some on the seesaw and the others on the other swings. We were acting like 3 year olds, shouting and laughing and screaming. Even our MD was with us in all this. All of us were having a ball.
Finally it was time to leave. Each one of us was tired, but still did not want to go. So, after procrastinating some more, we ultimately left for home.
I could'nt believe how much I had enjoyed myself. My Saturday wasn't ruined. In fact, it had been one of the best and one of the most memorable Saturday !!!
