Alright, so I believe I last spoke about my trials at the FRRO, which
was definitely an experience. However, I have had many more positive
experiences in the rest of my time in Bangalore. One such happy memory
occurred the Friday after my visit to the FRRO. I had just started
working with the Quality Team on the 2nd (American 3rd) floor of the
SVYM office, and we were brainstorming ways to tackle the very ambitious
projects given to us by our boss, when we were informed that we
wouldn't be coming into the office on Friday because there is a Cricket
game. Now, I knew that Cricket is a very popular sport in India, so I
wasn't that flabbergasted that the office would take a day off to
watch a match. In actuality though, it was an entire office-wide sports
day. Each department in the office would be its own Cricket team, and
there would be a tournament with prizes and everything! I feel like
I've got the best workplace, hands down. None of the other GSE groups
got a sports day at their office.
As you can see, all the men in the office have been divided into teams based mostly on the department in which they work. Three teams played in the day's tournament, the Field Team (consisting of the TAs and school supervisors) in darker blue jerseys, the Tech team (they make the Project 1947 videos) in red jerseys, and the Quality Team (our department!) in light blue. As you can see, this is a pretty serious affair. But I know you're probably all wondering where all the women are in this? Do any women work at PremaVidya? Yes of course they do, in fact both my immediate supervisors (at the Quality team, and Tech team for that first week) are both women. The women could choose to watch the Cricket match, but if they wanted to do something besides sit in the bleachers they could play a game called Throw Ball. Throw Ball is great. It actually is as lot like volley ball. Well, you play on a volleyball court, and there are nine members (as opposed to six) on the court at a time. You serve the ball from behind the back line, but instead of volleying the ball you catch it, and throw it back across the net. The trick is that you can only touch the ball with your hands. The ball may touch no other part of your body, even when you are catching it, and you can only throw the ball back across when you are done. All of us GSE-ers headed over with the women to learn the game and have a bit of fun. After we had played about three games though (in the full sun), we broke for a snack (samosas and Pepsi), and were informed that those were just practice games. We would have a real game now. All the guys took a break from Cricket to come and watch the women's Throw Ball game. During the practice games I had been doing really well, I was throwing and catching and running all over the place. However, during the real game, I was told very directly to stay in this one spot, and you know what, the ball didn't come over to me once. My team lost. Women were also playing a tag game called "coco." I wasn't able to pick it up, but it reminded me of a game I used to play at summer camp called partner tag.
The tournament continued throughout the day, even when it started raining in the afternoon. There was a covered part of the bleachers that everyone crowded under, but the men kept playing. That's dedication right there. At the end of the day, the Quality Team won the tournament! Go Team! Everyone got gold medals, which was adorable. The Tech team got silver medals for coming in second. Then there were medals for best player in Throw Ball, Cricket, Coco, etc. The whole awards ceremony was conducted in Kannada, which meant that we weren't really paying much attention, until we heard our names. Apparently, from what I can tell, us interns got medals just for "trying" everything. I'm not sure we really deserved anything, but Navee was really proud of her medal and wore it to dinner that night. As we munched Tibetan food and mulled over the day's events, we all concluded that we were really happy to have had this opportunity to interact with our colleagues on a different level than we would in the office. We had the opportunity to not only interact more with the people we would be directly working with, but we met other parts of the PremaVidya team, like the TAs and school directors who work in the field and only come into office on occasion. Have I also mentioned that everyone we met was super-duper nice??? It's so true. Every single person greeted us warmly, and we all felt included in the group. What a great way to end the week. Am I right?
As you can see, all the men in the office have been divided into teams based mostly on the department in which they work. Three teams played in the day's tournament, the Field Team (consisting of the TAs and school supervisors) in darker blue jerseys, the Tech team (they make the Project 1947 videos) in red jerseys, and the Quality Team (our department!) in light blue. As you can see, this is a pretty serious affair. But I know you're probably all wondering where all the women are in this? Do any women work at PremaVidya? Yes of course they do, in fact both my immediate supervisors (at the Quality team, and Tech team for that first week) are both women. The women could choose to watch the Cricket match, but if they wanted to do something besides sit in the bleachers they could play a game called Throw Ball. Throw Ball is great. It actually is as lot like volley ball. Well, you play on a volleyball court, and there are nine members (as opposed to six) on the court at a time. You serve the ball from behind the back line, but instead of volleying the ball you catch it, and throw it back across the net. The trick is that you can only touch the ball with your hands. The ball may touch no other part of your body, even when you are catching it, and you can only throw the ball back across when you are done. All of us GSE-ers headed over with the women to learn the game and have a bit of fun. After we had played about three games though (in the full sun), we broke for a snack (samosas and Pepsi), and were informed that those were just practice games. We would have a real game now. All the guys took a break from Cricket to come and watch the women's Throw Ball game. During the practice games I had been doing really well, I was throwing and catching and running all over the place. However, during the real game, I was told very directly to stay in this one spot, and you know what, the ball didn't come over to me once. My team lost. Women were also playing a tag game called "coco." I wasn't able to pick it up, but it reminded me of a game I used to play at summer camp called partner tag.
Oh man, something really awesome that I participated in was Musical Chairs--Indian style!!! Everyone put a bunch of big plastic chairs in a circle on the cricket field, and once again, the women all stood by a chair. When the music starts playing, we are supposed to run (no walking allowed!) in a circle until the music stops. When the music stops you all book it to an empty chair. When Justin Bieber's "Baby" started playing for the music. I'm not sure what sort of much I was expecting to hear for this, but it was not Bieber. Not to blow my own horn, but I did pretty well at musical chairs. I believe I was like, 5th or something like that. Not too shabby.
 |
| And the Quality Team wins the Tournament!! |
The tournament continued throughout the day, even when it started raining in the afternoon. There was a covered part of the bleachers that everyone crowded under, but the men kept playing. That's dedication right there. At the end of the day, the Quality Team won the tournament! Go Team! Everyone got gold medals, which was adorable. The Tech team got silver medals for coming in second. Then there were medals for best player in Throw Ball, Cricket, Coco, etc. The whole awards ceremony was conducted in Kannada, which meant that we weren't really paying much attention, until we heard our names. Apparently, from what I can tell, us interns got medals just for "trying" everything. I'm not sure we really deserved anything, but Navee was really proud of her medal and wore it to dinner that night. As we munched Tibetan food and mulled over the day's events, we all concluded that we were really happy to have had this opportunity to interact with our colleagues on a different level than we would in the office. We had the opportunity to not only interact more with the people we would be directly working with, but we met other parts of the PremaVidya team, like the TAs and school directors who work in the field and only come into office on occasion. Have I also mentioned that everyone we met was super-duper nice??? It's so true. Every single person greeted us warmly, and we all felt included in the group. What a great way to end the week. Am I right?
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