An evening at Pragati Resorts

We had just completed 5 years and I was just beginning to worry that there would be no outing to celebrate the occassion. But how could that happen !! The weather was perfect for a picnic on Aug 8th, 2004. The plan - To spend the evening with friends and family in Pragati Resorts ! Note: Deviating from my earlier blogs, I am forced to take the names of certain characters without which the blog would have no meaning !



Lunch @ Pizza Hut ... and in Car !
The plan was to meet at Pizza Hut (Banjara Hills) at 1230 and leave by 1330 hrs. Some of us including myself decided to have lunch outside as we were already late. With a quick service facility available from the hotel Hub, we filled our stomachs and made our way to Pizza Hut. The family "ghoshti" (gang) were still having their lunch and we were lucky to escape the discomforting looks from people who would otherwise have been waiting for us to arrive. Soon we were on our way to Pragati Resorts on the outskirts of the city. The resort is located at about 40 kms from the heart of the city on the Hyderabad - Chilkur road. Our convoy comprised of 3 cars - a Maruti Zen, Maruti 800 and Wagon R ! Within 5 mins, the vegetarian car (comprising of veggies) was out of sight and nowhere to be traced. Well what was the non-vegetarian cars doing ?? Eating Chicken !!!

Vinod and Madhu had prepared some great "Tangdi" Kebabs and pradeep had already put his head into the hot pack containing the Kebabs ! The chicken legs were well marinated and nicely cooked. Pradeep, having had a heavy lunch already, decided to contribute to his weight reduction program by having 6 chicken legs !!! All other non-veggies (6 of them) had just one each !! At the end of each chicken piece, he would burp out and remark "Appa !! Sooooooper da !! ::nick name of Madhu:: Vazhga !!!! " and again continue with his unfinished task of reducing the weight ! Soon the Zen car in which Pradeep and myself were travelling, was loosing balance because of the increase in weight in the back seat (where pradeep was sitting) and consequent shift in the center of gravity of the car ! At one point, the car swung so hard that we nearly hit a scooterist on the way. The driver had a really tough time controlling the unpredictable swing in the car !

All said and done we were soon at Pragati Resorts. So what next ??? Well, Arun's wife had made some real good and crispy cookies ! So it was again time for food ! Our motto at that time was "There is no fun in life without food !". Soon the ladies were busy discussing the recipe for preparing the cookies and the guys were busy eating them ! Having filled our stomachs, our next task was to empty it before dinner. Oooops ! I dint mean empty in literal sense ... Read through and you will get to know what I meant !

Meet the Water Polo Champions !
Most of us were soon swimming across the length and breadth of the swimming pool. With a maximum depth of 5 feet and well maintained water, it is one of the best options to relax through the evening after a decent lunch. Some of them were busy smashing the plastic balls, with their heads swinging and sweat "flowing" down their faces, in the TT arena ! But we had different plans ... WATER POLO. Soon tubes were collected to act as goal. The ball was being passed in all directions, and we were jumping, diving, and sometimes even running in the pool to take our shots at goal. The match was evenly poised and soon we had run across the opponent's strategies and had left them guessing for new strategies ! Ooops ! It happened the other way right ?? Well, we decided to be more generous and give the opponents the satisfaction of having played well.:D



The hosts also got carried away by our enthu and soon they ropped in a DJ who played some of the best dance collections for our entertainment !! Well, it was Sunday and on Sunday's Pragati Resorts hosts the rain dance event. It was pit stop time again and this time it was Badgi, Rasna and Chai ! 4 Badgis, 2 Rasna and 4 cups of Chai ... this was my count and I was beginning to feel the cold in my nose !

Smash and Volley
It was time to burn the extra calories ! After unsuccessfully trying our hands at badminton (because of wind factor, the shuttle cork was swinging just like Irfan Pathans swinging deliveries !;) ) we ended up playing volleyball. Parallely, a new set of people were busy smashing the plastic balls, with their heads swinging and sweat "flowing" down their faces, in the TT arena ! Pradeep was the "champion" of the day with his fierce and fearful serves along with Vinod who was playing for the opponents with his volleys which usually landed in insignificant places ! :)) 4 games of volleyball and it was time for a change !

The Green Table Top
It was my first experience playing the game on the green table top ! I was soon hitting the white ball with relative ease in a game of snooker followed by a game of Pool ! I somehow found the game to be a bit addictive and something that would help you a lot in general time pass. In the mean time, another set of people were busy smashing the plastic balls, with their heads swinging and sweat "flowing" down their faces, in the TT arena ! An unnoticed group had glued themselves to the carrom table and were finding it difficult to get out of it ! Meanwhile, Pradeep decided to test his thinking power by playing a game of chess with Visakan ! Obviously, Pradeep dint know how to think, and he had to concede the game !

Dinner and the Journey Back
We had burned enough for a heavy dinner ! Both Non-veggies and veggies had a good time consuming sumptuous food. It was 2100 hrs and we had to make our way back. The remaining cookies were consumed and soon we were cruising on our way back to our houses.

An experience that was worth every rupee that we had spent. An outing that would be remembered for some time to come. An outing spent in the company of the following people.

Anuradha
Arun
Arul
Dhevi Vinod Kumar
Inigo
Lakshmi
Madhukar
Madhumati
Pradeep
Saravana Kumar (Bondi)
Sharanyan
Vinod Palakiezh
Visakan

Signing off ...