A BPO Party

From the Archives-1: Recovered this manuscript that was written six years ago...

 The Great Night of Indulgence 

Noida's night life has slowly gained momentum. Come

weekend and the pubs and resto-bars are abuzz with people from the BPO companies relaxing after a hectic work schedule.

Often referred as the Sunshine Industry, organisations such as HCL, Steria (formerly Xanza), CSC, EXL Service .Com etc are known to hold parties just to ensure employees stress level stay low and to bridge the gap of high attrition.

And here the coolest hangouts to name a few can be

anywhere from Chicane, Ice Cube, Tantra, RPM or Elevate depending upon the budget allocated by respective organisations.

FLASH DANCE: Party revelers rocking 

On Friday, 09 May 2008 all roads led to RPM - a resto bar located at Sector 18, opposite Atta market. The occasion was EXL's Aviva process party.

Headquartered in New York, EXL Service.Com's

Noida employees were all dressed to kill. From jeans. capri, mini skirts, spaghetti and high-heeled clogs, women-folk were sporting bright colours with sparkles and sequins. The no makeup visage, smoky eyes, metallic coloured lips and eye-liners including designer tattoo added to their glam quotient.

Men-folk too were smartly dressed in casuals and semi formals while many sported a clean shaven and gelled-wet hair look.

Though small to accommodate a big crowd, but this

resto bar is unique and out of the world. The walls are covered with smooth polished round logs that can remind a cowboy salon from one of the flicks of yesteryear Hollywood super star Clint Eastwood's. RPM's owner Reshmi disclosed it had been designed to give that cool effect. 

BAR CODE: Shsss...!! Pour us each a large, strong & chilled one!

To beat the heat there were various mock-tails, cocktails, including hard and soft drinks. From Blue Lagoon, Virgin Pinacolada to beer, vodka, gin, whisky, scotch was all there to chill.

Gradually the lights got dimmer, lazer and strobe lights

in full action. Resident DJ Prashant took control at the

DISC JOKEY: DJ Prashant belting out sizzling tracks

console belting out sizzling tracks thus, sending the crowd into the dance floor.

Remixes of the '70's and '80's such as Daddy Kool by Boney M; Honey - Honey, Dancing Queen by Abba while Hindi remixes of Bapi Lahiri's famous Pyar bina chain kaha re... and a couple of songs of Nazia Hassan did the trick causing a mass hysteria.

At one point of time confusion arose when RPM's owner pleaded to allow a small group of her loyal customers into the resto bar. EXL's managers were assured there would not be any trouble since she was confident about her clients who would be confined to a secluded corner. To keep the slightest of any kind of unpleasant situation at bay, a network of infrared surveillance cameras were fitted in strategic places, besides a few bouncers at standby.

The floor swelled up with a turnout of more than 60  EXLites and invitees leaving no space to stand. The mood was perfect with every individual pumping extra bit of adrenaline and sweet summer sweat shimmering in their forehead!

Conspicuous by his late appearance EXL's Vice

EPICUREAN'S DELIGHT: Eat, drink and make merry...

President of Aviva Operations, Vinod Khemani was seen wriggling and moving to the beat of the music. He had a reason to flaunt his new look trim figure! Invitees such as Assistant Vice President Gaurav Puthran of Aviva Third Party Motor Claims, Managers Mudit Mathur of IB Claims and Philips Philips of Process Excellence including Tamal Bhadra, an ex-EXLite and presently manager at Fidelity in Gurgaon were among others to grace the occasion with their presence. 

Resto bar staff in full regalia served dinner in buffet style but party revelers preferred to grove in until the last beat of the music was over.

As the clock chimed midnight, the curtains came down - the great night of indulgence was finally over. It was

indeed a party in full control. The heavy fuel in the party reveler's body took a back seat and it was now the spirit of EXL - the vibrant logo (X-man if we can call it) virtually coming to life at centre stage with its hands up expressing either to strive for more or telling it was enough for the day...!!

Thank you EXL!

Following are few collages and a video:

TRIBUTE TO EX-EMPLOYEE OF EXL SERVICE

Obituary

Do we ever know when we will leave this world? Life and death are so unpredictable!

After months of heat wave, the cool early morning downpour today drove me to rush out to the terrace to take a short video grab of prelude to the Delhi monsoons. After a quick editing had uploaded the video clip in my YouTube channel and then shared directly with one of my WhatsApp group - EXL Buddies that constitutes ex-colleagues of our former organisation.

My WhatsApp had been muted since the past few days while I had deliberately shutdown the mobile data service in order to avoid distraction due to an urgent piece of work. After having posted the video clip I started glancing through the huge number of pending mails.

Scrolling down caused some confusion as almost all messages had similar words like R.I.P., condolences, shock, etc. until I followed the thread where it originated and then a pal of gloom came over me ever since.

The message from our esteemed member, Gaurav Banerjee's ID read the following with date and time stamp:

"                   25-06-2014
Finally free from all the pain and suffering.. He lost his battle against Cancer and left us in pain..
We love you n wish u cud come back just once..
Gaurav' Family..
                                            2:05 pm"

It was most difficult to accept the truth that Gaurav Banerjee passed away at such a young age. Barely two years ago, Gaurav tied the knot with his co-worker who hails from Assam. Although we have never met for years, but the WhatsApp forum was good enough to keep in touch frequently.

A senior human resource and admin personnel who was employed with a multinational organisation in Gurgaon, Gaurav had always some of the finest humour up his sleeves that kept people rolling out of laughter. Most members and colleagues recall him as a jolly young guy and a team player.

His last humour message to the EXL Buddies WhatsApp group was on 21 June 2014 but, it is an irony indeed that he never confided his fatal ailments to anybody within the group, thereby, giving a false impression with his communique and profile picture that all was fine with him.

He hailed from Lucknow and had his education from Institute of Management Studies, Dehradun and HNB Garhwal University. Besides, he had a great penchant for cameras and photography.

In general, Gaurav was fun-loving, compassionate and always ready to help people in distress that we will always remember him. Every time I scroll into my WhatsApp group an image of him flashes up my mind and his messages reverberates in my ears. Gaurav Banerjee, may your soul rest in eternal bliss!

Below are the videos:

Message from Vikram Talwar, former Chairman of EXL Service

Message from Rahul Deo, former Manager Operations at EXL Service and currently Service Manager at Aon Hewitt