It has been a ritual for about two years now and this year was no different- the annual sojourn of the so called Gesco techie boys to a week end resort for a night of fun and frolic. The place selected this year was the island resort of Jalsruhti ( http://www.jalsrushti.com/)  near Mulshi, Pune and as usual the organisers Sunil and Laxman were spot on with their selection. We understood the term island resort only after our stay was over – it indeed was an island of peace and serenity during our short stay there. A group of twenty three of us  gathered at MacDonald’s, Kalamboli on 5^th December 0830 hrs which was the initial starting point. The surprise additions this year were three of our ex-colleagues who were previously working with Gesco but have now taken on assignments in other companies over the last year. The date selected this year, 5^th December the night after the Gesco town hall meeting was initially met with a bit of trepidation as the some of the shining stars in that meet were expected to shine in this meet as well but our fears were unfounded, evergreen stars remain just that – evergreen, Sudipto Mukherjee and Bonny Couthinho remained amongst the prima donnas in both the events. After the customary vada pao at Kalamboli we were on our way to the resort .There was a brief stopover after Pune to have a cool down “ neera “ drink and by about half past noon we were at the Jalsrushti  resort. The entry to the resort itself was dramatic – you can only reach this place via a boat/dingy over a small stretch of a river crossing which is operated via a pulley operated ropeway, the simplicity of the contraption has to be seen to be believed. At one hr past noon, all twenty three of us were on board at the reception. The rooms at the resort are of two types – Jalaka , the pond side abodes and Jalpushp the river side ones, I would say our group was evenly distributed amongst the two living quarters; of course there was the customary quenching of parched throats before we had our lunch. What struck all of us immediately was how suddenly we felt close to Mother Nature. Must say that the resort has been exquisitely, designed what with glass flooring in the balcony of the rooms where we were staying; the lingering feeling was of hugging Mother Nature throughout our stay. After a more than heavy lunch it was time for a light rest before hitting the pool in the early evening hours. It just seemed we were giving our stars from the previous evening a little bit of re-charging time for the evening ahead; and then all of a sudden the evening was upon us, as usual Sudipto and Bonny were the unflappable stars of the evening but there were a few other surprises as well.

Now on to the dinner – for some, it did not matter what was the fodder that was laid out but for those that did, everyone was talking about the food with a homely Mom’s touch, Dal Fry - awesome! Succulent juicy kebabs all cooked in the meat's own juices, Prawns - consumed so fast without review, For the Veg guys – there were very tasty paneer tikkas and spicy grilled baby corn - wow! The icing was in the Desserts -  sitaphal rabdi, sewai payas, gajar ka halwa and shrikhand.

 Lest we disturb the peace in the resort after 11 pm the action of songs and lyrics shifted to one of the rooms after midnight .It was finally time for us to retire for the night and there were more than a few tired legs at the end of the night.

As is the wont, there were a few early risers the next morning and made the first Reccee  on the path to cross the river and go onto to the other side, a bullock cart ride was one of the options provided for crossing over!

But the real surprise came for those of us who came in for breakfast – a Sitar and a tabla player were just warming up for a live performance and asked us if we had a selection in mind – of course we had, Raag Bhairavi early on a nippy Sunday morning to start  the day , slowly these two players played on, with their rendition finally reaching up to a crescendo, and their performance was something that kept lingering on ( and on ) .And possibly this performance whipped our appetite for breakfast even more. After an outsized  breakfast, it was time for us to unwind a little, a couple of the boys with a homemade stitched ball in hand crossed over the river and went onto the adjoining field to play a game of throw balls. And suddenly it was time for the customary farewell photo session;these were plenty in number with the last one the best of all, with a full sized banner of our company strewn across our chests! Finally it was time to say good bye and the ride back by the same boat to reach the mainland! One got the feeling that no one was in any great hurry to leave the island but we finally did .On the way back there was the mandatory call at the Vada pav stall on the Pune bypass highway and we were on our way back to Mumbai. Traffic on the road back to Mumbai was unusually light and conversations in all the five cars that were transporting us back was sparse – everyone wanted to savour the moment or rather the moments over the past 24 hrs .In a flash we were all in Mumbai city and the thought of attending the office the next day accompanied with the Monday morning blues certainly did not look very enticing, but all good things must come to an end and this one seemed to come and go away in a flash!

At the end this just strengthened our unilateral view -  we must have a retreat like this once a year as a minimum