A celebration of Hard Work and its Reaping

Nielsen Day Out

With Success; cometh joy immense, feeling of completeness and a welcome relief… A relief that tells you that all the hard work has paid off well in the end and you’ve a reason to uncork the champagne, raise a toast and say cheers to the ‘Work Hard, Party Harder’ way of life.

Such was the Nielsen Day Out at a plush farmhouse away from the honking horns and buzzing roads of the Nagpur city, almost 10 kms beyond the lesser known Saoner, into the confines of Telkamthi. Hosting a group of 70 odd at a small notice isn’t usual but then we do love challenges and tight deadlines, working with a client like Nielsen. Don’t we? The learning reaped. With lots of enthusiasm and joie-de-vivre, with smiles and a picnic mood, the 40 seater bus was full before expectations. Boy, we needed an outing for sure! Soon en-route the destination, the happiness was inimitable to miss, with Dumb Charades and Antakshari taking over the moods of one and all.

When we reached the farmhouse, we were greeted with a huge open area and a lavish green surrounding that reminded highly of the ‘feel good’ villages we all have visited sometime or other. The trees and the farming all over, and a picturesque swimming pool right in middle of everything, this wasn’t what everyone had expecting. Soon many took up cricket and others just busy posing for the shutterbugs. Soon crisp pakodas and bhajiyas were up on the starter menu and the crowd was seen delving, finding the gourmet in themselves. The team building activities followed soon which just set the tone of the whole day. Well thought, nicely implemented and executed ideas came to the fore when the tug of war, sack race and crab race unfolded; putting all groups competing into surprises and smiles. Whilst the competition got more interesting, people were seen to grow more competitive and better adjusted to the surprises put in by the efficient game hosts.

We all hit the lunch which presented to us; the well cooked delicacies which were actually homegrown in the farmhouse. A plethora of sweet dishes caused dilemmas a many in the minds of the diet conscious, but the sweet tooth went ahead with tasting all of them. A sumptuous lunch was followed with Shashank’s foreword on the achievement in the last year with Nielsen, and what we look forward to in the coming year. More experiences were shared as Chandra, Preeti, Nandita and Varun had their words to add. There was a general feeling of accomplishment, be it REEFS or CVM or QC Migration – Every Nielsen project had its unique set of challenges which were dealt with and the end quality product was delivered – to the expectations, fulfilling the deadlines. Soon fun and frolic took over with Koutsubh and Anupam taking over the compeering when they unlocked their witty and uncanny ways of putting forth the titles and the fish ponds. Soon people burst into laughter and applause, in unison, for each of the comments and titles coming one after another.

The evening saw the last of the team building games being played and the participants matching high fives as stiff competition had led to eventual win by one of the groups. The winners were felicitated by Gopal and Kaleem – two pillars of InfoCepts’ engagement with Nielsen, the gifts were distributed to all of them. The night was imminent, but the enthusiasm hadn’t died as the DJ started belting out the popular numbers, forcing the tired to get up and join the party mood. Some 50 songs later, we packed up.

Into the bus, tired, sucked off of all vital energy, with contempt visible on their faces that they have had a wonderful day out celebrating the InfoCepts success story with Nielsen. But then would the young blood have allowed people to somber down in reflecting mood while coming back, No, they got into mood and the singing started again… Item numbers to Classical Hits to Sad songs and to Disco Dancing… and, oh, how could I forget it, some baritone, tuneless, loud shouting of song’s lyrics too – Some might call it singing, I prefer the word – Croak!!! (pun very intended).

And we never stopped until we reached back to InfoCepts. A day had come to an end - a day filled with joy, happiness, feeling of success and enjoyment. But everyone knew at the end of the day, that they were in some way responsible for the success and growth of InfoCepts’ healthy relationship with Nielsen and they all knew they will continue to work to achieve nothing but a better result each time. Nielsen day out was fun and rewarding for all the efforts put in by us; it was appreciation and celebration of the reaping of good work. We bask in remembrances as we start yet again a new journey, a new year with Nielsen.