This saturday, we had our Yahoo year end party. Assembling the crowd outside office gave us a good idea of how much we've grown and how many people I don't know in Yahoo !. I met at least 5 people whose name I had no idea about. But the party got boring very quickly. First of all there were no drinks till 7. I am not a drinker, but sitting near drinkers who are deprived of drinks is not a place I want to be regularly. We decided to give Club Cabana a miss till dark fell.
Yathin was headed out to Nandi hills in his Skoda (sweet). Because it was a small car, we raced to the car which was sitting out side the resort. After jumping a hedge and running premshree into a gate, I managed to get there first and got the front seat.
I don't like cities. I like wilderness and the beauty of simple things. I grew up near a bunch of uncultivated rice paddies in Trivandrum. I spent a long time building a pathway through the chest high (imagine me at 12) weeds. It was wonderful when you were happy just to see a couple of six inch fish in the muddy water and just spent hours wading in mud. Oh, I was a failure then - but I was happy. The trip up the hills sort of got nostalgic for me, especially since Yathin was looking for waders.
Sadly, the mountain was way too cloudy for us to go all the way up to the top. But we went up half the way till the 14th curve and came down. Mainly because the car was running out of fuel, what with the extra people and all that. The descent but was much more interesting than the path uphill - especially since Yathin drives likes a rally driver (or F1, depending on the road you're on). Imagine rushing downhill at over 80 KMPH in the rain (if you can't, download the video).
We got back in time for the party and it's highlights. Especially our HR head and the entire team dancing to the jitterbug. More importantly, we went back for the food. Food is never one of my top priorities when I go to a party. Mainly because I'm a veggie and all I can hope for are paneer tikkas and lots & lots of desserts. Anyway, I was in Shortest Queue First mode of eating - had dessert, rotis and then dessert again. It was good veg food, but thanks to the lack of chairs I ended up in front of the fish quite a few times.
One of the best things that happened in the event was that bluesmoon and gnuindian won Yahoo! Ratnas. Both were well deserved in my opinion. Philip has really worked his ass of (read Is there anyone home ?) for his projects. And on the other side, if someone can keep lunatech and spo0nman working (nearly willingly) for a year or so, he deserves an award.
Then all hell broke loose, as sabiokap won the Resident Yahoo! award, Premshree won the Whiner award and spo0nman won the Spammer award. And in the great tradition of The We're Right awards, we gave out the Best Teemus of the Year 2005 and For proficency with a Spoon and no lemons awards. They were well recieved.
For the rest of my photos, like spo0nman in a skirt, hit the photo sets.