Thursday, February 23, 2006

Lekha in Boston!


Lekha in Boston!, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

Lots of people have been going to the US of late, thanks to the new SunGard projects. But I think no one has made such full use of the trip - and documented it so well - as Lekha did!
Read about her trip to the US in her delightfully descriptive blog!

http://ustripfoodforthought.blogspot.com/

Reading it is like actually visiting and feeling the place! Lekha, you should be writing more often!

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Scriptaaa?

Lots of peoples have been asking for the script of the play - we had no script, we just spoke about it and each of us memorized our lines, except for me who had a lot to announce, so had a list!
Shekhar has taken a video of the entire play, Guru will watch it this weekend, and write down the script, will publish!

We have the film on Mahesh's machine, if anyone wants it copied on a cd [135 MB], lemme know!

Most of the humour was in the actions and gestures and funny dialogues - and of course the costumes themselves had people in splits!

Monday, February 20, 2006

Draupadi Swayamvara - Hum Hongey Kaamyaab!

Okay, guys, here's one of the all-time high points in SCT Fun Life! On the 15th Feb, a group of us performed a spoof skit called "Draupadi Swayamvara - Hum Hongey Kaamyaab"!

Seven of us sat down, discussed, came up with the story, practised exactly 3 times, hired drama costumes from Prabhat Stores, and we floored the entire audience who were laughing until they cried!

The script, casting, direction, and general management was by Guru Prasad - three cheers to him! We all had to write our own dialogues, and those who forgot made up on-the-spot stuff!!!

The cast:

Rizwan: Dhuryodhana
Srini: Akbar
Swapnil: Gabbar Singh
Rahul Ghugre: Draupadi [Three cheers to Ghoogs!]
Guru: Arjun
Malloli: Dhrupad
Ashok: H.D.Chumaraswamy
UT [Upendra]: Ravana
Asha: Mantri and announcer
Karthikeyan: Rajinikanth
Rinu Thomas Baby: Kandathiparambil Kochuvarghese Ouseppachan, Indernashnal Singer from Kerala!

Mahesh Srivastava & Murtuza Vohra: Technical Support, Stage and Cafeteria Arrangement

Shekhar: Videography of entire play [Hope to write a cd soon!]

Special thanks to our HR Manager, Matangi Jayaram, who always supports us enthusiastically, whatever crazy things we come up with!!

We went to Prabhat stores in Chamarajpet, dressed up there, and came back by car - we stopped traffic in front of the shop and all along the way where people noticed us!!!! UT kept giving loud Ravana laughs making people almost fall off their bikes! It was Such Crazy Fun!

Two years ago, Srini and I had gone to Prabhat stores and looked at the costumes, but we did not get volunteers, so nothing happened - we amply made up for that now!

Please click on photo link and see all the 25 photos!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Surya now Shines Brighter!


Surya and Roopa Sapthapadi, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

Surya got married to Roopa on January 27th, 2006 with the blessings of all of us at SCT! For more photos, click on link, see collection in the Tag named Surya's Wedding.
Don't miss Bhanu in a suit in the reception photo!

Friday, February 10, 2006

The Famous Veerappan Skit of June 2001!


The Kumbhmela scene, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

This was the Famous Fabulous Skit we performed for the Freshers batch in June 2001!!! Written by Raghupathy Dixit (Raghu, please send me the script!), it was an Absolutely Laugh-without-a-break Riot! It was a spoof of the Veerappan story which was in the news those days. It is the story of two twin brothers Sandalwood and Rosewood, sons of a woodcutter, who get separated at the Kumbhmela stampede, and later one becomes Veerappan and the other becomes a policeman! Many many hilarious scenes later [with Mani coming in a skirt as Jayalalitha!!!], they meet in an encounter in the forest and recognize each other Amitabh-movie style - "Tere seene pe bhi daag hai, mere seene pe bhi daag hai! Bhai!!"

And in the end we all do a dance and go out while the entire office sat around us with tears of laughter flowing down their cheeks!!

We practised the whole thing in a day, with many of us doing multiple roles! There was a narrator - so we did not have any dialogues -and that is the reason why I could do my first ever stage appearance, and that too in 4 roles - woodcutter, soldier - I forgot the other two, somebody tell me!!!

This picture shows Woodcutter [me] taking his two chidren Rosewood[Mani] and Sandalwood[Lakshminarayanan] to Kumbhmela! Since they were supposed to be my children and so much smaller than me, they had to walk around on their knees!

Second picture below. Anyone has more photos of skit? Please send!

Thanks a million for the script and direction, Raghu! Write some more and send us - we are desperately looking for funny skits - and after this one, nothing is funny enough!
Asha

Subbiah and Mani dancing in Veerappan Skit!


Subbiah and Mani, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

I forget what the scene was - but Mani was Jayalalitha [wearing Archana Mehta's skirt!] and I forget who Subbiah was and why they were dancing together - somebody post a comment and tell me!

Onward,Comrades!


Onward,Comrades!, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

This was the day we all got our new SunGard jackets! SSS team, surrounding The Elders - Surya and me!

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Jammu Police Station Convict No 420

The third one being our Paape, alias Vishal Khajuria, alias Baatli Babloo!
He was our invaluable Santa Claus for Christmas 2004, a Santa who danced the bhangra to Punjabi music!
P.S: He recently load tested the new Jammu-Udhampur railway line! Udhampur is his home town, and when the train first came to his place 2 years back, we celebrated it in office with a cake on which we got written "Chukoo Chukoo!"!!!!!!!

His Highness Bhanuprakash Bengaluru Dressed up on Ethnic Day last year!

The second one was our Power Dance Bhanu! We had a Power Dance session as farewell to Bhanu, in the cafeteria! We all tried to learn the Power Dance steps, dancing to bombat Kannada and Tamil songs, but sadly none of us could come anywhere near his talent - we lacked the punch and the paunch!
By the way, he says he goes to the gym daily at Infosys, therefore the paunch is suffering decline!

Ananth Sendoff


Ananth Sendoff, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

Three of our Titans left SCT and reduced the overall weight of the company! Sun office downstairs says that their ceiling is flat now!
First Ananthu, our Cricket Hero and unmatched Trip organisor [so what if he made money in the bargain?!!!!]

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Christmas 2005!

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Christmas2005, originally uploaded by Asha Mokashi.

We had the most Fantastic Christmas Celebration ever!
Complete with decorations in all bays, wine and cake, Santa Claus, secret gifts for every single person distributed by Santa and Carol Singers, funny Irish dance, screening of old photos and videos and a cartoon movie at cafeteria, a salsa dance by invited professional dancers, snowman made out of beanbag, and general bonhomie and much much laughter!! All done by a group of us, planned and implemented in 3 days!
For a cd copy of the whole event, contact Raja Saravanan, who made the movie with Mahesh Srivastava! It is great entertainment and very beautifully made, I assure you!
Other peoples, please add more details!

Asha

Welcome SCT

Sallie Mae? Exeter? SCT? SunnnnnGard SCT???

Welcome to the SCT community! Freak out!