IE Hungama @ the Hungama Talkies

Hungama @ the Hungama Talkies

As the name itself has hungama in it, so is our team no less than any hungama when all of us are together. Hungama Talkies is the brainchild of the creative minds of our team Berni, Aparna, Vino, Sanjusha, Shobha, and Bhavana. The gungho situation about the Hungama Talkies began immediately after Sunu sent an email on Oct 13th on the cubicles' decoration for the Family day @ office.

Creative Berni in action!

Berni initiated the conversation, though don't remember much details of it, this was in unison supported by Vino and Aparna. Shobha too was very much excited about this, though she's engrossed in her world of OpenVMS, this time she came out of her world and totally got into in the Hungama Talkies' creation. Kumuda's support was there as usual. She insisted that we do our best of the cubicles decor. I was always "ON" and "OFF" for discussions, reasons being too busy with work :(. Not to forget Aparna's (the creative director's) contribution for this whole event; she was ever enthuiastic, though, she was in day-long training for 4 continous days the same week, she ensured to return back in the evening to give us ideas, suggestions, and even got involved in making things better. 
Ultimately, it was decided to create a scene of a theater, a Bollywood theater, the bay-long theater, including all the cubicles. Berni said we will have the eatables' stall and that would be our (mine and Aekta's) cubicles, and Amith's cubicle would be the ticket counter. Trust me, I had not really caught up with the decoration fever up until the last but one day.
But Berni's creativity had started over the previous weekend itself creating the serial set of bulbs, Shobha and Vino had gone to different stationary shops and brought in all the decorative items including the different hard card boards which we used for the posters. The whole bunch of creative ideas were just hiding in Berni's brain, just waiting for a chance to drop in. One by one all of the ideas just started popping out and around 15-16 3-D movie posters were created. The gang of gals (Bhavana, Sanjusha, Vino, and Shobha) got involved in making the cardboard boxes for the posters. The creativity and the perseverance of Berni really amazed me. 

The Classy Classics!!

Guess the first one to be created was Dostana with funny comments of Ash saying "Don't leave me Abhi." Then was the turn of Robot (Rajanikanth-starrer blockbuster movie), Action Rewinnd instead of Replay, Good Night Sid instead of WakeUp Sid, Paa Kaun instead of Paa, 3 Wisemen instead of 3 Idiots, Raavan (the fav poster of one of our team member ;)), Love Aaj Kal, A poster of the Bollywood Classics, We are Family, etc.
Berni along with Aparna and other folks had put in the  serial bulb set, which he had created, on the first day of our decoration (Tuesday evening). This lit the other minds on the floor to decorate their cubicles. The team just opposite to us (though I don't know the team's name) started with their discussions, their discussions were so audible and planning was in great progress, but seems like execution really didn't kick off well. Then started the team, next to our bay, their theme was "Gombe Habba." 

Anjaana Anjaani!!!

Though the lights were put and we started working on the posters, none of the other teams had a single clue that we were planning to put up a theater. We kept the news as if like a top "FBI secret." All the folks wanted to know what the creative "Information Engineering" team were upto. Though Sunu came and approached us to get to know of our idea, we were very tight-lipped about it.
Just a day before the final judgement on Thursday, the cubicle decoration started off in full swing. Reached office early planning to finish off some work but ended up in doing nothing other than decoration ;). 

Raavan!!! :)

We're a Family, Oh really!!

In a short while came in Berni. He was enthusiastic as ever. I started working in between the decoration but ended up concentrating on the decoration. In this juggle totally forgot that I had not eaten breakfast, but the tummy reminded me of that by 10:30 AM. I am sure none of the folks worked @ office that day (doesn't mean that we did not work from home in the later part of the day). Scissors, punch, staples, thread, and pins were in major action. Guna joined in cutting papers, pasting papers, taking different color print outs, poster creation, along with Vino, Shobha, and Bhavana etc. And then Bhavana did not forget to capture a few Kodak moments of the decorations in progress. I joined them later decorating the borders of the posters with the contrasting crape paper. With this much Hungama, I am sure what might have the new joinees (Anjali, Nanda, and Nithin), who just joined a day or two before, felt, LOL.
Next, the attack was towards Amith's   cubicle, the gang of guys (Berni, I, Gmanj,  and Guna) got in action removed all of the cardboard boxes (as he proudly calls it his Junkyard), piled them upon, removed the partition on the bay on the entry side and started covering it with the polythene sheet to resemble a glass window with a small window to buy tickets, as seen in theaters. Then, we put up various posters of Sholay and AAG movie and boards like "Beware of pickpocketers;" show timings; the classes of tickets including Gold class, Silver class, Gandhi class, and Cattle class, isn't it funny; the cost of tickets; etc. Totally, the set up resembled a ticket counter in any theater. And, not to forget the tickets we printed, the usual tickets and the black tickets. The level to which we took care of details could be attributed to the Washroom, Enter, and the Exit boards which we created and hung @ appropriate places in the bay. And, not to forget the screen and the dummy projector too as well.

The Eatables Counter!!

The IE Caterers, wanna try something??

Seeing all these things happening, could heard a few fellow mates speaking "This is called creativity." Then was the turn to arrange our (mine and Aekta's) cubicles. Ever-creative Berni took the printouts of Popcorn-vending machine and Coke-vending machine and struck it up on the laptop boxes to give a realistic look. Sanjusha and Vino had created a 2 huge trays of paper eatables. We then hung up the menu cards, duly created by Vino with utmost care and crazy prices on our 
cubicles. Next task was to remove all of the partitions in the bay and set up the posters over there. Vino got busier with creating of Gold class and Silver Class seats. Then, was the task to decorate the parts of the cubicles with the saree pleads, obviously, the ladies' gang took care of it. Later, the team of folks who stayed back had brought in different color papers and decorated Kumuda, Swaroop, Nanda,
and Vijay's cubicles (actually the movie-screening area). With all this, I did not miss to remind the team to dress in best Ethnic wear for the next day :).

Hungama Ticket Counter!!

On reaching office on Friday morning found Aparna, Shanthi, Berni, Sudhir, Gmanj, Aekta, and Kumuda, all of them in their wonderful ethnic attires. The moment they saw me, they frowned and questioned as to why I wasn't in Ethnic (after all, I had reiterated and sent an email reminding the team). I did let them know that I would change from my pair of jeans to ethnic shortly. The final touches were in full swing, but the idea of getting a projector to project the movie didn't fruit up. Then, we created a dummy projector with the cardboard to hang from the roof. Amith worked out the miracle this time and got us a huge monitor (larger than 25 inches) and helped us to show the movie. In a short while, we did get the projector too from Sunu. Then, we converted Aparna and Sindhu's cubicles into parking lot putting up the board reading "2-wheeler parking Rs 10/hr and 4-wheeler parking Rs 20/hr." Doesn't it seem like heights of creativity?? ;).

The IE Hungama Team!!

We broke out for lunch, and also got a chance to go around and check the decorations on other cubicles too on the floor. The 4A floor wasn't much a happening place compared to the 4C wing (obviously, creative minds like us who stay here). Some of our neighbors turned their cubicles into Central Jail, some of them turned their cubicles to a jungle with the theme "Diwali in Jungle,"  another team created "Halli Mane," a traditional kuccha hut with a traditional village kitchen and the interiors of a typical Karnataka village house, also not to forget the dressing spirit of these guys, the whole team dressed in a traditional village folks' attire. 
Then, we decided to take some group pictures, guess who joined us, our ever-enthusiastic team mate Kavitha, drove over 20+ kms to join the team for the celebrations. Thanks for joining in Kavitha!! :).
Email was circulated that judges would visit the cubicles between 3 PM and 4 PM. People from all different floors and judges (a couple of folks from the HR team along with Sunu) started visiting our cubicles. Amith immediately put up a notepad for people to give in their comments. Comments filled in around 5-6 pages. Some did give in their comments verbally too. Aekta took in the seat of ticket issuer, Guna and Berni, got in as black-ticket sellers, I assumed the role of "Popcorn Bechnewala." The slogan I started off just for fun really turned out to be the slogan ("Sholay running @ Hungama Talkies sir; Popcorn, Samosa, Pepsi free sir") which many liked, some folks from different floors recorded my voice too, captured my pictures @ my cubicle.

The First Prize Winners, Halli Mane theme!!

Then was the time for the results to be announced. They started with the third place: the third place went to "Central Jail" team, then was announced the special prize: "Diwali in Jungle" team for their team work (donno what it means, as if others did not do a team work), the second one was "Hungama Talkies" (our very own creativity), and the final first one went to the "Halli Mane" team. We were quite happy for what we received, and also happy for the first prize winners since they showed a commendable dressing spirit as a whole team in their village attire. Thus, the whole day was spent in creating Hungama @ the Hungama Talkies.
Thanks to the whole IE Team for creating Hungama Talkies and maintaning Hungama the whole day.


Signing off!
Susheel