Last year,15th Oct was the first time my ex-co, Tamarind was doing a function along with my current and parent company of tamarind,Sharyans Group. The expectations were also too high as some of the key people from Sharyans group had seen our new year celebration performance the previous year. It was exciting as well as challenging, especially since the work season had just begun.
I was responsible for putting a group performance representing tamarind. It was easy and difficult at the same time. Easy because we knew, we can do it anyhow. We are used to put up brilliant performances at the last moment (remember, the New Year dance preparation J). And difficult since the staff was full to the brim with work pressure and getting dedicated time out if these guys were like getting more juice out the squeezed lemon.
So the mission began, the first step was to decide the theme of the performance. I with some of my key team members, Jenny , Chaitali and few more brainstormed but nothing worked out. Finally we decided we will represent what Tamarind does, “We show India to the world”. Well, a very common theme but atleast we concurred on something since time was essence and we had spend too much time discussing themes. The next step was to select songs, pull out the staff who we thought could do justice to the performances, convince the bosses for their team member’s time, get all of them together at the same time and the list goes on. And we were yet to face the main challenge, which was getting the choreographers, everyone and no one started choreographing the songs. What a confusion!
Relief came when one of sales staff, Shruti Bhat recommended her friends. We, as if the movie producers called them for a meeting. They came and we explained our theme. They said they could do many things with theme, we were happy that someone was looking at it as a good theme .They recommended some changes in the songs, mixing and finalizing the whole medley. Ok, we were ready now to start practicing.
The next day 1 pm, lunch hour was decided as practice time. Everyone including the choreographers and the bosses were ready. The day came and went, no one came except us. We missed our lunch, but both the choreographers stayed the second half and trained whoever came as per their convenience. The performance was shaping up. We had people practicing as per their songs except during the final stage performanceJ.
Now the big day had arrived and the dancers were still running around arranging costumes. We should have ideally left office by 5 pm, but the costumes arrived only by 4 pm. The performers had to get ready for a typical bhangda, Lavani , Goan and South India dance. Imagine the amount of time required for the whole make up. So I became the makeup artist, hair stylist and the spot boy. We were getting late, it was raining outside, the changing room looked messed but it had its own sense of gratification once we were ready. Everyone was looking gorgeous in their attire; Indianess has its own unique beauty.
We had arranged for transport so thankfully we arrived although little late. The function began with some beautiful solo and group performances by the other teams. The icing on the cake was the compering done by Louis D’souza and Shradha Vyas. Louis at his best as usual and Shradha di with her simplicity added the much needed anxiety to us before our performances. We just wanted to do it. And then the time came. It started with a punjabi damdaar bhangda and ended with a Patriotic song. The lavani dancers took eveyone’s breath away, the goan performers looked lovely in their salsa style and the south Indian group rocked with their nakamuka jhakas. Everyone was elated with the performance. You should have our seen our bossy, Mr. Mahesh Shirodka. He was like a proud father. We were happy that we were able to put through the expectations.
Today when we look back; we cannot stop smiling, giggling and laughing at so many moments that we shared. It was a true showcase of our TAMARIND core values, beliefs and culture. Three cheers for everyone who was associated in every possible way to make it a success. It’s a accomplishment specially for me, who did not dance but knows each and every step by heart and was actually doing it in live in my heart along with the live stage show J !
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