Planning a trip to Pondy .

We 4 decided to go to some far off place where our cell phones could not be reached if not for anybody at least for our manager. Don't get me wrong, we are her WELL...let me complete ...wishers . We didn't want to bother her for SOMETIME.

So we started making plans to go to Pondy (did I say faaaaaaaar off place?). This was how far we could afford to go on a weekend (did I say for sometime?). The Master brains behind this BPI were Ashwin,Preeti,Raj and Me. Preeti had done many such projects successfully in the past and therefore we decided to have her as our project manager. But as every project manager she left for an on site for another such project delegating responsibilities to us. She sure would get the best manager award during one of the RnRs sometime in future.

We somehow decided to plan it strategically and hence called for a break during working hours to begin the first phase. All 3 of us met up in a private place called cafeteria,in between I called my husband to check if he would like to join. Though he said he would, he never turned up. It was only later that I got to know from him he thought I was asking him whether he would like join the Pondy trip and not the Pondy discussion.

Anyway, we wanted to confirm how many of us were actually going to Pondy. Including my husband it was 5. Then Raj said " Looking at the # of on sites Preeti has gone for ,I don't really think she would be able to make it if she said one more " He meant leave when he said on sites and FYI readers,we 5 wouldn't always get the common weekly offs. We wanted to reduce the count to 4.Hehehehe,we were following the BPI guidelines.

Now it was the commuting part. Raj and myself looked at Ashwin since he had a car and 4 could fit inside a car unless it was a Reva and we knew it was not.Ashwin looked into our eyes and said "Guys guess what? train ,reservation and buy tickets and all so why don't we take a bus?". I interrupted " Right, we forgot we didn't need to buy tickets while travelling by bus". Ashwin pushed me away while Raj giggled. I was beginning to believe we were a great team as we didn't agree to each other at any point of time.

An hour had already passed and now we were discussing the hot topic finance (it was already autumn for my cheque leaves) I interrupted with an unrelated question " Hey guys,should I pack warm clothes". Ashwin took sometime to realise that I actually asked that question and Raj ,who was from the same place, was almost hysterical when he heard me.(Readers, if anybody wants to have the weather report of Pondy you can get in touch with Raj ) I tried to prove my point by reminding them it was winter but you know,truth is always bitter and you cannot win with only facts.

Our manager did see us in cafe and stopped by for a casual talk.In fact she didn't see us first but we did and the following happened. I shouted " Hieeeeeeeeeee" My 'hi' was stretched at the end as Raj almost crushed my toe with his shoe when I shouted. By then she had seen us and walked up to the table for a casual talk. I looked at Raj in pain and said " Raj, that's my toe. What's wrong with you?". He looked embarrassed for some reason and tried smiling ( I wonder why),my manager smiled as Raj did and asked " so what are you guys up to?". Ashwin said "nothing much Ma'm , you know ..hmm,ahhh,just..." I wanted to help him,so I said to her " Planning a trip to Pondy".

She said " Cool" and looked excited as well but Ashwin and Raj looked pale at the same time. " So when are you guys gonna visit Pondy?" I told her the dates and Raj suddenly stood up with his hand inside his pocket trying to take something out. That looked awkward but it was all clear once he pulled out his cell phone. He said he wanted to make an urgent phone call and left. I wonder how people get reminded of only urgent phone calls during such occasions. Anyway I felt really sad for him. He looked so pale ,it must have been really urgent. So did Ashwin look,I looked at Ashwin to check if even he wanted to make any urgent phone calls but he didn't move. I thought he didn't understand why I looked at him so I asked him if even he wanted to make any phone calls. For some reason he looked irritated with me and looked once at me and once at our manager and then tried to smile. Sure it took great efforts to change expressions in such a short while for him.After she left, I asked Ashwin about Raj,he said Raj had scheduled his sick leave to take off for Pondy trip which wouldn't happen now.

Like I would know! This is what happens when men don't let the women know about what they want to do. Anyway ,Raj came on messenger and said Pondy trip was OOS. FYI,OOS is not out of station but out of scope.

I think we couldn't make it as our project manager was not around but I still don't understand why Raj and Ashwin start fuming everytime I talk about an outing.