INNOVATIVE FILM CITY (IFC)
The day started for
all of us to ram through the Bangalore traffic and reach the destination of
fun. Some of us volunteered to bring our cars (Cabs) to pick ourselves and be
there at the location by 10.30 AM. The Fun committee, who also played the role
of Transport department, arranged the Routes properly to ensure that every one
could be a part of this day.
It’s only unfortunate that few missed out due to their busy schedules with their clients. The place was quite far from the city and that meant, we were all cut off from our busy schedules and there were good surprises awaiting us at the IFC. The event started well with the September Birthday babies, cutting and spraying the cakes onto their faces and Welcome drink was very much needed after long trips and that refreshed us for the Itineraries.
Mirror Maze was a perfect start and it was pitch
dark inside and the guiding red lights correctly misguided all of us and lucky
we all got lost together (hopefully not!!) and found the exit door perfectly. There
was no time pressure and we did not leave the Maze before clicking group snaps.
Wax Museum was
Hollywood centric and Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa were the ones which we
could immediately relate to, as Indians. People would have spent only 10
minutes to say hi to all the wax statues and moved on to the Haunted Mansion. J
Horror House was turned into a comedy house, at
least by our group of 7 (Dilip, Karthik, Mukunda, Prasanna, Suresh, Myself and
Ganesh). We took our due share of photos with the dead and made more noises
than the haunted, hanging in those rooms. It was not anywhere close to the
experience one would have had it in Scary house in Garuda mall, Bangalore. We
heard from other groups that they were trying to make it scary for themselves
rather than the setting.
Ripley’s Believe it or not was very informative
and the best part of this was the tongue twister challenge done by many. People
had no clue that they are getting video graphed from the other end of the
mirror, which was a see-through. I was the lucky one, who finished my challenge
before some of my team mates were at the other end. Sheela, Rashmi and Priya
were the unfortunate ones. That moment was beautifully captured by Karthik in
his mobile phone. We also learnt how punishments were prevailing in olden days
and some of Ripley’s collections reflected upon Human beings and their
struggles in different time periods.
ODE to life is a 4 D Movie, teaching us the
evolution of animals and different species. It was very informative and they
did not focus on Human evolution, but clearly showed how we entered into the space of other living species and disrupted their lives. Till date, Humans continue to keep disturbing nature, so as
to make a living. Be it the recent White Tiger episode in New Delhi and all the natural calamities and earthquakes, we are at the receiving end for all the environmental disturbances that we made all through these years. At least for me, that was the learning after watching this
short 4 D film. Of course, not to forget mentioning the 4 D experience in Indian
theatres, it was wonderful and I know for sure, everyone felt the same way.
Next, it was time for bringing
out our daring and adventure spirit within each one of us. The Roller Coaster ride was
very entertaining and thanks to fewer crowds in IFC, we got repeated rides and
all of us tried out different positions and shouted our guts to let the fear
out of our system. The best one was yet to come. This particular ride was
specially made for Kids and in our BFS team, we found many kids, who wanted to
understand about Life, as in Life takes you up in the sky and the next moment,
you might step down and hit rock bottom, (of course I am sarcastic about this
ride), wherein it took people up and down, while making a round. Few People
learnt it by actually participating in this joy ride. Priceless reaction was
provided by Anand Tirkey, who failed to understand this lesson about Life. Sad,
we could not capture his reaction through camera, but I could never erase it
from my mind. J
We
entered through Exit and Exit through Entry in the Dino Park
and Fossil Museum was a joke.
Once we finished our lunch, we hit the
Aqua Kingdom and slided our way and jumped into
the chlorine water pool. There were lots of interesting couples who took time
off and talked their minds out to each other, which they were deprived off in
office premises, I believe (Fun Intended). To name a few Dilip and Prasanna,
Mahesha and Raveendra Rao, Sanjit and James, Thamma reddy and John Pothen spent
quality time for sure. And there were solo heroes like our Ganesh Mohan, Mandar,
Prasanth, Kishore, Karunakara Reddy, Karthik, and Mukunda who will just be
around with different groups at different times and share some good jokes and
have a blast. Suresh, Kiran, Karunakara Reddy, Rahmat and few others did
not step into the water. Ladies had their fun too in the
pool.J
Then we had our High tea and snacks,
finished some challenges like Bow and Arrow, Gun shots and appreciated the
setting of Prison, Court rooms, Flights and took our group snaps and bid
goodbye to one another and to the film city at around 5.30 PM. Those 7 hours
was totally fun and one should have a fun-filled team like BFS to actually make
trips like these, a huge hit. All credits to the Fun committee for arranging
such a good team outing, where employees could cool their heels off from busy
day at work.