B's last day in Kochi office was 31 March 2009 and so her team decided to host a special lunch for her at Park Residency, Kakkanad considering its proximity to office. The d- day was fixed for Monday, 30 March 2009 and since I was part of the team earlier, I was also invited.
The arrangements pretty much remained the same, except that there was no chart paper this time. B was not leaving the team as such since she was supposed to manage the same team from Bangalore. I was asked to emcee the function again and only when I started reading out the name of the hosts did I realize that it was also a celebration of birthdays of almost half of the team as well as anniversaries (with the organization) of almost half of the team. Plus, we had to celebrate the "special" achievements of 2 team members- the first person will be holding his 2 month old daughter for his 1st wedding anniversary and the 2nd one just got married and had the entire district talking about his marriage!
Though it was an occassion to be happy and to celebrate, not all of us were in a mood to considering the fact that B was moving to Bangalore the next day. A was there too since the project was being supervised by him. We started with A reminiscing his association with B over the past 4 years and moved over to the team. Most of the team members spoke at length about B, some explaining why they consider B to be so special. By the time it was my turn to talk about B, I was so choked up with emotion that I could not speak all that I wanted to speak. I really thought I would end up creating drama, but I could thankfully restrain myself and the moment passed without much issue!
All those who knew what B meant to me understood my predicament. She has not just been a boss, but also a good friend, philosopher, guide, sister and agony aunt for me, someone who shares the passion that I have for food, books, movies, hanging out, traveling, trying anything new, someone just like me who takes pleasure in the simple things of life, and someone who I have always looked upto and will continue looking upto whenever I face an issue- personal or professional. She is all this and more to me...
Anyways, after everyone spoke, it was time for B to address the gathering. She has always been a good speaker, an extremely inspiring one that is and none of us were surprised at all those golden words that she put very rightly across. The team gifted her with a watch and A handed it over on behalf of the team.
The lunch was not as good as what it was during the last get together, but the dessert more than made up for it. Yummy Gaajar ka halwa with aromatic vanilla ice cream- the combo made my mouth water and it was gorgeous, to say the least. Among the main course, I particularly enjoyed the Aloo Mutter curry- quite a rarity in a buffet! And the Welcome Drink was extremely good 2 :-)
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