Accenture's “Indian Independence Day” Outing

Inscribed by Hariharan

We Indian Accenture employees at South Africa decided to celebrate the Indian Independence Day eve (14th August, 2010) in the form of a get-together filled with “action and appetite”.

Action – What better way to celebrate Independence Day than to do it with a game that is akin to a religion in India – Cricket!! We decided to commemorate the leaders who architected the freedom struggle in India and South Africa. We split ourselves into teams and named them Team Bapu and Team Madiba (Nelson Mandela is affectionately called Madiba). We thought that it would be apt to celebrate the Indian Independence Day remembering both of them.

Inspired by the game of Cricket is an action packed version that is played in South Africa called the Action Cricket.  This is an exciting team game that last for approximately 70 minutes that combines fun, fitness and competition, and its simplicity allows people of all ages to enjoy the game weather - men women, young old, or cricketers or non-cricketers.

Our game was as exciting and action packed as promised. It started with the Team Bapu electing to Bat first and got off to a great start with about 96 Runs at the end of the third pair’s batting. The game changed drastically towards the end of the innings as Team Madiba managed to get the fourth pair out multiple times, reducing the final score for Team Bapu to 68 Runs. The Team Bapu managed to regain control of the game in the next innings with Team Madiba scoring just about 20 Runs at the end of second pair’s play. As the game progressed Team Madiba improved its game and now it was moving towards a cliffhanger. It was Team Madiba in the end which held on to its nerves and took the Victory Lap.

Appetite – After that exciting match between Team Bapu and Team Madiba we freshened up and headed out for our lunch to enjoy some great Indian food at Bukhara – Indian Restaurant. The restaurant claims that the food there is “arguably the Finest Indian Cuisine on Planet Earth”. Though the team thought that it was too tall a claim – But the Indian food that we enjoyed there was undoubtedly one of the best in South Africa.

It was once again that we as a team came together, had lots of fun (like always) and took back some really fond memories. What a way to celebrate Independence Day being away from India !!