OHOT’s a strange place to be in. Everyone who works here is emotional, wear their sleeves on their heart, and like each other. But because we’re all working out of our homes, we’re never around each other.
It doesn’t help that I am travelling so much,& available so less.
From November, Shrimayi & I were discussing when to do a team offsite. Though we have had some before, we wanted this one to be different. Wanted to integrate it as a work-cum-fun affair.
Logically, it made sense to do it in a city. There were already four of us living in Kolkata. We would have access to a car. But we decided not to do it here. Working in the back end can also be dreary. All these kids deserved a prettier location.
Mirik and Kurseong, it would be. Sister Hill stations to Darjeeling but not even one tenth as touristy.
The four five days went in a blur. Two gorgeous properties; Kids (read: my team) running around, giggling; wintery hill stations, warm blankets, movie nights (all the movies were terrible), daaru (of course only after work), hot parathas, a thousand momos (I won’t eat momos for a year now!), hugging and holding, some people err hugging cough and holding cough a lot more cough than others; feelings being shared; warm hugs.
The last night, we wrote letters to each other. We have made “The Kindness Project” our theme for 2025. Yash completed two years at OHOT on the last day and we toasted that.
We missed Arathi and Krutika, the two who couldn’t make it for the offsite, a lot. We kept saying how much we would have wanted them around us too.
We played so many games. Vaishu and Renuka made some super cute dance reels. We dunked each other in water bowls. I was washing everyone’s jhoota bartans (Am I the CEO, I sometimes wonder!!)
Nobody wanted to return. Now that we have, we are laughing looking at the photographs and the stories. There is a lot that’ll be shared on our page in the coming weeks.
OHOT is a strange place to be in. We are all working out of our homes and are away from each other. But we love each other, and will always have each other’s backs.
I love you, guys.