February 03, 2008 - Its 6:30 am on a cold morning, sipping a piping hot coffee, I sit down to write a little background on what has been a tradition of sorts for a bunch of guys who have come a long way and been through some of the most fantastic moments in their life. QBR is certainly one of them.
QBR for the lesser-known is Quarterly Boys Review, the term when coined was very apt considering our own professional background where our world revolved 24 X 7, 365 days in meetings, reviews, sessions that came with all sorts of names and one of the them was QBR (Quarterly Business Review). We were inspired to use the term for our re-unions. Interstingly, QBR was not the first term we used for our re-unions and it was called something else...read on
So who are we? How did the group come together? Where did the previous QBRs take place? Chill..chill, I'll give you a drilldown.
This friendship, this strong bond dates back 7 years when all of us met each other for the first time to work together in a Contact Center, Stream Tracmail (now Stream India). Back then, it was considered to be a pioneer in Customer Service industry and it truly was, graduates out from college with a flair of technology, the Internet and raring to make it big, on their own. Another bond that tied us together was the account we were working for, Hewlett-Packard. Almost every one in our group joined at the first level in this account and by the time we left, we were 4 levels up in different roles, in different departments.
The first set of members in our group were yours truly, Rahul, Hemu, Parag and Javed. Then came...Priyank, Elvis, Amit, Karan, Kris, Chandra, Tanveer and Mahesh. Now what is intresting to note is that we have become so close-knit over the years that getting to be a new member of this group is near impossible :)
The first QBR was at Elvis's place in Lonavala, its a beautiful bunglow in a quiet neighbhorhood with a pool view nestled in lush greens. Perfect setting for what we used to call a Boys Day Out (again inspired by Babys Day Out and now in its present form as QBR). We decided we will meet at least once in a Quarter and relive the memories of the past and the future that awaits us. Of course all this living in the present with spirits and food to give us company on lazy Weekends.
We have been there (Elvis's place) second time and it felt just as good. On a third ocassion, we met to celebrate my b'day in Andheri, Mumbai at a Family R & B (thats not Rhythm and Blues). Oh yea, meeting up on my b'day has also become a permanent fixture and has been accomodated as a part of the QBR schedule. On the fourth ocassion, we met again in Lonavala (yea I know, its a tad bit too much and we are working on it) to celebrate my b'day and this time we put up at a cozy Hotel, complete with log-style cabins. Lonavala is the most amazing place, as we discovered, with rains, mist, waterfall and chilly weather in the month of June. Looks like it is going to be on our agenda for sometime, we like it or not. Now on the fifth ocassion, we decided to head out for Daman, a quiet beach destination. I personally enjoyed it the most coz I never drove my car so far away from the city and the experience on the NH roads was quite something. The Hotel, was great with studio-cabins, pool-side and beach views.
And now its time for the upcoming Silver Jubilee QBR and though it may sound overrated but we thought the best place to bring together all the QBR memories (and a emotional decision at that) was back to Elvis's place in Lonavala.
Well, I hope you got a fair idea on how the QBR came in to existence and though revealing the intricacies of each trip is not possible (you will get to see the details for the SJ-QBR on this blog), you can go through the pictures from the previous QBRs and savor them. From hereon, the posts will include planning, the trip and back home. Happy reading and good day or nite depending on when you read it :)
