Odyssey Overnighter At Olde Bangalore Resort

Satheesh and I had appointed ourselves as the “Socials Coordinator Team” for the Term Oct – March 2023 for Odyssey’s Bangalore Chapter.

We thought it would be easy to schedule parties and party along with our friends. We had a grand vision of organising a party every month!

6 months went by in a flash, and we had multiple instances of planning, but we were able to execute very little due to various constraints. Planning too late, booking not available, dates were not right, and the timings were not set… the stars were basically never aligned!

The other more important thing was, I had never planned many events before, having to keep in mind the tastes of everyone, the class of odyssey as a group, the budget and the “amenities” each place offered.

I was more used to an Ad-hoc party, where everyone was invited, and it was the luck of the draw as to who came, then we just went dutch and called it a night.

But heading the team, and after a very fun time as “President” and “VP” in the previous term, we had a reputation to maintain.

Take a Peek: The Last Handover Party

Satheesh and I put our heads down, and decided to go out with a “bang”.

The Planning. … ( or lack thereof!)

We wanted to do an overnighter in Goa, but due to multiple constraints regarding time, budget, planning and the stars not being in the right place for this to happen.

Sreedevi came to our rescue, like a Knight in Shining Armour, and ensured we had the perfect venue for an overnighter. We Finalised Olde’ Bangalore Resort, that was close to Bangalore, and had beautiful rooms. Food and service was always good and the overall package they were offering quiet attractive.

Odyssey’s Bangalore Chapter Leadership team, also decided to organise their “handover” ceremony in the same place and it was a pairing made in heaven…. or so we thought!

We made a lot of assumptions, and a few tissue paper calculations. We finally decided on a price point that we thought would offer the best value that included Food, Stay, and Premium alcohol! .

We had made calculations on the 20 people that would come, and assumed we would get 4 or 5 more!

The Resort gave us 10 rooms, and with triple sharing in most, we were restricted to 24-30 people. Closer to the date, we were requested to let go of 4 rooms for another organisation that had a women-only program. They would give us rooms at a nearby resort and handle the logistics through the night for our people. Since it was an all women situation, we agreed.

A small misunderstanding with the hotel on 24th Friday, resulted in my announcing an opening of 4 “extra Rooms” and we got an extra 8 people to sign up on the spot, money transferred and all.

The Party – 25th Saturday

The Party begins on Saturday morning, with a few of us coming early to enjoy lunch, pool, games and beer.

We decided not to have a DJ and music, opting instead of just games, ice breakers, and more alcohol

The party truly began by 730 pm with alcohol in proper flow, games by Williams, and then some by raghavan, pictionary/dumbcharades and loads of laughter all the way through.

Many who signed up to be non-alcoholic, became alcoholic. Kingfisher Premium, suddenly changed into Corona, Greater than gin, suddenly got replaced by bombay sapphire. The only constant however, were the excellent cocktails whipped up by the bartender, especially the old monk cocktail that was what Karan and I enjoyed!

Deepak Jumani, our resident DJ, brought in a speaker and his music. Food and drink were on till 2am and we finally retired to respective rooms by 3am!

We crashed into bed only to wake up with a hangover…. and realised, that today is also going to be the “Handover” .. More on that on this Link!! .

Nothing cures a hangover, like a bill for the amount spent! Our overnight shenanigans, ensured that we were more than 3 times over the “budgeted plan” for the party! I apologised to all who attended, and requested everyone to pay extra. I was honored and glad that no one had an issue with paying extra !

Reliving the Epic Overnighter with these pictures below!