It takes two to tango. And when there are over ninety enthusiastic souls, who believe in the adage ‘work hard, party harder’, the workplace can only get lit up with smiling faces.

It all started with Joanita’s mail to all of us. The theme for this Diwali was ‘Go Desi’. We were motivated to dress up in our traditional outfits for the occasion and decorate our desks as well to win the best desk prize! The day – Wednesday, 7^th November, 2007.

Can anyone ever beat the spirit of Pinstormers! The celebrations started a day in advance. One of the teams actually stayed back overnight to decorate their desk areas. Another team unaware that it was not the first one to start the decorations came in early on the D(iwali)-Day. And then the decoration-virus affected one and all. Soon the entire office was bright with lights, flowers, rangoli colours and the vibrant outfits.

While each one of us was dressed in traditional attire (alright, almost each one of us), little did we know that there are some surprizes in store for us. In the evening, there was a surprise get-together. Prizes were given away for best lit up areas, ravishing Pinstorm girls and hot Pinstorm guys!

Diwali’s over and 2007 is reaching its end. But you walk into our Mumbai office and all the Diwali decorations are still intact welcoming you to the festive spirit called Pinstorm!
Diwali pics at gallery.pinstorm.com

On 9th August 2007, 90 Pinstormers got onto 2 buses and headed for Kamshet for our annual offsite. The 2005 Pinstorm annual offsite was also held in Kamshet but the difference was that we were 3 times the number of people this time around.

We decided to have a theme around which our organizers could plan activities. ‘Innovation and Creativity’ became the focus of our offsite. Our organizers ‘The Elementz’ decided that the most fun method would be the ‘Out-bound Management Development Methodology’ which is why we picked the venue to be YMCA Camp Lakeside, in Village Nilshi in Kamshet.

The location was beautiful with a picturesque lake and hills around. We had dorm like style of accommodation which was fun because it put 8 – 10 of us in one room.

The highlight of the whole trip though was the activities (all outdoors except when it rained too much) and of course the unofficial parties at night ;)

And obviously which offsite is complete without a few skits of the bosses and colleagues.

Needless to say after so much fun and learning, we all were saddened to get on the bus back to Mumbai, but the memories of the offsite will be with us forever because the experience was such that no one would forget the trip.
Offsite pics at gallery.pinstorm.com

As part of an internal presentation, a group of us created this video on life at Pinstorm. Come join the fun!

We finally moved into the spacious, 7000 sq feet office in Santacruz, Mumbai in March 2007. With a white & glass décor interspersed by colored chairs & lockers, this place looks truly amazing.

Well, it’s technically been more than a year. 14 months, since we started, to be precise. And it was time for us to go let our hair down (Especially Peter. And HIS hair.).

So we plonked off to Kamshet. A beautiful property called Native Place, surrounded by hills, a lake and stupendous weather. We had a couple of awesome guest speakers, Ingrid Srinath, the Mother Theresa of the marketing world and Shashanka Ghosh, the grand old man of music television in India. (Oh, how they’re both going to hate these descriptions!). And then our own presentations - where some of us even stayed awake.

The was followed by some interesting outdoor stuff - where we grappled with rain and each other. Till, of course the song and dance started, resulting in some slightly embarrassing stuff - and some deeply embarrassing stuff.

…all the way up till the walk and the bus ride back home.