One97 believes in excelling both at work and at play! This was proven recently with our own Cricket League.

Cricket is in our country’s DNA, and it is revealed to us time and again when we get so passionately involved while even just watching the sport. Just imagine the level of involvement when it comes to actually playing the sport, and that sort of commitment is exactly what we witnessed when we founded our own Cricket League in April. The idea had been there for some time, but the trigger perhaps was this year’s IPL, which ignited the passion to play the game in dozens of our own champs.

Winning Team – Boomers!

One97 supports Twestival as they make a difference to children worldwide. You can too!

And remember check out the event in your city

Make a difference to 72 million children worldwide

 www.twitter.com/One97

25th March 2010 at Seven cities in India

On March 25, 2010, in more than 175 cities around the world, thousands of people will demonstrate social media’s power for social good through the second annual Twestival. The global event is a worldwide fundraising initiative that uses social media to focus participants’ talent and resources to benefit one cause for one day.

This year, Twestival Global is supporting Concern Worldwide, an international humanitarian organization, with operations in India too, in aid of Education for the underprivileged children of this world.

Twestival will happen on the 25th of March across seven cities in India including Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Goa, Kolkata and Mumbai. These cities will host particular events where over 500 people are expected to participate and rally for education for underprivileged children.

Join them and take part in this global movement to connect people online and offline for a cause.

There are multiple ways to help support this event.

-  Attend the event
-  Donate directly to the charity through one of the India City blogs
-  Sponsor gifts and prizes for the event participants

-  Simply spread the word! Blog, tweet and write about us

I still remember the first day I joined. It was quite an experience to see the mix/dynamics of teams sitting together. Shortage of space never really came in the way of getting things done for One97. Sometimes I miss that small team, which was more or less like a family . A family that kept growing and so quickly! Soon we were spread across 3 floors: Devika Tower, 1st Floor to 2nd Floor to 10th Floor and then we moved only the Engineering team to another building. And as suddenly as this movement, we moved to Noida in one building, four Floors indeed.

We recently saw our annual day celebrations party 2009. I still remember our Annual Party Dec 2006. Smita, Puneet, Anupam and I had gone location-hunting only to be told that everything was filled. We had then finalized on this small banquet hall above Turquoise Cottage…Days of the Raj. The party was totally enjoyed by everybody. Since the then first grand party to welcome the year 2007, there has been no looking back, year after year, more people, more hard work, more challenges, more achievements, and not to be forgotten, more fun all the way! One97 is a young company of young generation. We believe in working hard and partying hard.

Here are some of the captured moments for you to revive your memory:

2006-2007 – http://picasaweb.google.com/hrone97/OldMemoriesOne97
2008 -  http://picasaweb.google.com/vijayshekhar/TheOne97GoaTrip
http://picasaweb.google.com/ksheer13/TheOne97Gig08
http://picasaweb.google.com/ksheer13/TheOne97Gig08
2009 – http://picasaweb.google.com/vaibhav.nagpal43/IndependenceDay
http://picasaweb.google.com/nikhilvatsa/AnnualNewYearCelebrationOne97

We have got couple of more awards but our stage of business; I would give this one as best acknowledgment of all of us. I am told that the Jury had liked our approach to market and work / business we have delivered. They expect us to emerge out as one of key companies in the space.
And we love that :- )

As always I have said, any company is worth the company it keeps, minds it has. This is truly an award to great team we have : a team that is aggressive, agile and of strong minds.

I will love to dedicate this to our mission which marks as Emerging Company in Telecom Application space : To become $100 M telecom applications and Services business in next 2 years. Markets will challenge us and wanna-be opportunist will make it tough but our purpose and principle will guide us.

I attach few slides about us, what do we want to be and what business we are in.

Cheers again to all of us. Great journey with lots of eyes on ahead.

was really something! Enjoyment was all around us: people laughing, talking and dancing, drinking, eating and what not! Once97 has a tradition of celebrating its founders’ day every year. This year we celebrated it on 24^th December at Vatika in Prgati Maidan.

We started with the informal session with Vijay, our Managing Director, followed by a formal brief presentation. It is always good to listen to him. He uses simple words in his presentation and makes you understand the most complicated things with ease. He talked about the early days of One97, now and future.  He spoke of Challenge Vs. Opportunities, Customers’ need – our mantra, which he has also written about on this blog.

After this, was the turn of the culmination of the efforts made this year in our Annual Rewards and Recognition programme. We believe in rewarding performers.  In this programme, we receive company-wide nominations for achievers, then they go through further selection to become our Rock Stars.

Our Rock Stars left the stage only to rock a little more with our theme of the evening “Rock theme”. Our entire branding is undergoing a change and we are already rocking! Our New Year calendar, done in the same theme was then unveiled. What better than a rock performance to bring out the theme! So we had a rock group perform for team One97. This set the pace for the rest of the evening.

Up next was something that brought out the hidden talent of our incredible team… team performances. I did not know we have professional dancers and singers with us – well almost professional. Many teams danced on many themes and ideas and were received with continuous cheering and dancing.

The two emcees of the evening, Anant and Saurabh of Radio Mirchi added quite a zing to the whole show. No concluding statement here, because I would like people to share here what they thought about “The One97 Gig ‘08″. Let it flow…

Some pictures from the GIG

I could hear faint voices as I suddenly wake up to find the car parked near a shiva statue thats several feet high from the ground. “This is Rishikesh,” said someone. The earlier night, myself and other rafting aspirants congregated at One97 Noida office and departed toward the foothills in three cars. Three cars with each of them defining their own world of fun. Car1 had people who had different interests, car2-the other, and car3 , the rest of the interests.

So we people of different interests, had a singular motive, which was fun. And fun was what this Rishikesh rafting trip turned out to be. With friends surrounding, the dawn mist glowing, the water flowing, the endless river forever and ever… a line from a song that I had heard a week before, could never be so alive and true for me.

The morning breakfast was over and this seemed like an entire world altogether. Aldous Huxley would have rephrased his thought about doors of perception had he been to the Ganges. We wore our life jackets and helmets and were ready for rafting in two rubber bumpers. A quick instruction class later, we were on our way on the Ganges. To begin with, we had to jump into the water to get confidence that the life jacket is really a life saver.

There were three to four adventure filled spots while rafting, starting with a slow current rapids, to the relatively higher current ones. Man! you wouldn’t believe, words would just be an understatement. Next came the cliff jumping, perceptions can be so deceptive. I thought it’s a 5 feet cliff, only to find that it was more than 20 feet after climbing it.

All seemed to happen in a flash of second but around 4 hours had passed travelling 25 kms in water. Amazing, isnt it?

We had literally become amphibious! So now was the time to explore the next part, yeah, the land. So after drying ourselves up, in the evening, we roamed around the Rishikesh town. Many sights like roaming foreigners, a lazy religious town evening and much more awaited us. Call it the best of paradox , Goa and Rishikesh seemed the same, except that the bars are replaced here by good restaurants, not to mention the “Baba Massage parlor”!!

We walked up and down the Laxman Jhoolah, had snacks at a German confectionary. Man! life is just awesome at the Ganges! Back at the camp, bon-fire during the night and a miraculous dinner (I mean, anything edible you get to eat near the Ganges would beat every other food hands down), Wine and music, what more do you want? The next day , after breakfast and stopping at the “On the way Dhabas”, the joy of travelling & happiness got fulfilled (Not to forget the Shikanji that we had, this won us all!!!).

And if you are impressed (oh yeah , high hopes) with my writing here & feel to thank me , you can do so by buying me a place at the banks of the Ganges (winks!).