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Keyboards, keynotes and salsa

Photo:R. Shivaji Rao

Getting groovy Salsa is the flavour of the season (Right top) Employees perform at their in-house fests

At any given point of time, Pavan rushes off to listen to music. For a Michael Jackson fan, this is nothing unusual except that the music room is in his office and surprisingly, he is encouraged to do that. In this special jamming room, Pavan plays his guitar as his colleagues hit the drums and croon their favourite songs. He is the guitarist of Wipro’s ‘CallUsNumb’ an in-house rock band making waves in their shows. “Music helps to de-stress and is refreshing,” says Pavan, who is a project engineer by profession but is ‘one of the lucky souls who feels happy to come to work as he is able to pursue his hobby.’

The band with a curious name performs regularly at its corporate fests like the music show held on World Environment Day at Wipro’s campus in Manikonda.

“Having musical programmes on the World Music Day is a routine thing. We wanted to show our concern for environment through music. So we had a musical rendezvous by planting saplings and singing songs,” says Sambit, project engineer, Wipro. Adds he, “In a corporate company, constant deadlines can increase the anxiety levels of employees. Such musical breaks and fun activities can do wonders for them.” The band says their bang bang also helps them tide over the recession talk too. “It is our latest joke on the downturn,” laughs Pavan and adds, “We tell ourselves that if we lose jobs, we can still earn our livelihood by falling back on music.”

Divya Nawale, a software engineer at Infosys is not a big Jennifer Lopez fan but with her sexy salsa steps, she can give the Latino queen a run for her money. She is part of the salsa instructor team, which coaches her colleagues how to shake legs, the salsa style. “Salsa gives the body a free flow and enhances your appeal and self-confidence,” she says. “Such sessions create a great team environment, wherein colleagues can become your good friends. In some classes, we had the manager and his team member dancing as partners. Participants do not compete against each other and have no pressure to perform. They just enjoy dancing,” she says.

Today’s suave executives have it all - they are breaking free and ‘stealing time’ to pursue their passions. When not on her desk, Shivranjini, a technical writer in an IT company has the options to choose from Bollywood, freestyle, ballroom dancing and salsa in the office. “A normal person will know only work. But if you have to stand out in a crowd, you need to put in that extra effort and follow your heart. Dancing helps us to recoup after demanding work,” she says. The photography lover also dabbles as an salsa instructor at an institute in Hitech city.

The sombre ambience in IBM turns boisterous when Maqdoom Syed rocks on with his band. This technical associate is also part of two other rock bands like ‘Delay 456’ in the city.

“Music makes you a better person,” says this lover of alternative rock. He finds a friend in Ashley Paul, who works for a BPO - Sitel India. He jams with his band ‘Sonch’ in the office where his brother Alan, a guitarist also plays with him. Now, the brothers who play sufi rock are planning to launch a Hindi rock album.

So if you got some rhythm and are willing to get groovy, tune your vocal chords and move your feet and discover the pure joy of music and dance in office!

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