After a lot of hard work, preparations and brain grilling, we – the team of Spoon UDelhi – were able to bring alive the dream of a successful event that would be remembered merrily by all those who became a part of it.
After a lot of brainstorming on the theme Local, we decided to conduct a “Treasure Hunt” in Hudson lane. The main motive behind conducting a treasure hunt was to make things interesting and attractive for the participants, where everybody was assured prizes including vouchers, hampers and a lot more.
Photo by Kritika Narula
Although the treasure hunt lasted only a few hours, planning for this kick started couple of weeks back. The Spoon team hit the ground running and preparing, which included countless late nights, daily conference calls, texting, weekly meetings, making clues, sending invites and rallying between cafes in Hudson lane, asking them to collaborate. Before we knew it, the day of the event had arrived and we all were overcome with feelings of excitement and anticipation.
The rules were simple: people had to participate in teams of two or three. The first round was an online round in which a clue was mailed to all the participants at 7 pm on 28th September. The deadline for cracking that clue was 10 pm.
All those who managed to solve the first clue were eligible for the offline round that was a bigger, better and fancier hunt for prizes and food. A total of 55 teams got shortlisted out of 215 teams that had registered.
Photo by Sabhyata Badhwar
The selected teams were asked to gather at Kake Di Hatti in Hudson lane at 2:30 pm on 1st October. Looking at the number of people who had arrived with full energy was fruition of the hard work that we had done. The participants were welcomed with their first clue and first gift and were then briefed about the hunt.
The team names were as off-the-wall as one could imagine – like Bhooknath, Afghan Jalebis, Cheese Maar Khan, Punjabi Girls Pretty Pearls, Cereal Killers and Cinnamon Chicks to name a few.
Photo by Yatin Arora
The first clue led the teams to a café named The Bunk-in. The Bunk-in Café was the first venue for our treasure hunt and the scene there was no less than a féte. Everybody wanted to crush each other to get ahead in the game.
Cracking the clue at The Bunk-in involved naming the dish that the clue talked about (the answer was Belgian Chocolate Shake) and checking-in on The Bunk-in’s Facebook page.
Almost all the teams cleared the first round and got free food coupons.
Photo by Mehak Dhawan
Running and climbing stairs to reach venues left the teams sweating in the scorching Delhi heat but they did not lose their enthusiasm. The incentive of free food also kept them motivated.
The next clue took them to a restaurant named Indus Flavour where a food trivia took place. The mad rush continued, which made it difficult for us to handle, but team cooperation helped us sail through. The food trivia involved questions like: “Which is the largest wholesale spice market in Asia?” and “Which country organises La Tomatina festival?” to test the foodies.
Around 35 teams gave the correct answer in the given time span, qualified for the next round and won more food coupons.
Photo by Mehak Dhawan
The third round took place in the beautiful little bakery, For God’s Cake. The task given here was to guess the number of chocolate coins in a jar. Like awestruck kids standing in a chocolate shop, all the participants stood scratching their heads in front of chocolate jars to guess the right answer.
Around 25 teams answered right and moved ahead to the next round.
The next stop was the Bollywood inspired café, Mood Swingers. The place was thronged by teams who were busy looking at the menu trying to guess the dish. The task assigned to the teams at this stage was to click a selfie and we spotted people clicking crazy selfies. 15 teams got a go-ahead from here.
Photo by Yatin Arora
Next stop was the prettiest café in Hudson – Vintage Avenue. By this time only few teams were left, who were wandering in the streets trying to crack the clue. 7 teams reached the café where they had to incorporate food into Bollywood dialogues. We saw crazy dialogue mashups like, “Ek Caesar Salad ki keemet tum kya jaano ramesh babu?”
The final café was Jack ‘n’ Chill and all the 7 teams struggled to get there first and we saw them running around Hudson lane trying to guess the clue. Teams “A Crazy One” and “Hogsters” (joint winners) were the first ones to reach and give the correct answer, followed by teams “Lazy Asses”, “Lebensmittel”, “Bugatti” and “Pirates of Campus.”
The winners were given their well deserved prize – a free meal – and other teams received Spoon hampers and a bunch of food coupons. The café was reenergized by the teams’ cheering and hooting.
Photo by Mehak Dhawan
The whole event was a success and the Spoon team worked very hard to make it happen. All the participants were really happy and they praised the idea of the treasure hunt. They also asked us to continue doing such events. And we assure you we’ll be back with more such interesting events!
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