17-6-07 Oye!! exhaustive

am going nucking futs!!!!!! ;)

Well! That's exactly how I felt when I ventured towards 'value lanes' an outbound training centre, on the outskirts of Bangalore… this happened in the last minute[my boss permitted to attend it only in mid morning, n I had to call up home to send a change of clothes..things happenin to me in the last min is a little annoying :)]… thoughts flooded my head in multiple directions, the work I mailed home to complete over the weekend, the new week of learning through a classroom set up by joinng in on the BA bootcamp to attend sessions on practices that we are into, missing another weekend of staying at home…this weekend i had planned to watch beauty n the beast [the animated version of it] n attend a family lunch on Sunday at my uncles place :)

But, as I sat in the bus which went on some of the worst roads that Bangalore could've had, I wondered what I was doing in a group of 55 others who were relatively familiar with each other..

I had to break the ice with most of them and get to know thm plus participate in rigorous activites which would need all my senses in acute concentration…but, as we got off the bus at the venue after about 40 mins of tat bumpy ride, I just smiled n could feel the 55 others smiling back at me J…the place felt like heaven on earth, a small pocket of civilization surrounded by mountains, a river n forestry…with spartan tents which had comfortable cots and cupboards too[it was like the coexistence of both luxury n simplicity together] dichotomy as usual…we had a small briefing on our neighbours in the surrounding forests, the boars and bears whom we were told not to disturb :-D n the first activity was playing a volleyball match, with the ball missing…. more of a know ur neighbour sort of game
J… where we had to pass the ball calling the name of someone within the team first, followed by the name of sm1 in the other team[it worked wonders n I cud remember most of my team n the opposite team as well!]

No brk aftr that, close to 7 in the evening, n it literally felt as 'dark as night' n we were divided into groups of 9 n were made to complete the task of carrying a bucket of water across 3 modules without actually setting foot on the ground or spilling the water, n bliv me despite being a young group of ppl at an avg age of 32, n having been thru these programs some point b4 in life, we cud only manage to complete 1 module mch byond the stipulated time:-L this was followed by dinner n barbecue n some djing which we all enjoyed despite, that stretched physical exertion… ppl who claimed to hav no appetites almost ravaged the kitchen J n everybody was thankful for the delicious food. The dinner stretched till 12 but we all had to end singing n chatting abruptly, as we had to wake up the next morn n b ready to face the day by 5AM.

What do we see, at that early hour, another simulated event where our clients are from Dubai n hiring for an entertainment co… men n women who could perform 11 hurdles, n thy felt that the hurdles should be based on our Indian army's mode of selection n we couldn't negotiate the time but finish all the hurdles within or by 15 mins.

The teams were again groups of 9, n all of us had to finish tasks to earn 675 dollars after wch, if time permitted, we cud repeat some of the hurdles n earn further money… n based on our earnings we would win the contract…hmmm, strategy, finance, n physical exercise…whattte combi ;) n all this as the sun rose in the horizon.. n our stomachs grumbling for food!


My team had 2 women n we were given a lot of consideration during the planning stage, I was xcited abt doing the Burmese bridge as it reminded me of the accident I had as a guide of falling from a height, n I wanted to finish it inorder to rest som of my fears!

My team started calling me the Burmese bridge beauty;) [hehehe] well, all these hurdles seemed v exciting, but were extremely difficult to do, except for 4 of the hurdles, balancing loop, the pole vault, the water logged dividers, the hangin tyre… the tough ones whr the 10ft wall, the bridges, the fishing net, the tarzan swing, n the W wall.

Until we crossed $675, all of the teams had to finish each of the hurdle, we all finished the easier ones, n I felt like I was eternally struck in the fishing net[ this is just a net which you have to climb, n then on descend om the other side, it was the most time consuming… the 10feet wall I finished comfortably as I was used to it through my experience in guides, but, by the time I reached w wall I was exhausted …only 10 mins had passed, I had completed most of the activities except the Burmese bridge n the tarzan swing n was stuck at W wall [the hurdle with highest points] n most of my team had completed it [my team had many from defense families n it was our advantage;)] in order to help me finish this hurdle, 2 guys in my team, one on the wall n the other as a camel under, I put my feet on this guy n the guy on the wall pulled me up n I jumped across, well! Completing this hurdle felt like victory itself…I ended up not fulfilling 2 of the hurdles in the stipulated 14 mins, but ended up repeating 2 of the easier hurdles again J in the end we stood 3rd among the competing 6 teams, it was close yet fun competing, I was astonished abt hw mch we could stretch if only we blived in doing things
:)

Breakfast was timed to 20 minutes, after wch we had to trek on a mountain which was simply had the most beautiful view that I have seen in recent times… [it reminded me of a trek I had been to in engg to chikamangalur]…the trek back was made difficult by blinding a few of us n muting the rest of thm, this was a v difficult trek, but, it made us realize that our senses bcom acute when we accept a deformity, I was blinded, but, I walked in small steps n completely trusted the chain I belonged to, we were resting each others hands on the shoulders of ppl in front of us, n went wherever thy went, n whn we looked at pics after the trek we found out tat we were almost at the edge many times, this was quite a learning experience, the amount of bonding tat happened aftr this event was simply superb!

This was followed by a quick lunch, n we had to go for a rappling activity, this was exhilarating!!!... The rules are simple, as we descend we should look upto the sky, be at 90degrees to the surface, n balance our weight on the hook with support from one arm behind us n the other infront of us, the most important thing is to not bend one's knees. Well! this was one exercise that made us shed our inhibitions, it was exhaustive but hilarious in its own way, the closer we reached the surface of the earth, the more we wanted to rapple, the height of this surface was abt 60ft n everytime we would reach close to the surface the rest who were thr b4 us wud crack some silly joke n we would smile with a sense of achievement! Indeed an experience I would recommend to all of you J[take me along n mayb u wudnt b as scared..hehehe]

The final n the last activity was at the river, we were working under the same co but as groups representing different locations, we had to design a raft which would be low cost n at the same time efficient n sturdy, enough to hold abt 7 ppl even in a flood!


The best part is we were given the resources which comprised of inflated tyres, ropes, n bamboos of different sizes n had to actually implement the design n test it in the river, all this again had distributed time limits, n this one activity we all took head on n all the teams completed it with loads of fun n enthu :)

We made slogans n songs to maintain the rhythm during rowing n it was a wonderful experience which helped us relive n relax after the whole days exertions… wanted to stay in the water forever, but home beckoned, another bumpy ride awaited, but this time around had established an acquaintance with almost 30 of them, as each activity would've us belonging to different groups n each interaction helped me understand varied interests, varied behavior patterns, n different hues of a personality that adds immense meaning to the canvas of life…

The initial sckeptism n complaining attitude was replaced by a 'spirit to discover more' to be able to connect more with everybody n understand the essence of life itself…the bones n every muscle in me is hurting but, the pain is welcome n it adds to my existence :)

This week was heavy with learning…have to also write to u all about my mentor n buddy Sanjay who happens to be the head of my division n the way he facilitated a visioning session through a video by a 'futurologist' into different modules n helps put forward a topic wch can b controversial, as visioning cannot be exactly taught!!

More on this in my nxt mail, u hav something 2 luk fwd to… n promise tat it will b another long mail :)