Team Outing to Ravgodlu.... :)

As the saying goes “Between the dawn and dusk, what remains is the beautiful fun filled memories, as days passes, we live with these memories and enjoy”. September 16, 2011 was one such memorable day.

An announcement was made by Academic Co-ordinator Mrs. Chitkala about the team outing in the PST meeting exactly 8 weeks before September 16, 2011. This had set the expectation in the team to enjoy it to the full extent in the FSnT team outing. Especially one who has joined the team recently was waiting for this date. No one in the team had realized that this subject line would mean a LOT. This was a great chance to get away from the stress of the office. This was the first outing for most of the people in the group.

In the meetings that followed this would be one of our agenda. Every one was set to leave for the weekend dhamaka to our Director's farm house @ Ravgodlu located 30 km south of Bangalore on Kanakapura Road, a good bouldering and climbing location. Initial discussion happened among our Director, academic co-ordinator and Mr. Bharghav and Mrs. Archana of Out 2 learn team on what kind of activities to be planned for the team members since our team is a shuffle of energetic young people and enthusiastic elders.

Initially the the team member size for outing was less but Mrs.Chitkala (AC) and Mr. Ramesh (PC) pulled most of the team members and made the count to 22 including the FSnT academic staffs and corporate staffs from across all our centres (B'gudi, RNR, JBN, YLK and Mys).

On September 16, 2011 at 9.00 AM, finally we boarded the matador from BASE office to Ravgodlu. FsnT team members were fully charged to participate in the celebration. But it was a slow start. On the way to Ravgodlu the team was divided into two and we played anthakshari. Within 45 minutes we reached our destination where we forgot the stressful life of Bangalore and blended well with Mother Nature.

We were very much eager to try the acts that were organized for us by Mr. Bharghav and Mrs. Archana of Out 2 learn. We were received well by the Out 2 learn team.

Ice Breaker

The first activity awaited for us was to play an ice breaker game. Here member of each team was given a slip containing the name of an extinct bird. Two persons who had got the same name of an extinct bird were grouped. The pair have to introduce each other to the whole team starting with the partner's introduction, their memorable moment with the students and their embarrassing moment in life. It was great fun listening about each of the teammates. Great retreat icebreaker!

Later we turned up at the dining hall. It was a heavy breakfast. After breakfast, we freshened up and were ready to proceed to the ground where Out 2 learn team welcomed us with some daring acts which we doubted whether it can be performed by us. Even now everything seems to be amazing!

Tripod

We were divided into two teams, Team 1 and team 2. Team 1 headed by Mr.Ramesh and Team 2 by Mr.Velu. There was a tripod made of bamboo connected to long rope on each bamboo. A teammate has to stand and balance in the tripod and the others have to take their position and hold the ropes and move the tripod along with the teammate standing on it to the goal set at the other end. It was great fun. Physics what

we had learned in our PU did not go in vain! Everyone started applying our own physics concepts, of course with the help from physics experts who were with us. There was a much hungama when the person on the tripod fell when we were just a step towards our ending point. Because we need to start again from the starting point. Both Team 1 and Team 2 had challenged each other and were not less in capabilities. Team 1 [My team :) with two physics experts – Chitkala and Raghunath] had won over team 2. This activity had taught our team how to problem solve, listen to directions and experience the joy of success!

Jungle Gym

Oh My God! The name scares and is case with the mere sight of those 30 feet poles and 26 feet stands on the pole to position oneself. But the experience gained in the act is priceless! Words are not just enough to explain the experience of each of us. This Jungle gym is a combination of 6 activities to be performed in the halfway of the atmosphere. Even people who are brave on the ground will be scared to look at the ground from the height of 26 feet. It was a wonderful experience and my teammates will agree with me that it has made the fear of height to vanish from us. It was truly a fear factor overcome by each of us who tried these acts. I really enjoyed it and others had gr

eat fun encouraging me doing this act. I even had fell down but again we were armed and had all the necessary safety measures to hang on to the strings even if we missed a step. Really experienced butterflies in the stomach! Bravo we did it! Out 2 learn team had a rescue operation to perform too. It was Ms. Gayathri who went halfway and her acrophobia made her to stop in the midway. Operation Gayathri was headed by the trainer Mr. Kamesh. Ms. Renuka was a part of the operation team. Just have a look at the photographs.

After all these bravery stunts any one will be drained of energy and we got us energized by having a lavish lunch prepared by Mr. Nagaraj Bhat.

Water rafting

Just after lunch, we did not require any rest as we were fully charged and wish to continue with our activities. What greater way to build teamwork during a team retreat than to build a raft ourselves and paddle the river? Again the same team 1 and team 2 has to war each other. Teamwork is vital for success. You will need to paddle together as your guide calls commands. We experienced camaraderie as well as plenty of thrills as we built our raft technically and navigate the river. This experience not only gave our team plenty of memories and stories to tell back at the office but also created dynamic, focused, team players.

Immediately after rafting, we had our yummy pakodas at the rafting place itself. Hats off to Mrs. Archana and Out 2 learn team for their hospitality. When we were back, it was almost dark and the climate was slowly becoming cold. Every one was given with “personal time” to enjoy themselves. After that, we decided to go for the camp fire. But since most of the members were tired because of the long day, we decided to skip camp fire and had dinner. Dinner was so spicy as we started with the groundnut and tamarind soup. A rare combination! Dinner was so ravishing.

BASE employees any time, any where take with them their official responsibilities. After our dinner, we had an official meeting on what to introduce into our FSnT further and to make it much more

effective to reach even the rural areas. When we went for sleep it was almost 12 pm. Our tiredness grabbed us to sleep soundly even though there was sound music from our fellow teammates. We decided to go for a walk again in the morning at 6.30 am. Every one was asked to assemble for break fast at 7 am.

Second day - The trek and photography

Few woke up early and started with their morning walk. And everyone assembled for breakfast – Tasty Uppitu!

Surprisingly, HSN sir made a visit to the farmhouse along with Sudha Madam, Mrs. Ashwini and chotus. Our plan was to go for the trekking to Ravgodlu hill just beneath the farm house, which hardly takes 10 minutes to reach the bottom of the hill. We started trekking. Trek was around 3 hours. The rappelling and rope section was very scary and exciting too. It was not an easy task to climb up and come down in short time. For some of them, it was a first trek. Team work made most of us to climb up and enjoy top of rock. The experienced trekker Mr. Kamesh took the lead position. Photo crazy Nandini and I, took the risk of rappelling for the photo sake. This time Gayathri remained calm and decided to face whatever comes along and she did rappel. I started asking philosophical question like “why we really need to climb up”? When we were as

ked to climb up again after rappelling. Unexpectedly and surprisingly, Mrs. Prema and Mrs. Sneha proved all of us wrong by trekking easily. Madhu, a trainer trekker helped each of us to climb down the hill with ease. Nature loving Mrs. Prema was taking snaps of the greenery. Bhagyashree, Padmini and Jyothi were so enthusiastic that they had organized a photo session on the top. Sharvari was scared when she saw her mom Chitkala performing rappelling. Chithprabha confirmed her safety and rappelled. Vallish sir rappelled along with his younger son with atmost ease. Surprisingly, Master Samarth, Vallish sir's elder son, rappelled alone and one could see the utter confidence in his face. Mr. Kamesh, the true care taker helped all the members to climb up and down. When we went to the top, every one were so excited and screaming. Everyone lost themselves in Nature. This is what everyone in the team said during a small photo session at the top “Should make it mandatory to arrange for a team outing once in a while, if not frequently”.

Time spent on the top of the rock was awesome. The nature, the air and the Sun was touching us and gave a warm feeling. We experienced the Nature at its best for a moment. We climbed down in reasonable time including a rope session on a sliding rock.

We reached the farm house at 2.30 PM. Every one was tired and took rest for a while. Guess what? HSN sir had himself prepared the chilly fry and a special sambhar (I dont remember the name of the fruit!) for us. It was so relishing and spicy after the trek.

Few of us went around the farm house and the garden. We came across some species of plants like Ficus krishnae, five faced rudraksh tree and peppermint flavoured flower.

Then we gathered for the photo session with our own team and Out2learn team. After the photo session, we bid farewell to the Mysore group after which they headed to their place. We packed our belongings and boarded the matador back to traffic- filled Bangalore. Everyone was tired and took rest for a while in the matador.

Leaving note...

All together it was great memorable trip so far! The water, the trek, the photography and last but not the least Operation Gayathri (Gayathri please dont get offended) will remain in our memory forever. The quote “All good things must come to an end” made more sense when we look back our trip moments.

Cheers,

Pavithra Jayaram – Not a bad story writer