who said old guys or professionals cannot have fun? one’s age does not really matter, its just the level of enthusiasm and eagerly waiting child in you (ready to sprout out whenever necessary) that matters a lot. Here is a perfect example of how a group of perfect professionals that comprises of versatile people who are General managers, Directors, Product managers, entrepreneurs etc enajoyed a day out when they got together to celebrate the sucessful completion of their executive management program at IIMB
I would call this a perfect outing, rating of 10/10. Before i outline this trip here is a quick introduction of the group that made it to this fantastic outing:
What happens if these guys go out together for an outing? all of us selected Machinbele (a place closeby Bangalore) as the place to go because all of us were hungry for one common thing call “ADVENTURE”
August 9th, 2008:After a quick briefing on August 9th (before the certification distribution ceremony), all of us decided to meet at IIM-B gate at 6:30 AM on August 10th. Fifteen of us aggreed to board the bus from IIM-B main gate and four others decided to board the bus from Mysore road flyover.
August 10th, 2008:
6:30 AM to 7:30AM: I reached IIM-B main gate at around 6:45 AM (15 minutes delay does not make an individual non-punctual isnt’t it?), i was surprised to see few more assembled at the gate (Rajeev, Indresh, Amit and Muthu, the last three did the smartest move of staying back at IIM-B “5-star” accomodation the day before). The bus was there at 7:00 AM and most of the guys joined us soon (here i would like to mention two names Vinod and Prince, these guys were the last ones to join the group at IIM-B. Vinod knowing that he was late, drove in to the gate like a F1 driver. I could see a Hamilton in the making, who said we do not have fast and drivers in India
. I spare Prince, in fact got to give him the credit because he lived the farthest from IIM-B, that did not stop him from making it to the trip)
The bus (with 15 participants, 4 trainers) finally moved on towards Mysore road to pick up the other dudes. It was a long drive in Bangalore traffic (though it was Sunday early morning traffic was healthy as ever), the group was silent for few minutes (it took a while to heat up), Rajeev started the day with a Kannada song and the rest followed (We actually found few amazing singers in the group – Rajeev, Balaraj, Indresh, Amit were awesome, guys u definitely have alternative profession, global recession should not demotivate you).
7:45 AM:We reached our first stop; Mysore road. The other four guys joined us and the bus was full, more voice contributing to a very vociferous multilingual antakshari (Hindi, Tamil, Kannada songs). The best part was guys like Indresh, Amit and others humming with Rajeev and Balaraj whenever they sang kannada songs (A perfect set up to portray national integration 
)
9:00 AM: We reached outskirts of Bangalore, we took a small break for snacks, coffee (and it was a well deserved ciggy and bio break for many) The trainers picked up the breakfast and we said “CHALTE BANO” at around 9:15 AM
10:00 AM: we reached our destination at around 10:00 AM (few rough roads, the elderly citizens were tired already by the time we reached the destination). Rajeev took out his “KICK ASS” SLR digital camera and took few snaps of the guys (especially one trainer – of course female trainer), we walked towards the water body.
After 15 minutes walk we reached the actual adventure spot. “MIND BOGGLING”, “WOW” were the first expressions from most of us, it was truly an amazing place (surprising as well, just outside Bangalore and you reach a place which is completely void of traffic, pollution, people and all the other crap u get in a city environment).
10:30 AM: All of us hungry, we just waited for the trainers to set up the tents and food, we jumped on to the food (the menu included BISSE BELE BATH, Bread, Boiled eggs, coffee/tea/milk and fruits.. pretty interesting isnt’t it), after the fanstastic breakfast we got into the adventure mode.
Everyone got into the temporary change room (one after another before your thoughts go wild ) and few were dare enough and offered strip show to the rest, we got into our swimwear (Auro and Rajeev impressed the rest with the high style quotient of their attire
). We quickly took one life jacket each and jumped into the water.
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM: It was swimming and nothing else for threehours. The trainers thought us “how to float”, most of the guys either did not know swimming or knew very little swimming (the experts were Janardhan, Rajeev, Auro,Muthu and Shantanu). We were told that the depth was 50 – 60 ft at many places, though many were apprehensive to start with, no one was in the mood to come out once everyone got into the water.
This was super fun, we swam from one mini island to another, i could really see a child inside everyone. We felt like scaling the heights of Mount everest upon reaching every mini island (trust me, one was pretty touch to reach and the best part was everyone wanted to reach the same)
We then got out of the water, few of us tried kayaking and the rest tried rafting. Rafting is a group exercise that needs on efficient leader to guide the raft and the rest row towards the destination. I would like to highlight that Vinod was identified as the “real” leader after rafting because he just lead, dont remember him rowing at all. The whole group was split into two and we did a raft race (one after another as we had only one raft). Each group was asked to row to a designated point and row back to the starting point (the winner was the group comprising of me, rajeev, janardhan, indresh, balaraj, ravi, amit, santhanu, auro)
Kayaking is a different ball game, one must have high skill level to manage a kayak. KUDOS to Rajeev, Prince, Janardhan, Auro, Vinod (and me) who tried kayaking.
2:00 AM to 3:00 PM: HUNGRY GROUP (no wonders after a long physical exercise), while we were swimming lunch was getting ready for us. After swimming, rafting and kayaking we had an amazing lunch (Menu was chappatis, flavored rice, white rice, sambhar, dal, curd and jamun).
3:00 PM to 4:30 PM: Most of us were not expecting rather not enthusiastic about this part of the adventure.
RAPPLING, fun for few, scary for many was our next adventure. We did another round of rafting to reach the other end of shores, climbed the mountains and reach the top most point for rappling.
The agenda was to get down (supported by cables and a human being who was the god) 40 ft, “DARE DEVIL” Janardhan was the first one to do this from the team. The rest followed him. Few decided that it was too much of adventure for them (this list included Rajeev, Rao, Sastry, Vinod, Bala, Prince and Venkatesh), few also did upside down rappling (Auro, Shanthanu, Amit were the experts).
It was real fun though
4:30 PM to 9:00 PM: Last leg of our adventure trip. Rajeev unleased the Tequilla and Bacardi lime. Each one of us (including teetotallers like Indresh) had three shots (i must admit that they were not actual shots interms of the quantity) and few alchoholics gobbled Bacardi along with Tequilla (Venu was the leader…..). INDEED an amazing end to a great day
Finally, we got back to the bus at around 6:00 PM and the bus slowly moved towards Bangalore. I should really appreciate the high spirits of Balaraj, Indresh, Amit and Rajeev who sang non-stop till IIM-B, truly amazing set of guys.
We reached out first stop (Mysore road) at around 8:30 PM and the final stop (IIM-B main gate) at around 9:30 PM
We all departed (in differnt directions) to bring and end to one of the most adventure filled, fascinating and well cherished day that i would always remember
