Xtreme Fun at Xtreme Zone

It's mid night and I reach home all exhausted, no… no… I was not working extra or over time, not even because I was late night partying, but because - that is what our usual office timings are, we work UK hours supporting the Recruitment and Staffing needs of our clients in UK. Well I won't get into work, I am here to be on a roller coaster ride and to pen down my experience of a much awaited office trip that was planned three weeks back. I know I am late in blogging this piece – all thanks to super busy weeks and even busier weekends. We are a team of 9 people and to add to much delight we had our BIG BOSS (Gaurav) and our best colleague (Jacqui from UK) to give us company on this trip, that makes the headcount of 11. I am sorry the jargons I use sound so recruitment Industry oriented, but I can't help it, you deal with it day and night and you start living and breathing it. :)

Well so before I hit the bed I set the alarm for 3 AM IST, wowwww, that’s really painstakingly early, but I am excited because I get to wake and cook some “poori aaloo”-  the Indian or rather North Indian breakfast that’s so cherished especially if you plan a trip or picnic, this is one recipe that goes handy and is very famous amongst the North Indians. Adding to my recipe was another Chef at work – Rakesh, our Bihari babu making some delicious “kachoris” – and that’s another North Indian delicacy…and.. THAT must be giving an idea how excited we really were.

We had all planned to convene at the office premises and then start the journey to our destination – Xtreme Zone, located in an area called Manchinbele. For exact location please click here.

I had to pick Jacqui from her hotel room on my way to office, which is hardly a 5 minutes’ drive from home, so here as expected I and Jacqui reach office first though we ourselves were half an hour behind the schedule, very much following the Indian Standard Time (only Indians know what it exactly mean and, that is, that we are never on time, this is a bit shameful but we live in a country where everyone is in a hurry but no one reaches on time. J))…

Anyways, so following us comes the rest of the team, we quickly have a sneak of the breakfast that I and Rakesh made, pick up our snack packets and drinks that were bought last evening to save time and was part of our great planning for the upcoming day to start our voyage. But hang on we don’t start a thing without taking pictures and I have to mention about the two awesome team members and AKA selfie lovers – Ambika and Ibrahim (Ibu), they in true sense follow the “The Chainsmokers” and the tag line ”But First, let me take a selfie” J and their selfies are great fun…Kudos guys! You two rock with the selfies…keep doing it!

Okay so finally we get on to our rented Innova and Santosh’s jeep. Well this seems like a planning but all the boys of the team went on the jeep leaving behind 4 girls, - Jacqui, Ambika, Gowthami and myself with the BIG Boss…never mind…we catch them on the toll gate and hang on… Big Boss too decides to get on the Jeep with the rest of the boys. That was not good but why should boys have all the fun, so we girls put on the loud music in our car and enjoy the little time we get away from the men. :D ;)

We all stop once or twice to shoot pictures, I told before, we can’t do it without capturing moments in pictures. We also stop by the BIG Banyan Tree, called Dodda Alada mara in the local language of Kannada, which is humongous and amazing. It is a natural wonder, a few hundred years old and spread over a few acres of land. To reach here follow the map and learn about this place by clicking here.

We click few shots here and there and start for our final destination but, hey! are we getting lost, asking the local people about how to get there? Wait a second, we are in 21^st century, in the era of smart phones and hi tech services, here comes out my google maps on GPS, taking us straight to the land of reservoir of lakes – Manchinbele.

We have just arrived and  a small and rather super easy trek on the rocky land was to be covered by us  for about a kilometre. We were good at it, thanks to Gaurav, Ibrahim, Rakesh, Abubaker (Abu) and also Gowthami and Jacqui for giving support to get me through some of the slippery and sloppy pathways..

We are finally at the place for the day long team building activities that were planned for us. We get welcomed by a nice breakfast and get started with the day on rope walking. I am sure some of us would have overcome the fear of unknown in this one day trip. Slow or fast, everyone finished the easy to medium to hard military obstacles on the rope way. It was super fun looking at how people made various strategies to get through the ropes. I by now had become the team’s professional camera person J and enjoyed clicking some of the most hilarious pictures that will make us laugh every time we will look at them.

After the rope way there were other activities like paint ball and some team building games that were played. The loser team in the team building activities had to do poll dance as penalty and we were amazed the way the losing team enjoyed and lived up to the moment around the poll, we witnessed some of the great performances by Ibu, Santosh and our best dancer Ambika, and yes we do have their videos which will stay a part of our great memory collection of this day.

Post all this fun we were called for a quick and relaxing lunch for fuelling ourselves up for rest of the day. The day later followed with rappelling, zipline and kayaking activities. I was thrilled to the core by seeing everybody enjoying all these adventurous sports, which made it more tempting for me but alas! I had to sit quite with my hurting back and sickness. But nonetheless, I enjoyed every moment of the day climbing up and down the rocks with the team.

The last activity of kayaking was the funniest of the day, I believe everyone must have learnt something new about themselves while performing this activity. Ambika and Ibu, never in sync with each other while rowing the boat went wandering around the lake. As they say to find oneself one must get lost at times. J. While Ambika and Ibu, struggled a bit, though I am sure they enjoyed it immensely, Gowthami and Gaurav, were in full swing going together left and right and round in rowing, it seemed to us, what an effortless rowing it was. All other boys – Abu, Rakesh, Kamlesh, Santosh and Harish, swam, struggled getting on the boats, surfs and made me and Jacqui laugh like never before, as we sat by the lake side watching all this happening and capturing photos of the team.

Time, as it’s habit is, slipped from our hands and we were called for tea and snacks and to relax by the lake side. By this time the nature was most beautiful and serene. We saw the moon rising up and its beautiful reflection on the water made the scene so divine. While the sun was setting at the other end of the lake, the smell, silence and tranquillity of dusk is something I treasured the most.

It was no time, when it was night, but it was moon lit night. Its calmness was soothing and relaxing. We sat in the hut like shelter for some more time in the dim light, played some nice music. People were all talking and discussing what all happened during the day. The talks and laughter of the team was funny and enjoyable.

We were later assembled for the bon fire, we were packed with our stuffs of drinks and snacks, which were taken out at this time. Our official barman, our own Big Boss, made some drinks for the team. We had Santosh’s skills of mimicry on display now, he mimicked some of the great actors of South India and was joined later by Harish, Abu, Ibu, Kamlesh and Rakesh for some amazing dance and singing performances. They sang in Telgu. Kannnada, Tamil, Bihari, Bangali and English – funny but it was the mini India on the rocks! I am not sure though If Jacqui could grasp anything of it, but what I know is she had a good time with all the crazy people around. Jacqui was hit by the stomach bug but had been part of it all. Jacqui, you prove to be so strong and thanks for being there throughout the day.

While I don’t know if it was the people who were speaking by this time or was it the whisky or vodka? But I have had some of the most cherished time with the team. Not to forget to mention about all the old Bollywood songs that I and Gaurav hummed around the bonfire and made people wonder about the Eastman timer songs we still remember ;)

The night was getting colder and I finally realised I had to crash before it’s too late and went straight to my tent for a good night sleep, by the time I was gone there were only Gaurav, Ambika, Abu and Kamlesh were awake, I have no clue when would they have gone to sleep.

The tents were cold and wet by the dew drops but as I was so tired I think I caught up with some good sleep. Early morning I heard few people speaking in local language of Kannada, I realised it was the coach who was asking Harish and Santosh to wake us up all. I really didn’t want to get out of the tent so I pretended I was still asleep. The funny thing happened when someone said there is only tea and no coffee and I screamed from inside for getting the coffee in Kannada and I realised everyone were laughing at me for this very incident. For the love of coffee, I had to wake up and get out of the tent.

Little did I know something amazing was waiting outside for us? The dawn was beautiful beyond its limits, the rising sun and its reflection on the water was mesmerising. The moving waves on the surface of water were so picturesque. 

The chirping sound of birds and cold breeze was breath taking. Nature in itself was so inviting, relaxing and comforting that I wanted the time to stop for a little longer. It was the best ending of the trip. I and Jacqui also had a last minute motor boat ride to the military camp and were astonished by the beauty of nature. The rocks were shining by the reflection of sun light falling on it, there were multiple chameleons on the rocks changing and adapting themselves as that of the colour of the rocks, making it so difficult to trace them.

We came back from the trip the same morning, all of us tired but rejuvenated. We all needed this break. Thanks to all my team folks and Gaurav for this amazing time. Cheers!

Really? Who should get the credit?

While I am like every other Indian feeling so proud of the milestone achieved by the team at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for setting a record of creating history by becoming the first country in the world for entering the Mars orbit at its maiden attempt, I am at the same time deeply saddened looking at our political parties on creating nuances and drama about which party should be given the credit and looking at the cat fights between the activists of BJP and Congress. I watched the show on Timesnow last evening and felt so very ashamed to see two well-known activists fighting like cats and dogs over why the Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not mention former PM Manmohan Singh’s name in the courtesy list. For heaven sake why should be there such kind of talks?

Along with me, I believe every sensible citizen of India must be surprised at this ridiculous act and mindset of these people. For when the entire nation should unite and rejoice the victory of the scientists and swell with pride, these good for nothing people come forward to seek attention and verbalize all nonsense just to make their presence felt and make points which are seamlessly irrelevant. My opinion and words could be brutal but this is the frustration that is bound to be shown.

The real leader is not the one who divides but the one who brings people together, one who doesn’t fight to get the credit but the one who ensures that the mission is accomplished giving no importance to who gets the credit, because action speaks louder than words and empty vessels always make more noise. So, you politicians for today you are not our heros, our heros are those who worked day and night to make this possible with stringent budgets and worked against many odds. They inspire us and motivate us to think and achieve which seems impossible. Moreover, to see the flip side I think it is good that you behaved the way you did, because it is an eye opener for us the citizens to know how injudicious and imprudent our politicians are who are not worth being at the position where they are.