The Reach Camp - our very own Amazing Race in Goa. Actually it was better than the Amazing Race because there was no selection of people who would take part in it. Everyone had to be part of the race. Why? Because this was our last training activity at our Off-site of '08.
The race was quite simple - everyone would get dropped of at a common spot and each team (all Pinstormers were already split into 12 teams, each consisting of between 7 to 9 people) along with the 'Outdoor Expert' (OE) would have to travel from one point to another across Goa. Sounds simple doesn't it. It actually is easy except that there were a few 'catches' -
1) Each team member was given 1 packet of Tiger biscuits
2) Each team member was given 1 litre of water
3) Each team member was given Rs.20
4) Each team was given 1 map.
5) Only 1 mobile phone per team was allowed and this couldn't be used except to call the organizers and find the next destination to get to once we were at our destination.
6) There was a time limit of 19 hours from the drop off to the final destination.
7) At no point in time was any member of the team to be separated from the group.
Think 19 hours is a lot? Well not for 80 kilometers. Yup 80 kms was the distance we had to cover with only a few packets of biscuits and few litres of water. Of course water and biscuits could be purchased as could accommodation but really what can you do with Rs.140 -Rs.160 for 7-8 people? The organizers were a little nice to us and said that we could buy from them water, biscuits and blankets (remember 19 hours) for discounted rates.
So at around 5:30 P.M. we go dropped to our drop off point and were given our first stop of the race which was at least a distance of 8 kms. Obviously most of us thought we had to walk the race and figure out ways to find cheap travel means etc but then our OE very correctly told us that we could decide. We could walk, take a bus, hitch a ride, run or do whatever we liked to get to the spot. Well obviously we decided hitching a ride is the best thing to do. And obviously every other team decided the same. So here we are on this road, some 100 odd people, all pointing their thumbs outs for a ride. Big city people and some foreigners too screaming out to truck drivers the location of where we wanted to go.
Now the post talks about my team specifically and what happened to us. I don't remember the names of all the places we stopped at but it's the journey that counts. My team consisted of Netra, Savita, Jigar, Manish, Jayant, Vinod and myself and not to forget our OE, Rahul. The guy is a hardcore mountaineer. I believe he has led expeditions to the Himalayas.
So the first van that stops for us, is filled with 6 - 7 people already but the driver tells us to get on. Now that van could had taken about 3 people more but guess how many jumped in...yup 8. Crazy ride with Rahul and Vinod standing on the edge of the van and holding on for dear life. Okay that's a little exaggeration but if they did slip, it would be major injuries for sure. Man I have been in cramped cars many times but never like this. The poor people who were already sitting inside couldn't understand what the hell was happening. The were more like village people and couldn't understand what we meant by a race/competition and having no money and only biscuits and a long distance to cover.
Anyway they were great. I bet they were super happy when we got off at our stop. We gave hearty thanks to the driver and he just kept laughing.
We saw another team just in front of us getting into a mini truck and we ran to catch them. While running I was on the phone with Shekhar (organizer) asking him which is the next stop. By the time me and the OE got to the truck, a huge fight was happening amongst some members of my team and the team members who were already in the mini truck. Oh the other team was super nasty but like they say, all if fair in love and war. So they drove off and we started all over again to stick our thumbs out.
We got into this Sumo and it was brilliant cause this guy was going in the same direction that we had to go and therefore ended up dropping us at 4 stops. Yipeee. Of course each time we got to a stop, all of us had to get off and make the man wait till we got the name of the next stop. He was a nice man. An electoral officer if I remember correctly. By the time he dropped us off, I bet he wasn't thinking nice things about us hehe. At hearing what he was doing he expressed the same sentiment that ALL our drivers who understood what we were doing expressed. That of confusion at how a company can set up such a task and how they can let us out loose in Goa with no money and such a long task.
Well we went on like this for quite a while, some times ahead of teams, sometimes behind teams. The few things that everyone in the team did for the first time which we never thought we would do were -
1) Ride inside a truck - with the driver and his assistants
2) Ride on coconuts - yup a truck was transporting coconuts and we just got on top of them
3) Being drive around by a millionaire in his Maruti SX4
Well my team and Balas team finished the whole race and got to the last point. All the other teams did not have that privilege because the cops found a couple of teams hitching ride and were not amused. I mean they were pissed because Goa after 10 can be quite deserted especially some of the roads that were on our course. And hitching rides especially in trucks isn't really safe. So the game had to be stopped and all the team except both that were already at the last spot were gathered at the Hanuman Mandir and were transported back by the organizers cars and some that were being hired. Unfortunately for the 2 teams that finished, they had to start walking back towards the hotel. Trust me having finished the race and sitting on the sidewalk for an hour and a half and seeing nearly no traffic pass by, to be told that we have to walk back to the hotel cause there are problems with the cops and the other teams, was not fun. Both teams figured that finally we would have to do that which we didn't do much of in the whole race - walk for an hour or two. But what can I say, fortune favours the brave. After about 10 - 15 minutes of walking, we found a mini-bus come along our way. And the driver dropped us to our hotel. Of course he got paid for it.
Anyway great learning from the whole activity. For all those who were involved. Some of the most important lessons from the race are those that apply to nearly everything in life.
1) We all go into the race thinking it would be the worse thing on earth and impossible to complete. It wasn't. It was way easier than we expected and a lot more fun that we thought possible. Life is always different from behind the start line. Only once you start running do you see things as they really are. Being uselessly worried about things before you know enough to be worried is foolish and unproductive
2) Our preconceived notions can we things that hold us back. Every single person in the race was amazed at how helpful the people of Goa were. No one entered the race believing that we would get the kind of help we go. I mean most of us as a strategy decided to stop trucks because car owners would say no to us. Or so we wrongly though. I heard of teams that got up to 8 members into Santro's and Maruti 800's.
3) No matter what you do and how you do it, you are creating an experience. A memory. It will stay with you for life (unless you get Amnesia or something). And each of these memories will be cherished when you look back at them (provided of course they are good memories and that nothing horrible happened to you)
4) If you work together and really hard, you can surpass anyones expectations. We had up to 19 hours to finish the race. The teams that did finish the race did it within 7 hours. Not one single person in any group thought about where they would stop and rest for the night. Even at 11 a lot of tired teams decided only to push further rather than stop for the night and start in the morning.
The race was quite simple - everyone would get dropped of at a common spot and each team (all Pinstormers were already split into 12 teams, each consisting of between 7 to 9 people) along with the 'Outdoor Expert' (OE) would have to travel from one point to another across Goa. Sounds simple doesn't it. It actually is easy except that there were a few 'catches' -
1) Each team member was given 1 packet of Tiger biscuits
2) Each team member was given 1 litre of water
3) Each team member was given Rs.20
4) Each team was given 1 map.
5) Only 1 mobile phone per team was allowed and this couldn't be used except to call the organizers and find the next destination to get to once we were at our destination.
6) There was a time limit of 19 hours from the drop off to the final destination.
7) At no point in time was any member of the team to be separated from the group.
Think 19 hours is a lot? Well not for 80 kilometers. Yup 80 kms was the distance we had to cover with only a few packets of biscuits and few litres of water. Of course water and biscuits could be purchased as could accommodation but really what can you do with Rs.140 -Rs.160 for 7-8 people? The organizers were a little nice to us and said that we could buy from them water, biscuits and blankets (remember 19 hours) for discounted rates.
So at around 5:30 P.M. we go dropped to our drop off point and were given our first stop of the race which was at least a distance of 8 kms. Obviously most of us thought we had to walk the race and figure out ways to find cheap travel means etc but then our OE very correctly told us that we could decide. We could walk, take a bus, hitch a ride, run or do whatever we liked to get to the spot. Well obviously we decided hitching a ride is the best thing to do. And obviously every other team decided the same. So here we are on this road, some 100 odd people, all pointing their thumbs outs for a ride. Big city people and some foreigners too screaming out to truck drivers the location of where we wanted to go.
Now the post talks about my team specifically and what happened to us. I don't remember the names of all the places we stopped at but it's the journey that counts. My team consisted of Netra, Savita, Jigar, Manish, Jayant, Vinod and myself and not to forget our OE, Rahul. The guy is a hardcore mountaineer. I believe he has led expeditions to the Himalayas.
So the first van that stops for us, is filled with 6 - 7 people already but the driver tells us to get on. Now that van could had taken about 3 people more but guess how many jumped in...yup 8. Crazy ride with Rahul and Vinod standing on the edge of the van and holding on for dear life. Okay that's a little exaggeration but if they did slip, it would be major injuries for sure. Man I have been in cramped cars many times but never like this. The poor people who were already sitting inside couldn't understand what the hell was happening. The were more like village people and couldn't understand what we meant by a race/competition and having no money and only biscuits and a long distance to cover.
Anyway they were great. I bet they were super happy when we got off at our stop. We gave hearty thanks to the driver and he just kept laughing.
We saw another team just in front of us getting into a mini truck and we ran to catch them. While running I was on the phone with Shekhar (organizer) asking him which is the next stop. By the time me and the OE got to the truck, a huge fight was happening amongst some members of my team and the team members who were already in the mini truck. Oh the other team was super nasty but like they say, all if fair in love and war. So they drove off and we started all over again to stick our thumbs out.
We got into this Sumo and it was brilliant cause this guy was going in the same direction that we had to go and therefore ended up dropping us at 4 stops. Yipeee. Of course each time we got to a stop, all of us had to get off and make the man wait till we got the name of the next stop. He was a nice man. An electoral officer if I remember correctly. By the time he dropped us off, I bet he wasn't thinking nice things about us hehe. At hearing what he was doing he expressed the same sentiment that ALL our drivers who understood what we were doing expressed. That of confusion at how a company can set up such a task and how they can let us out loose in Goa with no money and such a long task.
Well we went on like this for quite a while, some times ahead of teams, sometimes behind teams. The few things that everyone in the team did for the first time which we never thought we would do were -
1) Ride inside a truck - with the driver and his assistants
2) Ride on coconuts - yup a truck was transporting coconuts and we just got on top of them
3) Being drive around by a millionaire in his Maruti SX4
Well my team and Balas team finished the whole race and got to the last point. All the other teams did not have that privilege because the cops found a couple of teams hitching ride and were not amused. I mean they were pissed because Goa after 10 can be quite deserted especially some of the roads that were on our course. And hitching rides especially in trucks isn't really safe. So the game had to be stopped and all the team except both that were already at the last spot were gathered at the Hanuman Mandir and were transported back by the organizers cars and some that were being hired. Unfortunately for the 2 teams that finished, they had to start walking back towards the hotel. Trust me having finished the race and sitting on the sidewalk for an hour and a half and seeing nearly no traffic pass by, to be told that we have to walk back to the hotel cause there are problems with the cops and the other teams, was not fun. Both teams figured that finally we would have to do that which we didn't do much of in the whole race - walk for an hour or two. But what can I say, fortune favours the brave. After about 10 - 15 minutes of walking, we found a mini-bus come along our way. And the driver dropped us to our hotel. Of course he got paid for it.
Anyway great learning from the whole activity. For all those who were involved. Some of the most important lessons from the race are those that apply to nearly everything in life.
1) We all go into the race thinking it would be the worse thing on earth and impossible to complete. It wasn't. It was way easier than we expected and a lot more fun that we thought possible. Life is always different from behind the start line. Only once you start running do you see things as they really are. Being uselessly worried about things before you know enough to be worried is foolish and unproductive
2) Our preconceived notions can we things that hold us back. Every single person in the race was amazed at how helpful the people of Goa were. No one entered the race believing that we would get the kind of help we go. I mean most of us as a strategy decided to stop trucks because car owners would say no to us. Or so we wrongly though. I heard of teams that got up to 8 members into Santro's and Maruti 800's.
3) No matter what you do and how you do it, you are creating an experience. A memory. It will stay with you for life (unless you get Amnesia or something). And each of these memories will be cherished when you look back at them (provided of course they are good memories and that nothing horrible happened to you)
4) If you work together and really hard, you can surpass anyones expectations. We had up to 19 hours to finish the race. The teams that did finish the race did it within 7 hours. Not one single person in any group thought about where they would stop and rest for the night. Even at 11 a lot of tired teams decided only to push further rather than stop for the night and start in the morning.
2 comments:
This sounds fun
Haha it was after it was over. Before and during it, I didn't enjoy it much :P
Post a Comment