One weekend of adventure sports, 40 MBA students from XLRI (THE élite business school in India), a team of hardened Nepalese instructors... and one misfit, dastardly British lad, all white knobbly knees and no coordination. A televisual classic.
First two days
On the first day, we faced a series of teamwork/leadership exercises, at which we failed abundantly...
Final day: improvised rafting
'The action and thrills of Gladiators set at the pace of One Man and His Dog.'
Here are some photos to prove that it actually happened. My abundant thanks go to the instructors and Rowdy* MBA students who took me under their wings, made me feel so welcome and shared so many good times with me. (*Quick Gun Murugun reference.)
Here I am... out of place as ever.
Me and the instructors
Alok and me
First two days
The wakeup was at 5am, with a consolatory chai if you made it in time, which I never did. But the views over the paddy fields in the morning mist were spectacular.
The views in the daytime were amazing too.
On the first day, we faced a series of teamwork/leadership exercises, at which we failed abundantly...
The following day brought and assault course, rockclimbing, abseiling and orienteering.
Our rocky playground
My team
Final day: improvised rafting
And on the final day, improvised rafting on the nearby Dimna Lake. The challenge was simple*: the teams of 8 were to construct a vessel from an inventory comprising 5 large inflatable tyres, a set of bamboo poles and some twine, cross to the other side of the lake (with only 6 men rowing; the other 2 were essentially), touch the flag and return triumphantly to the starting point.
[*The obvious qualification being that the instructions were in garbled Hindi, of which I understood little, perhaps to the ultimate demise of my team.]
My team took a rather novel approach to the speed-vs-stability balance, tying the 5 tyres in a line. The resulting canoe was was a masterpiece in streamlining.
And so the race proceeded. Our opponents' pentagonal tyre design required less time to assemble than our agile beast of a vessel, permitting them to take to the water earlier. Yet, once on the water, we surpassed our opponents, reaching the other side first.
The other teams, doing it properly
However, at the crucial turnover point, three - yes, three! (myself included) - of our team disembarked, and the result was a catastrophe. The sudden instability caused the front portion of our vessel to capsize, pivoting at the point where we had joined the bamboo poles (an oversight in design, no less). The damage proved ultimately irreparable: after two valiant attempts to reconstruct the raft and continue our path, we finally conceded our defeat halfway across the lake.
And to add to the indignity, when our raft partially capsized for the last time, I was caught with at the point of torsion, with my legs straddling the ruptured bamboo joint.
'My shouts of "Don't move - the bamboo will rip my balls off!" echoed eerily across the Dimna valley.'
