In June NalandaWay decided to have its first off-site team
building trip. The vision was to go
trekking in Kodaikanal, camp outdoor and have surprise team building activities
sprinkled in between.
Beautiful Kodai
DAY 1: Reached Kodai
with a lot of bonhomie. An hour’s drive from the city was our base camp. The plan was to start trekking before noon,
but there was no sight of our trekking guide for what seemed like an eternity.
When he finally turned up and we took our first steps, the skies opened
up. We scurried to our vehicles for the
rain to abate. After about 30 minutes,
with just a light drizzle and with garbage bags as raincoats we resumed the
trek. Barely 10 minutes into the trek
there was a blood curling shriek from one of the female employees as she
spotted leeches on her legs. From that
moment it was pandemonium galore. We
were told to walk fast, aka run, and not mind the leeches. There was running, crying and shrieking in a
continuous cycle. The path seemed endless, we turned back mid way to repeat the
cycle of running, crying and shrieking.
Not all were crying and shrieking, but surely everyone ran for their
lives.
We tumbled back on the road with feet, legs covered with
leeches that had came out after the rains.
There was a frantic effort to pull them off. Blood was trickling down our legs like sweat
after an intense run. A scene out of a comic
horror movie.
We made our way back to the camp in heavy downpour. There was shed acting as make-shift kitchen with its
sides open. We huddled around cooking fire in the ‘kitchen’ with no
electricity. We were wet, bleeding with leech bites, but we sang, swapped
stories, and played dumb charades. Retired into tents for a listless sleep.
Our bedrooms
DAY 2: Following a sumptuous breakfast, we started our trek to
a waterfall. It had the promise of swim,
bath, and washing of previous day’s nightmare. We walked for over one hour only to realise we
had just reached the point of descend, and boy, did we descent. Steep, very steep and rocky, inducing
acrophobia and never ending. Then the downpour
– dense and causing landslides. We scurried yet again and huddled in a room at a farm used for drying garlic. There
we were, packed in that room full of garlic, eating rusk and mixture, watching
the guide doze off wondering what did we get into.
Once the rain abated a show of hands to continue or return
had a majority opting to continue. With
this decision came new challenges. One,
as we learnt from day 1, leeches would be out post rains. Two, the ground turned slippery and we were
in flip flops. Three, most significantly, the guide did not seem to know the
best way to get to the waterfall.
We resumed nevertheless.
Our boss was leading the way on a slippery descent. He fell.
We were in a single file behind him. Everyone stopped mid
way amidst walking falling, taking a step or drinking water. There was absolute silence. His left arm was twisted at the elbow in an
angle that can be described as alarming.
No more choices. We had to get back to sanity and civilization at the
earliest. Boss made an arduous climb up with
a staff and local help to a hospital in Kodaikanal. While rest make a painful
climb back.
Before the fall, during the descend
Chief Operating Officer decided enough of drama and made us pack
up from the camp. Kodaikanal city here
we come! We find the boss in the city with his arm looking normal, in pain but
in good spirits.
Phew!
DAY 3: Walked around the city, ate, talked, ate, talked,
slept and left for home sweet home.
Happy to be getting back
A sizable staff was new, a few working from Delhi,
Coimbatore and Andhra Pradesh. In 3 days
we learnt more about one another than months at work. We saw each other tested, troubled, resilient
and strong. What better team building
than a trip with misadventures?
