After having our product being released last week, the organization decided for some team building activities. With various teams opting for different places, our choice was Shristi Adventure camp. This camp provides outdoor activities for various programs like team building, leadership qualities etc.

 It is located at Tumkur Road almost 60 km away from the city. This is a one day camp and we were asked to pick any one of the days from Friday to Monday. As none of the teams were interested in camping on weekends, Monday was our choice. As always Monday mornings are blue, I struggled to wake up at 5.30 and managed to reach office in time. Delayed start due to few people & the increasing appetite for food, made the 2 hours of bus journey very boring. Anyways we guys boarded the mapillai bench & had a nice nap. Once we reached we found the place was deserted & gave the feel of jungle. Few kms of walk through the forest, we reached the camp. It is a private property covering 56 hectares maintained for adventure camps & team building activities. Breakfast was served & we had our tummies full.

Now its time for some activities. The entire group was divided into 3 teams & activities were planned such that points were allotted for each activity. The events are spider web, Island hopping, Parallel Bridge crossing & pipeline. At first sight, it seemed to be boring & nothing to do with team building. But once we started doing it ,it was full fun & enthusiasm with each one developing a strategy to handle the problem. Me & vijay (my teammate) came out with a different approach in Island hopping, ended up injuring the knees of the instructor :( After completing each activity, juice was provided, as though we did something useful. The facilitators wanted us to be hydrated every now & then. Last event was the mountain hiking where we covered almost the entire place walking for 2 hrs. The scenic view of the mountains & the lake were the best parts of the trek. Our team won by scoring maximum points. It was a nice experience altogether having fun & entertainment for the whole day accompanied by some good food. This was my first trekking experience & I really enjoyed it. Expecting a few more treks in 2009 ...

Cheers,
Prem.

With almost 3 months of stay in bangalore Life was boring and mechanical.Home and office were our daily routine.All the weekends we either used to sleep or visit the nearby shopping malls to pass time.So we decided to take a break. This time it was adventure sports the PARA-SAILING.

We had no clue of what this sport is to be. We googled for more info and the registration form read you must register five days prior to this event.Since it was someday in the mid week our plan got cancelled. So we registered for the next week. Para sailing is conducted in HOSKOTE lake. None of us knew how to get to hoskote , so we phoned up the instructor and got the directions. It was really a tough task to wake up at 7 but I managed to do it & we started off at 8 am. We took the bus to marathalli from BTM water tank. It was just 15 mins of journey in the early morning with no traffic on sundays. From there we went to KR puram cable bridge bus stand. As per plans we boarded a 316 bus and took tickets for stop next to mandore. Hancharahalli is the place I guess.

We reached there at 9.30 and were really hungry. All we could do is to fill our tummies with tender coconut as no hotels were there. On the right was our expected landmark Andrew wood craft and we walked straight. The route to hoskote lake was pretty interesting. We took up the straight road as suggested by the villagers.No parashutes were found on air yet we moved believing that we have taken the right path. And finally we were there at HOSKOTE lake. To our surprise Hoskote is a dry lake with few goats nd buffaloes grazing around. There is no such registration process as well. we were the only participants over there. Declaration forms needs to be filled before taking the flight. Its just the formality that comes with every sporting activity.This is how it works, The parachute is hooked to the person and a long rope is attached to the person with other end of the rope being attached to the jeep. With the favourable wind conditions it lifts the person when the jeep is acclerated and you will gain height. It was my turn. Me being afraid of heights , it was really a great thrill to para sail.

Prayed to all the kulatheivams that nothing bad should happen. There is nothing to worry about since there are few trained professionals. With the general rule lesser the weight greater is the height I was going much higher and higher. This is the time. You are up in the air , flying like a bird , clicking the aerial view at an altitude of 300 meters above the ground level. I was just shouting screaming and enjoyin the flight. But all joy lasted for only 2 minutes.I wished it could have been a few more minutes in air. 350 bucks is quite large sum for just 2 minutes but it was a different experience cum adventure altogether.It was not as adrenalin pumping as expected. Dont forget to visit the rose gardens that are well maintained on the way to lake. The parasailers are planning to organise an event in december in which the proposed height factor is 600 meters and charge is 500 bucks. If anyone is really interested here is the contact number of the instructor 9886797597 (Neeraj is his name) .Gonna try bungee jumping next...

Cheers,
Prem.