Rediscovering Myself !

Last week, I had a chance to go for an adventure trip. As I had already mentioned in my previous blogs, a 3 day adventure is part of the GMP course and is mandatory for all students here. My turn was to go with 32 other souls last Friday.

We landed up at the adventure spot at 8 in the morning and after breakfast started with couple of management games. Then came in obstacle clearing which is more on the lines of whats done in Army' SSB interviews, there is monkey crawl, a tarzan rope, move from tyres, crawling through barbed wire cave and others. In the evening we were shown video from 1984 Mt Everest expedition.

The next day we started with obstacles again and then followed by rock climbing and caving. Even by a conservative estimate, the rocks would have been 100 ft tall with varying amount of steepness thrown in. The caving ensured that one had to crawl in different anatomical positions ! In second half, we did treasure hunt and rock down sailing. The down sailing was from a rock 70 ft high.

The third day, we went to Dimna Lake and did rafting followed by making our own boat and then sailing it through the waters.

All these days,
- we slept in tent without any mat or fan and had to depend on mother Earth for air,
- drank water from hand pump, no bisleri thrown in,
- were allocated utensils and had to bring for food e'time and also wash them after each use,
- eat just rice with fixed rotis and cooked vegetables/dal with no scope of local kiryana to buy something else.
- without any bath for 2 days,
- get up at 5 and sleep at 9, different matter though that not all could sleep 8 hrs.
- go for loo in open trenches !

Now, if it scares you, it did scare me as well when I heard my previous batch tell about their experiences. But as you go through, it makes you mentally tough. As Bachendri Pal told us that this trip is not about your physical prowesness but about your mental strength. Everybody can work in comfortable conditions but only people with mental toughness can survive in adverse conditions. [Bachendri Pal was the first Indian lady to climb Mt Everest and is the chairperson of the TSAF, the group which organized our trip. She came in the first day and addressed us all].

When I look back, I don't think I had imagined that I would be able to do all these activites. To be honest, I was actually thinking of a suitable reason to abstain if need arises. But somehow, I not only managed to complete all of the activities but also completed in allotted time ! Its fun to think how could I climb down a 70 feet wall with ropes or how could I sail through a boat that I have created in water which is 100 ft deep or how could I crawl in a cave which is barely tall for me to lie down. And thats why I say 'Rediscovering Myself' !!!


Coming Up Next- Photographs from the trip !