What A Sports Day It Was...

'Overwhelmed with joy and a high sense of satisfaction' - that's the state of my mind (or heart?) as the much awaited Sports Day comes to an end. It was a perfect example of teamwork where many hands came together to make the event a grand success. After multiple failed attempts in the beginning of the year, I handed over the baton to my friend to take the tradition ahead as I quit Aspiring Minds. And as I rejoined this month, what could be a more befitting welcome back event than that very Sports Day which evaded me for so long. 

It was six months of planning that resulted in the culmination of this event. But being engineers, we strictly followed the 80-20 rule as majority of the work happened in the last one month. After two months of waiting for my rib fracture to set and another couple of months of merely thinking and saying - 'Karenge. Karenge. Hum Organize Karenge Sports Day', Vishal finally started exploring venue options a month back. Along with his R&D minions, he scavenged the internet for all possible options - from school grounds to farmhouses,and sports academies to colleges. But it was no simple task. If the venue was perfect in terms of amenities, it was located far or the cost was beyond the budget. If the price was within limits, the venue did not have all sporting facilities. Finally, it was the same venue that we got last year - but only after multiple refusals and price negotiations. And it was finalized just in time, because if we had skipped this date, then nothing could have happened for the next 3 months owing to the chilly winters in Delhi. Finally, that day was here for Vishal when he would actually Sports Day Organize karenge. Alas! How did it happen, I wonder? Is it because of his 'Team Lead'-ership skills? Or should I think, that his 'status-update' in life has made him more of a doer than a thinker... :D

In the morning, I got up at 7 and rushed out to the balcony to see how the weather looked like. The sight of a clear sky with no fog cheered me up. It meant that people just had to fight against one resistance - their own laziness to get out of their beds brazing the chillness in the air. Cloudy skies and foggy mornings could have pushed you back inside your quilt thinking that no one would come so early in the morning. Vishal, I and couple of his punctual minions, Arpit and Unnam reached the venue by 8-45 AM. We had 15 minutes to set things up before the event could kick-start.

But to our dismay, the venue was a bit of a let down. The sports academy we tied up with, were not as professional as the ones who organized it last year. There were no markings on the ground, the football goal-posts did not have nets, there was no hand-pump to fill air in football, the badminton net height was lower than the norm and the ceiling was also low being a constant hindrance to high shots. With so many shortcomings, one would readily assume the event is going to be a failure leaving the employees dissatisfied. But it's not the place but the people and their mindset/attitude that makes the difference in giving a quality experience. We had highly motivated set of organizers whose focus was on getting the sport organized, no matter what. There was no dwelling on trivialities. Despite being part of multiple sports, many of them took out time to officiate and time matches - Shobhit Jain, Mayank Awasthi, Abhishek Unnam, Abhishek Pandit, Nishant Thakur, Aditi Bajpai. We also had people helping us with photography from time to time - Piyush Bansal, Jaspreet, Abhishek Unnam and Nikhil Aneja. 

What was the result of all this effort? A day well spent with your office colleagues, strengthening bonds both within and across teams. This year's event was way better than last year's despite the venue letdown. That's the difference teamwork can make. We were able to organize all the sports for which we paid unlike last year when Football was neglected. We could complete all the league matches and conduct the finals for every sport while this was not possible in any sport except Volleyball/Throwball last year. Athletics had greater participation and lemons/spoons din't go unused this time. Food wastage was minimal and there was no injury and very few fights. Sportsmanship largely prevailed barring one or two instances. 

No matter how much you plan, and how well you organize, things could go haywire, if you have a bad audience. I think every employee contributed in the success in their own way. They were all cooperative, understanding and patient. There was no hurry to play any sport, people were willing to wait for their turn. Food boxes were not strewn around, they were responsible enough to pile them up at a single place. People helped each other, embraced each other, cheered each other, mocked each other and rarely did they shove, hit or kick each other (though Vishal tried hard in Basketball :D). The best part was - Zero abuses!  unless my ears have gone immune to them, living in Delhi. Can you imagine sports without sledging? But that's how it was! The proof of the pudding lies in people's reaction when they leave. Many shook hands, some appreciated, some thanked, some smiled and some congratulated. Friends and family who accompanied the employees went back impressed. 

On the personal front, I din't do too bad either. I could save myself from getting emotionally dragged into arguments and fights. Staying away from cricket umpiring was a wise choice, badminton was far easier to officiate. Unlike last year, I got to play for a considerable time and at peace without having to worry about what to organize and how. There were cheers and not jeers as I ran at top speed in the 100 m heats. I felt like I was just 20 rather than 30! :D  Spent considerable time on the crease in cricket with a couple of boundaries and a good partnership with Vishal. We retained our gold medal in the relay race from last year. In Badminton, we advanced two rounds before bowing out in the semifinals - quite a decent performance given our lack of practice. But the best partnership of all was our tag-team execution of the event. Vishal's calm-and-cool planning, with a consultative and fair approach coupled with my organizational skills and silent work in the background did the trick. Above all, our unquestioning trust in each others' decisions was the key to a successful collaborative event execution. Hopefully, we should be able to wrap it up in style, with medal distribution and a newsletter release on the event. 

The icing on the cake, was an early dinner post the event, with four of the best people in my life. It had been a while since we had met like this and taken out group-time. No worries about getting late for home, none of us was missing or lost (in thoughts), no office talks, no project delivery, no phone-calls (or Instagram). Just our own sweet time of chit-chat, leg-pulling and revisiting the year that's gone by. 

All is well that ends well. My best ten minutes of the day were outside the Hanuman Mandir at Connaught Place where I distributed the leftover bananas. More than 30 homeless and underprivileged surrounded me and scrambled for their share of bananas. Before getting there, I was wondering if all the bananas would be consumed and decided to distribute 2 each so that I don't have to take back any. But as soon as I saw the crowd, I realized I would not be able to provide for all even if I had given only half each. The lucky firsts got their booty while many returned empty-handed and dejected. That left a void within me and on hindsight, I felt that I could have got the leftover biscuit packets also for distribution. 

I had no intention of visiting the temple, I was too tired and wanted to head back home and crash in my bed. But as I was about to leave, I heard a sadhu singing loudly outside the temple - 'Mera Apki Kripa Se Sab Kaam Ho Rha Hai'. That infused a sense of gratitude within me because these words were so true. If not for the lord's blessings, how could have we pulled off such a massive event without any glitches. So, I went inside to pay my obeisance to my lord - Hanuman and after having a peaceful darshan, my lord blessed me and showed me that he was indeed pleased as I happened to be the last person to receive the bhog/prashad for the day while ten others standing behind me were unfortunately not as lucky as me. 

"Pathwaar ke bina hi, meri naav chal rhi hai 

Hairan hai zamaana, manzil bhi mil rhi hai

Karta nhi mein kuch bhi, Sab kaam ho rha hai

Karte ho tum kanhaiya, Mera naam ho rha hai..."

Push Your Limits @Devil’s Circuit

Push Your Limits @Devil’s Circuit

Have you ever imagined crossing a pool filled with ice? The mere thought could send chills down your spine. How about crawling across a swampy land under a barbed fence, only to end up in a muddy disguise when you reach the other side? Ever wanted to jump from tree to tree with the help of a rope like Tarzan or Mowgli? Do you think you can cross a pool of water by running on floating blocks of thermocol? If you are thinking - ‘Wow! How interesting!’, then you would have had super fun had you participated in Devil’s Circuit.

Devil’s Circuit is a 5 km obstacle run, a reality check on our physical fitness. Often, when I hear of such fitness events, my ‘right brain’ would have a strong urge to participate, but most often than not, the more rational ‘left brain’ takes over and convinces me to let it pass. “I have not practiced enough to be able to complete the challenge.” “My body is not fit to pull this off and I may fall ill if I strain myself.” “It is quite expensive; it does not make sense to pay for something in which you cannot give your best.” I can come up with a dozen other reasons to continue to be my lazy self whiling away my time in a sedentary lifestyle, reading books, watching movies and working on the laptop.

But Devil’s Circuit is different and it puts some of these ramblings of the mind to rest. Firstly, it is not a long run on a designated straight path, that, I find to be boring. This is an obstacle course that has 15 challenging hurdles, varying in difficulty and requiring different skills. Secondly, you could participate in either of the two categories – Competitive and Non-competitive. The Non-competitive format is not timed and you just have to complete the race; even if you are not able to clear every obstacle, it is perfectly fine. Lastly, it is easier to convince your friends for such an event than to coax them to participate in a marathon. And with friends’ company, even the toughest of the ordeals can be fun!

My friends are a bunch of quick decision makers who believe in spontaneity and just go with the flow. There are no ifs and buts. Within an hour’s discussion, we were all set to participate in the Devil’s Circuit challenge. We are a good mix of fit, partially-fit and unfit athletes. Let me introduce my friends to you.

Manpreet is a seasoned marathoner who has successfully completed several half marathons over the last 3 years; the most recent one being at a high altitude region in Leh. By far, he seemed to be the fittest among us. Bhanu is no less disciplined as far as fitness is concerned. Hailing from Rishikesh, he has spent his childhood climbing mountains and running on hilly terrains. Regular exercises and running have helped him build strong legs that Simar often compares to a delicious chicken leg piece. :P Simar is a mystery man who falls prey to neck spasms whenever he gyms for a week at a stretch. He is still struggling to build his fitness routine but has been sporadically consistent in hitting the gym in the last one year. Piyush is the dark horse, the source of inspiration for beginners like me. It has been a little over three months since he started going to the gym. But he has done well to bring discipline in his lifestyle both in terms of physical workout and maintaining a strict diet. He is a promising candidate for competitive fitness events in the future. The girls, Adi and Jassi are the new kids on the block. They have been attending fitness classes for the last couple of weeks, learning Aerobics and Zumba apart from lifting weights and undergoing functional training. In these two weeks, they have made good progress from being unable to climb stairs owing to muscle cramps on the first day to being active throughout the day now despite their early morning workouts. They are all set to raise the bar at the next edition of Devil’s Circuit. The only unfit person in the entire group is me. The only physical activity that I engage in, is playing a sport - cricket, football or badminton but that too, once in a fortnight, which amounts to nothing as far as building stamina is concerned. That’s one reason why I missed my accomplice, Vishal, who is probably the only other person in the group who is comparable to me in fitness level. We both make great plans of staying fit and end up exploring new restaurants every weekend. While I rely entirely on my height and long legs to put up a good show at such events, he trusts his body strength.

We had a pretty good start clearing the first two obstacles without much trouble – Slanted Rope Climb and Tunnel Walk. The first tough challenge was posed at the third obstacle – Vertical Climb, in which we had to climb a vertical wall that was 10 feet in height, with the help of a rope. There was a single step mid way and climbing up to that point was easy as your friends standing behind you are there to push you up. But for the second level jump, you are by your own self and unless you are able to lunge on to the rope to make the giant leap to the next level, it’s impossible to cross this hurdle. Aditi was stuck at the middle stage and we were clueless on how to proceed. But that’s when teamwork comes to rescue. Quickly, Piyush climbed up to the second stage using another rope and positioned himself well enough to pull her up while I was standing on the ground with both my hands stretched above me and clasped to create a footrest for her to step on. One, Two and Three… Up went Aditi on to the second stage and a sense of achievement ran through our nerves.

 Beyond the third stage, it was a mixed bag, some were easy to sail through while some were beyond reach. In some of the obstacles, I was so close, yet so far. Ladder Climb, Mud Crawl and Body Surfing were the easy ones. Monkey Crawl and Curved Surface Jump were difficult. You need upper body strength to be able to support your entire body weight with the help of your arms. In Monkey Crawl, I could manage only till midway before I fell into water. I was quite satisfied with my attempt on the Curved Surface Jump because twice I could jump and hang on to the bar but could not figure out on the right technique to get myself on to the top. I was too close to the finish line in Balanced Walk and Planks Crossing, just a step away, before my arms and legs gave up despite me constantly chanting ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’ J

The most eluding of all obstacles was the Tarzan Swing in which you have to cross a puddle by jumping on to a rope from one end and landing safe on the other side. While it seemed simple and straightforward, only Manpreet could clear this one while the rest of us went straight into water. One of the hard ones that I was able to complete was Cat Walk. Jassi put up a good fight on the Planks Crossing, not leaving with regrets of not having attempted it. The most impossible obstacle was Floating Blocks. Apparently, none from the non-competitive format could cross this obstacle and touching the third block was considered an achievement and some of us could just manage that. The icing on the cake was the last obstacle – Deep Freeze, crossing a pool of ice before your body grows numb and you freeze to death. None of us shied away from this one.

On the whole, it was an awesome experience, with lot of memories to take back. Devil’s Circuit was about teamwork and camaraderie among friends. It was about inspiring and motivating each other to touch the finish-line. It was about trying new things, breaking the shackles of doubt and pushing your limits. It was about ropes, nets, planks, walls and lots and lots of muddy water. Our performance was a testimony to our fitness levels. Bhanu and Manpreet performed the best leaving out only a couple of obstacles unfinished. They were closely followed by Simar and Piyush, while the girls and I finished at the bottom. Piyush reminded me of the story of a spider building its cobweb again and again even after being blown away by wind or destroyed by other means, demonstrating its perseverance and determination to achieve the final goal. At two of the obstacles, Piyush failed once, twice, thrice and many more times. But he did not give up until he conquered them at the end. Where there is a will, there is a way and I am sure I will also find my way to success like Piyush did, in my next year’s attempt. Similarly, Jassi did not want to leave the field with any regrets of not trying the Plank Crossing obstacle and she went back to it before our last hurdle to give it a shot. And she put up a brave fight to reach the mid way before she fell into Simar’s hands, who was walking alongside to protect her from falling straight into water.

                 

Everything was perfect, yet something was amiss. I was unable to figure out what until I recalled that there were no bald heads to soil with mud, no floating elephants to be spotted, no pandas rolling down the slope or lunging on to the rope. Yet I wonder how the Burma Bridge was broken down leaving us with only 14 obstacles to enjoy. We were short of a helping hand; there was a shoulder less to rest upon after each obstacle. A smiling face was missing in the crowd, our ears longed for those missing roars of laughter while making fun. We were short of a cheerleader to shout out ‘Come on! You can do it!’ Cute girls on the field missed out on impressing Mr. Sweet-talker. There was no stander-by in the after-event party, to be dragged on to the dance floor. But our photographs came out perfect with no distracted faces. We missed you, Vishal, and you keep feeling jealous on what all you missed out on. :D

Summary of our performance at Devil’s Circuit

Obstacle	Adi	Jas	Sid	Piyu	Simar	Manpreet	Bhanu	Vishal
Slanted Rope Climb	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	DNP
Tunnel Walk	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	DNP
Vertical Climb	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	DNP
Balanced Walk	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	DNP
Curved Surface Jump	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	DNP
Tarzan Swing	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	DNP
Ladder Climb	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	DNP
Monkey Crawl	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	DNP
Plank Crossing	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	DNP
Mud Crawl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	DNP
Floating Blocks	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	DNP
Cat Walk	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	DNP
Body Surfing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	DNP
Deep Freeze	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	DNP
Burma Bridge	Bye	Bye	Bye	Bye	Bye	Bye	Bye	DNP
Total	8	9	10	11	12	12	13	-
Next Year Target	Cross 10 mark and Attempt Floating Blocks	Cross 10 mark and Attempt Monkey Crawl	Cross 13 mark	Cross 13 mark	Participate in Competitive	Participate in Competitive	Participate in Competitive	Make your first appearance and give your best

Gone Wild at Camp Wild

Gone Wild at Camp Wild

“It is summer time right now, let’s plan it during winters.” “Let us try to go there around his birthday; it will be a nice surprise.” “There are hardly ten people in our circle of friends; we won’t get a good deal for such a small group.” “Other teams are not so interested in such an activity, let’s drop the idea.” “It’s too cold these days; I doubt people would get up so early.” “She is not in town this weekend; once she is back, she will be gone for two weeks.” “Winters are about to end, it’s going to be hot again. I don’t think we will ever be able to go to this camp. Sigh!”

After months of figuring out the best place, best price and best time, I was on the verge of giving up on the idea of going to an adventure camp in the outskirts of Delhi-NCR. It seemed harder than planning a usual weekend trip. But, thanks to Guneet’s relentless efforts, we successfully went to Camp Wild in Dhauj yesterday. She managed the entire show from end to end – managing communication with all stakeholders, getting confirmation from the different teams, negotiating the price with the camp personnel, arranging for transportation and getting final approvals from me and Vishal. For once, I was relaxed and did not have much to worry before an office event. However, it was unfortunate that she could not make it to the trip owing to a family emergency. 

This was my third adventure camp in the last 4 years. Earlier, I had been to Pratapgarh Farms and Botanix with two different groups. Pratapgarh Farms provides a village experience with village culture and social life built into its features and activities. It is a perfect day outing option for school kids and for families. They had activities like balloon shooting, dart board, camel ride, bullock cart ride, etc. There were no adventure activities or obstacle paths. Hence, I found it to be less fun. Nevertheless because it was my first such outing and I had good company of friends, it turned out to be a memorable one. Some interesting memories that I recall are finishing the sack race after multiple falls, dirtying our hands on the potter’s wheel, playing cricket and of course, laughing our hearts out while hitting each other with the softball in the game of Pithoo Garam. Botanix was a different experience all together. It was an adventure camp and hence more physically challenging. But the activities were few in number and soon we ran out of options that we ended up playing Chain – Chain till we fell tired and exhausted. The food was also okay.

Camp Wild was a perfect experience and by far the best of the three outings. The camp is set up in Dhauj, near Faridabad-Gurgaon border on a rocky landscape with hills and farms surrounding the campsite. There was absolutely no noise or pollution in this area and we were far away from the bustling city life. It is an hour’s journey from Iffco Chowk and on the way, we crossed the huge Hanuman statue which has just been built. The bus journey was uneventful with most of the time spent on navigation and yet we managed to get lost. The event was planned from 9 AM to 6 PM but we reached an hour late. The day at Camp Wild started with breakfast to fuel ourselves for the power-packed day. We had sandwiches, puri-sabzi, boiled eggs, bananas and lemonade. Meanwhile, Suraj, our group‘s adventure trainer/guide was making necessary arrangements to get us started. For the next 7 hours, we were at his command.

We were 30 people from across four teams – Content, Research, Software Development and SME Sales. An ice-breaker session was definitely needed as none of us knew all the other members of the group. Forget others, this time even I was clueless about the names of half of the people around me. Suraj did a great job in getting us acquainted with each other through a series of fun exercises and subsequent fun punishments to the defaulters. I defaulted twice and ended up performing duck-walk and Nagin dance on two different occasions. At the end of an hour’s drill, people started talking freely and engaged in good-natured banter with others whom they did not know until this morning. I was eagerly waiting for the adventure activities to begin but next in plan was a short hike outside the camp. Usually, such activities act a filler to kill time and they take you through artificially created paths. However, this experience was good as it was a steep climb on a natural course filled with rocks and boulders. There were cliffs where you could enjoy the view of the surrounding area and click pictures standing on the edge. While it was a cakewalk for me and my friends who have been on multiple hard treks, for first-timers and beginner level trekkers, it was a challenging trail draining them out on the uphill climb. Thankfully the weather was not too hot and the cool breeze saved them from exhaustion.

Now, it was time for some competition. We were divided into three teams and I tried to trick Suraj by asking him to let us make our own teams so that all Awesome Blossom folks could be together. But he chose random allocation by assigning numbers. I was still lucky to have Vishal and Jassi in the same group as mine but Adi and Piyush had to be in another team. We named our team – ‘The Pheonix’ with a corny slogan – ‘Oh Yeah’ which could mean many different things. We competed against ‘The Sinners’ and ‘The Alps’, both of whom had cleaner and meaningful slogans than ours. But we were proud with our choice as we like to be different. There were seven activities in all – Tarzan Swing, Burma Bridge, Commando Net, Balance Walk, Tunnel Walk, Monkey Crawl, and Cat Walk.

What followed in the next two hours of adventure was totally different from what I had expected. It was not about competition any longer, it was about collaboration. It was not about booing and sledging opponents, it was about lending a helping hand, a steady shoulder or even a head at times to your friends. It was not about letting physically unfit people to opt out of an activity but cheering them and pushing them to break their mental barriers. It was not about lowering the bar for girls, it was about proving their equality to boys in the true spirit. And lastly, it was not about condescending smirks at others’ expense but about having a hearty laugh together to cherish the funny acts of imbalance. Eventually who won, became inconsequential. Different teams won different rounds but ‘The Alps’ clearly dominated in all activities as they had the maximum  number of physically-fit team members. One of their team members, Shipra needs a special mention owing to her clean performance in each and every obstacle path.

It was time for a late lunch. We rushed to the cafeteria and hot lunch was awaiting us. The food was quite delicious and there was a variety of dishes – dal makhani, shahi paneer, mix veg, rice, breads, chicken curry, raita, and my favourite dessert – custard. The evening was meant for team building activities and other recreational sports. We chose to skip the sports activities as those can be played on a regular weekend as well. Suraj was more than happy to organize as many team games as possible until 6 PM. I was quite glad that everything was running smooth and I was in a peppy mood today all throughout. I think my own thoughts jinxed me when I picked up a trivial fight with Suraj on a rule of the first game. While it was not about losing the game but what put me off was the lack of clarity in the game rules. But as Vishal rightly said, we had got our chance to understand the nitty-gritty of the game during the trial round and hence Suraj was not at fault. I immediately realized that I was wrong but I stood by my stance like an adamant kid.

Even now, if I reflect on the incident, I could not think of one good reason for me to throw tantrums and walk out of the game on this trivial matter. I had a problem with the rule and that’s what I was stuck to. On deep reflection, I figured it was probably God’s message for me to look at my own mistakes before pointing a finger at others. It was earlier in the day when I was mocking about another guy in the group recalling his childish act during the Sports Day and now coming to think of it, I feel I was even worse off. I wonder what impression I would have given to the rest of my team and my colleagues. Being the senior-most member, I ought to have acted more responsibly. But as a saving grace, I did not have it my way at the end of the fight. Else, it would have been totally unfair giving people a reason to complain that the trainer had to give in owing to my clout.  I would have regretted that more as it would have gone against the overall spirit of the team and the activity. 

At such times, friends come to your rescue and so did my friends but not by supporting me and fighting with the trainer on my behalf. They knew I was wrong and they did not hesitate to express their opinion about the same. Good friends are not those who stand by your side even when you are grossly wrong just to reinforce wrong values and beliefs in you. Good friends are those who try to calm you down when you get angry unreasonably. Good friends are those who stop you and reprimand you to set you right. Good friends are those who reason out with you to show the other person’s perspective and try to put sense into your head. Good friends are those who make fun of you in light-hearted humour to ease the tension between you and the other person. And if you still don’t listen, your best friends would go a step ahead and beat you up till you understand because ‘Laathon ke bhoot baton se nahi maante.’ 

The rest of the evening was quiet for me as I was reflecting on my childish act, partly in anger and partly in shame. Giving due respect to my friends, I chose to participate in the rest of the events with the team spirit even if I was not proactive and vocally involved. The day ended with the Tug-of-War. It was six in the evening and all of us were totally exhausted. We quickly drank coffee/tea and ate our evening snacks before heading back to Gurgaon. At the end of the day, as a HR person, I was quite satisfied organizing this event as everyone was happy and cheerful. Smiling faces, happy hearts, worked-out bodies - that summarizes the final state of the team from Aspiring Minds.