Honey Valley (Coorg)
6th-7th November 2003
Team Building. The more white-collar the job gets, the more these activities are required. Has any one thought how many teams are there in a Factory? Only 2. Management and Workers. Its only this industry that there is no actual distinction between the two (introduction of "middle management") and hence this chaotic situation which necessitates such an exercise form time to time to sort things out. Such an exercise is actually a win-win-win exercise. The company benefits if that increases productivity of one team at least. The facilitators make good money and we the employees, at least have a paid vacation.
Honey Valley resort is located here on the Internet. It’s nothing but a private home of Mr Suresh Chengappa and his small little family. Standing on the balcony of his house, he almost owns everything you can see (People say...) and beyond too... Well, That kind of wealth does not reflect in the way he treats his guests. He is the most down to earth, honest and kind multi millionaire that I have ever met. His wife cooks for all his guests. Authentic Coorgi food. Um....
Flash Back. We left Bangalore half an hour later than scheduled. I again learnt that it is almost criminal to reach a rendezvous on time when there are about 25 people involved. We were 25 from HSS. 2 Trainers. 4 outdoor specialists from Born Free. We all took seats next to people we already knew. I don’t know if any of us made any effort to mingle with those whom we did not know... Team Building would start only in Coorg. The bus maintained a steady and comfortable pace. Music was interesting. Occasional breaks for input and output. As soon as the Sunset, it appeared as if the soul of Schumi had entered our Drivers body. He craftily waded thru considerable traffic on Mysore Road and entered the Coorg District. I fell asleep... At the end of my sleep, I was asked to alight the bus and board a Jeep. That was the first indication of how the next two days would be. Tough and hard, just like the terrain. Mandy was pretty excited with the four-wheel drive. At the end of 3 Kms, of excellent exhibition of power and control (of the Mahindra) we reached the residence of Mr Suresh Chengappa. Sheru and Moti greeted us with their inquisitive sniffs and approved us. Dinnertime. Sleep time. Day 0 ends.
Day 1. Started with a customary "know your friend" routine. How many times have we done this? I guess, this is how a psychologist says "Hello" to his customers. Next, Breakfast was fun. Bread Honey Jam, Puttu Ghee Chatney, Bread Honey Jam, Puttu Ghee Chatney and so on... Oh there was Tea / Coffee somewhere in the middle and Papaya and Oranges at the end. After relatively heavy breakfast, it was announced that as part of first team building exercise, there would be a trek to a mystery Water Falls. Two groups were formed who would converge half way to the Waterfall. Not much happened till the two teams met... I have intentionally skipped details of blindfold... for obvious reasons. Obviously one team had reached the meeting point ahead of the other and for that moment relished the thought that they were better than the other. Members of the other team thought they were more mature since they knew from the beginning that there was never a race. However, till now every body were happy in their own way. Some were busy clicking away photos of their latest achievement. Some were overwhelmed by their first encounter with a leech. Surprisingly nobody was cribbing... not yet.
The next task was to reach the Waterfall, together. The more immediate target was to reach a plain field. As a team with the usual dynamics... arguments... counter arguments and lot of guesswork we reached the plain field. No body (not even Bill Gates) knew “the road ahead”. Well, by mistake the facilitator, Mr Ramlingam asked us to find the falls our self. Honestly, since none of us knew anything about the terrain, that was like searching a needle in a haystack. Any, which way we went, would be a mere guess, as probable as any other (except the two ways we entered the plain). This was start of the real test. One group (say group 1) went in one direction. The other group (group 2) followed the Born Free facilitators. After a while, Group 1 got split again (call then Group 1.5). Group 1.5 hoped to quickly trace back to the plain and join Group 2. However, that was not to happen. Group 1.5 took a different route and was quickly lost among a labyrinth of goat paths, human tracks and what not. However, they kept on their course hoping to rejoin group 2 since they had the sight of waterfall all along. After a lot of discussion (I guess) Group 1.5 decided to hopefully trace back to the base camp and thank god for they actually made back in one piece. In the mean while, Group 2 enjoyed the glorious scenes of Western Ghats where each peak seemed to be higher than the other... Clouds kissing the top of each peak... looking like half dream half reality... Upar neela neela asmaan Aur neeche mandar ki cheek. Group 1 led by Mandar was crying aloud to get in touch with Group 2. After half an hour of heated exchanges and struggling thru thorny bushes, Group 1 finally re-united with Group 2. A 10 minutes jog from there, and we had the first sight of the waterfall. Somewhere between glorious and superb, is the word I am looking for. I like natural, untouched beauty – something exclusive and pure like our own little secret. Since the access to this falls was only through Mr Chengappa’s property, at least for the time being this was just what I would have desired. This falls, as far as I know did not have a name. That is one another thing that adds to the beauty of the falls… anonymity. Surrounding people have resisted the temptation of naming it… naming it after something, the falling water can never relate to. As such the waterfalls was pretty high. But the accessible part of the falls was not more than a couple of meters high. It formed a small pool at the bottom of it, from where the river continued ahead unaware of what a beauty it had been. Well, what followed was the best 30 minutes of the trip. Hooting, shouting, screaming… involuntary reaction to the cold water being sprayed on your bare body… Well, at this point I doubt any of us even thought about the 8 people missing. After 30 minutes of “Jal Kreeda” hunger got better of us and we returned to the base camp, for another mouth-watering lunch. The evening session was filled with some exercises… Campfire, Antakshari, Dumb Charades, Major leg pulling, and lot of non-alcoholic fun followed. The day ended in a well-deserved sleep after a heavy dinner.
Day 2. I started off with a cup of hot Tea, home made. Well, most of things around here are home made. Coffee, tea, rice, vegetables, spices… even electricity. There is a miniature hydroelectric plant just behind the house generating electricity from the stream. Isn’t this just perfect. Longevity and good health are only by products of living here. Well I was still sleepy, thinking about all these, until people started climbing the Rope Ladder. Almost everyone gave it a shot. Most of them completed the dare; the rest hoped they would never have to do it in their life. But one did find enough kick in the exercise to do it thrice. Well, we all have our moments. Don’t we? A person looking for a reason in everything would say that climbing a rope ladder would be a symbolic victory over his hidden fears.
Breakfast. Honey. Honey. Jam… some bread in between. Next was an interesting exercise. Creative writing. Team was split into 2 groups of 12 each. Each member in each group had to write an “original” story. Share it with the rest. The group finally came together with their own story. I enjoy writing… especially when it is not necessary to make sense. Has it ever occurred to you, given a random selection of 12 stories, you feel a quarter of them as familiar. You will not understand another quarter. Most of the rest would be biographies. A very few would be original. Unfortunately, those few usually come under the second category as well. Any way, our group was pretty much the same with ratios varying a bit. A story was made… and presented as well. I hope to collect all the stories and put them in one place
Next we had a “Dynamic Obstacle Task”. I saw it as “run, crawl and jump race”. The twist in the rules was that we had set time targets for ourselves. Nothing much. The hard part was working as a group. The best part was the safety paraphernalia that we were made to wear… gives you a false feeling of adventure.
We went to the falls again after Lunch. This time it was raining. But the scenery was as beautiful as the previous day. If only we had nothing more to do, we could have stayed there for some more time. But back in the base camp, the Born Free facilitators were preparing for a Treasure Hunt. Treasure Hunt was not much fun. The clues (oranges) were hidden in obscure places. Mandar was all the time cribbing about some imaginary leech that bit him… We were one player down… Good God Am I bad loser or what?? Well, the winners may have enjoyed it.
Feed back session… Dinner… packing… and back home.
Prashanth Kota
prashanth_k_blr@yahoo.com