An Interesting August Saturday...Directors Cut

August came...
August went...
A lot of money I spent...
Mobile for my darlin sister...
MBA application forms for me...
Oh My God...I was on a spending spree..
And none of it came free...
Along came a big fat bill...
which I should pay and I definitely will..

Well...I ran out of rhyming words in writing that, but trust me I didnt have to rack my brains hard to compose those. Just about 10 minutes of typing...and vola! Now back to the blog.

My best weekend in August was 20-21. I went on an adventure camp to a place called Sajan which is about 100 Kms north of Mumbai. Both Saturday and Sunday was so hectic I didnt have time to think about anything else but the adventure activities I did and I was supposed to do. This post talks only about saturday. I'll post about the turn of events that took place on Sunday pretty soon! You get the point don't you? ;-)

SCENE - I---LIGHTS, CAMERA and ACTION---

Saturday started off at the crack of dawn...trrring trrring...no thats not the telephone, its my alarm clock...buzzing away as if there is no end...I looked at the time 5 'o clock, have to get ready soon or else I'll be late for the 6.00 am bus. Finally after much mind-coaxing, I crawled out of the bed and got ready.

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SCENE - II---TAKE-3 and ACTION---

Reached bang at 6.00 am...lot of people waiting and no sign of the bus anywhere at all. Buses arrived at 6.30 and off we went. Continuous singing was going on - mostly Hindi songs. At one point when we ran out of songs we started singing Ad jingles!! Lifeboy, Surf (2 bucket paani) and god knows what else. Reached the place at 9.00 or so. Had some breakfast and listened to what we were supposed to do there for 2 whole days.

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SCENE - III---TAKE-5 and ACTION---

Run, run lets search....clues: where off-roading starts, asman se gire khajoor pe atke, sajan ki aarey colony, pavilion, sangeeta bijlani, pholon ke rang se, dhalta suraj dhal jayega, swimming pool, and some others which I dont remember. We were supposed to hunt for tags which were strategically placed at some locations all over the camp and the clues indicated where they were. This sparked off a mad rush with everyone running off to the nearest location. This was likened to the quest for a seat in the IIMs.

All of us were divided into 12 groups of 10 each. Each group had a group leader and was told to come up with its own name and a war-cry. 4 of these groups formed a super-group. Each of these big groups were named as Charlie, Alpha and Tango (C-A-T). (Hope you got the link). And each of these 3 groups were controlled by 2-3 people from the organizers.

I was starting to get the feeling that adventure trip is fine, but the comparison to CAT is probably reading a bit too much into it.

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GAMES PEOPLE PLAY!!

But the games we played were real fun. There was a game wherein we were given some half-broken pipes and some marbles, the objective of the game was to get a certain number of marbles into glasses kept about 10 meters away. Each team had to commit regarding the number of marbles it can put in the glasses.

Relation to CAT:- set a target, plan how to go about it and achieve it.

And then there was another one where there were some circles within a triangle with 1 circle at the apex and 9 circles at the base. a group has to start from the base. each person was to occupy a single circle. When the "go" command was given, each person has to move within the next 3 seconds. If any person does not move then its a foul and the team has to start again. The objective of the game was to get all the team-members out from the "apex-circle" in the least possible time.

Relation to CAT:- dont make things complicated. even the most complicated of problems can be solved using a simple approach.

Then there was a river crossing excercise wherein a person suspended upside down from a rope was supposed to cross a "river" by pulling his body-weight using his bare hands.

Relation to CAT:- overcoming fear.

And lastly there was "hangman". There was a big circle drawn on the ground and there were objects strewn all over (inside the circle). Each object had some points. A person from the group would be suspended in air over the circle. Team-members had to tug the rope harder to keep the person suspended. The suspended person had to collect the objects within the circle and collect them in a basket. If any part of the person's body touched the ground within the circle, then the object with the maximum points would thrown back into the circle. The objective was to score maximum points.

Relation to CAT:- careful planning, knowing when to give up, order of attempting questions.

SCENE - THE NIGHT ADVENTURE BRIEFING---TAKE-2 and ACTION---

At night there was a trek planned. The trek was to be in a "real" forest. The 3 super-groups C, A and T were briefed about the terrain and the layout. There were 5 stages. To get to the 4th stage we would have to cross a river. There would be arrows all along the trail with the stage numbers marked below it indicating the stage. Each stage had a particular color of tag. The first stage-white, second stage-yellow, third stage-green, fourth stage-red, fifth stage-black. Each of these tags had 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 points respectively. The tags were stuck at places upto 20 feet on either side of the trail at a height ranging from 3 feet to 7 feet. Objective was to collect as many tags as possible.

It had been raining all day and the night was no exception either. We were told that the possibility of getting lost was very high and that group leaders should ensure that roll-call was taken regularly. Each group of 10 would be accompanied by an observer and if the observer finds anyone missing then the super-group to which that groups belongs to will be disqualified.

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SCENE - NIGHT TREK-THE REALITY---TAKE-72 and ACTION---

The buses reached the location were the teams were let into the forest. Due to continuous rain, the trail had become pretty dangerous and the crossing of the river between the 3rd and the 4th stages was impossible. The water level in the river was "chest-high". So the course was changed and now there was no river crossing and we were told to follow the trail directly without crossing the river. I thought to myself, Oh My God! Wonder what else is in store? This is turning out to be a nightmare.

One group each from Charlie, Alpha and Tango were sent into the forest together. The order was fixed, the first groups from each of the super-groups were first sent and then the 2nd groups and so on. I thought to myself, this would be an unfair advantage to the groups coming later because the earlier groups would have picked up most of the tags, leaving very less stuff for the others.

The terrain was extremely treacherous. Very slippery. Moreover, all of us in my group were pretty concerned about others getting lost in the thick foliage. So we had constant roll-calls. These inturn slowed us down. The trail in the 1st and the 2nd stage was reasonably wide. There was lot of room to walk comfortably and look around. So we did look around a lot. I looked around too but came up unsuccessful. But the trail got progressively narrower. The 3rd stage was HORRENDOUS!! It was a downhill stage with very very narrow trails.

By now my objective of the trek had changed. My objective now was to come out of this trek in one piece without any injuries and I focussed just on completing the trek. I guess that was the objective my whole group sought.

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SCENE - JUNGLE TRAFFIC JAM---TAKE-48 and ACTION---

Ever heard of a traffic jam inside a jungle?? Well I actually saw one. At one point in the 3rd stage there was a 6 feet drop and you had to jump. The continuously falling rains didnt make things easy at all. So progress was very very slow. So the groups which followed caught up easily with the groups which had a headstart. The trail was so narrow that only a single person could go at one time. Also trees and shrubs with thorns didnt make the progress any easier. And people from following groups started shouting and howling. Some people were so desperate that tried to squeeze in and get in front.

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SCENE - THE RIVER and THE FINAL STRETCH---TAKE-35 and ACTION---

Somehow we crossed the downhill strech, without even looking for any tags or anything. The sole aim being to get over this ordeal as quickly as possible. Suddenly the trail started widening and I could hear gushing water. The river ATLAST. I must say despite all my misgivings about the trek and the feelings that were running through my mind, the sight of the river that night was awesome. I was just trying to imagine the sight with the moon shining its silver light. That would be some sight.

Now came the time for a roll-call and found everyone to be safe and sound. We started to proceed ahead, but the observer stopped us and told us to wait. I told him that everyone of us is here and we just want to get out of this place. He still didnt allow us. I saw 3 groups go ahead and two of them had the lead organizers with them. I thought to myself had there been somebody along with us then we could have also leapfrogged ahead of the other groups. Even to this day I dont know why we were stopped although all the members were present.

Finally, after sometime we started moving and the trek back to the bus was pretty much uneventful. The trail was very slippery and tripped more than a couple of times. Luckily I gathered myself quickly and was on my feet again.

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CAT LEARNINGS FROM THE TREK - My Feelings

All through the trek I was thinking to myself, what is going to be achieved by doing all this? Getting in front, gathering silly tags, risking an injury, possibly even getting lost. I posed these very questions to my rational mind and came up with the answer - NOTHING! If only an IIM seat could be secured by collecting maximum number of tags, if only coming first in a night trek could help one get into the IIMs. If only...If only...

The fact of the matter is that it is not possible. To get a seat you have to have performed well in CAT. To perform well in CAT you have to have good preparation in Data Interpretation, Maths and English. And you should choose the right questions to attempt. You should be able to identify the easy questions. You should know your strengths and weaknesses and attempt the CAT paper based on those.

If the trek were just a trek, I would have enjoyed it. The location was mindblowing, the setting was great and the terrain was challenging yet interesting. But to combine that with collecting tags, and associating the collection of tags with success in CAT is a big no-no for me.