Out Bound Learning at Pagasus

Day 1:
Wednesday, 20th Dec 2006
Venue: Samsung, Bangalore

I had mixed feelings. I wanted to go and I didn’t want to go. I was sitting in the Tempo Traveler speculating about the next three days. Suddenly a girl came and asked where the bus is going…As I was sitting in the front seat, everybody pushed me to tell her that this is not the regular shuttle. But, due to preoccupation with something else I answered, “This is for…….. (Oops…I forgot where the bus was going)”. Somebody from behind told her the relevant answer. I was still thinking…

It was a long and shaking journey…The road to Pegasus was full of potholes…to be more specific the pitch road was not even visible due to the potholes. Somehow…we reached Pegasus and it was the time for dinner. Commander Raghavan received us at the Pegasus gave us some guidelines to be taken care of during the stay at the institute.
Some of the instructions were:

Wake Up Alarm: 6 AM
Breakfast: 7:45-8:30 AM
Activities: 8:30 onwards

We had to sleep on the mats in a tent spacious enough for 7 persons. Two blankets were given to everyone and more could be provided if needed. After the dinner we had a cup of tea and then we played Seven Hearts until one o’ clock.

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Day 2:
Thursday, 21st Dec 2006
Venue: Pegasus Institute

Wake up alarm rang at exactly 6 o’clock but the intensity of the alarm was not sufficient to wake everybody up. Someone said, “Abe, Ye Pooja Kaun Kar Raha hai?”…It was the first day so everybody was awake by 6:15 AM. We played cricket for some time after relieving ourselves and then it was the time for breakfast. After the breakfast we gathered at the location specified by Commander Raghavan.

The facilitators were Colonel Jagdish, Mr Yogi, and Commander Raghavan.

We had short introductory session and then Yogi asked for our expectations from the Out Bound Learning training. Some people said that they want to be away from the city, some said that they want to breathe fresh air, some said they came for some adventure, some wanted to be away from the Bangalore traffic…I said,” I want to be more disciplined after the training”.
Well, in the training we had to perform some activities and every activity made us learn something…believe me…it really did…


Activity 1:
We were 19 people from SISO which were divided into two teams. There were some hurdles in a field and we had to cross the hurdles without violating any of the following rules:
No body should touch the ground and if any member touches the ground he has to complete the module again.
We had to carry some things which can be used to cross the hurdles. We called them Tools. The tools should not touch the ground.
There was a dummy member, a sprinkler, which has to be carried along. It cannot be used as a tool.
Parts of the hurdles were painted red which should not be touched otherwise the person who touched it had to complete the module again.

The two teams had start from opposite side of the field. The time given was 52 minutes. We could not cross the hurdles within the stipulated time and the project failed.

Activity 2:
We were divided into two teams. The first team was given to observe the other team. The facilitator had 5 shapes of 5 colors i.e. total 25 objects. Team 2 was blindfolded and the facilitator distributed some of the 25 objects among the team 2 members. We had to find the number, shape and color of objects the facilitator is having by means of verbal communication. We can question facilitator and if he thinks that we cannot find the answer to the question by ourselves them he will answer. We couldn’t even reach to a common conclusion about the shape of the objects leave aside color because everybody was content with his own definition of the shape of the objects. It was a complete mess. The other team had to perform the same task later.

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Day 3
Friday, 22nd Dec 2006
Venue: Pegasus Institute

Activity 1:
Suppose there is a car which has no tyres. The team members were the tyres of the car and the leader had to steer the care by giving proper directions. Actually, we were given a frame which had a shape like the letter ‘A’. There were three ropes tied to the top of the ‘A’ frame. The leader has to stand on the A frame and our task was to take the frame along with the leader sitting on it across a defined track. The rules for this activity were as following:
The frame should not drag on the ground.
The ropes should not touch any other part of the frame except the top of the frame where the ropes were tied.
The person who was standing on the frame should not touch the ground.

Fortunately, we (my team) were the first to complete the task.

Activity 2:
A hexagon was drawn on the ground and some bricks were placed inside the hexagon. We were divided into three teams and each team had to start from a side of the hexagon and reach the opposite side. All the teams had to do it simultaneously and the rules to be followed were:
The team should maintain a chain among its members until all the teams complete the activity.
The bricks once occupied if left unattended shall be removed. Any team can occupy the brick.
No body should touch the ground otherwise all the teams had to perform the activity again.

One of the team members was overjoyed after his team completed the activity that he broke the chain and the project failed. The lesson we learned was that the final success is more important than the intermediate success.


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Day 4
Friday, 23rd Dec 2006
Venue: A lake near Pegasus Institute

Activity:
We were divided into three teams. Our task was to design a raft and give a demonstration to the client at the end of 35 minutes. We completed the task of making the raft within the specified time. The demonstration started. We were given 17 minutes to compete a to and fro trip in the lake. One of the teams designed the raft such that one of the tea members could not row. So after all he can do he asked the other team members,” Can I smoke?” So he did “Smoke On The Water”. This activity was very thrilling and everybody enjoyed it a lot.

The three days we passed at Pegasus were great and we enjoyed every bit of it.