Navgathi has it first outbound last weekend and it was an excellent experience for all of us. Prior to the D-day, lot of groundwork was done by the organizers Syam and Karthika and ably supported by Alice – to ensure that all things were in place. It was decided to meet in our office at 7:40 AM to manage any last minute hiccups as well as to arrange items to be loaded on to our transport vehicle. The travel time to our houseboat boarding point was about one-and half hours. The first to reach our office was, as expected Karthika and Syam. Sreehari, Remitha, Abhimanyu and Sandith came together and reached at 7:45 AM. Slowly one by one our team came in – Anu, Ramesh, Sushama and Biju. At around 8:15 we started from our office and on the way we picked up Rashid from CUSAT entrance, Alice from near Vytilla and Anenas from Vytilla. From there it was thirteen of us heading to our boat. The music was load and good (though many choose to state otherwise!) – the temptation to dance was there, however, we conveniently excused ourselves by blaming lack of space between the column of seats – which we proved wrong on the return journey.
We reached the finishing point (of the Nehru boat race) which happened be the boarding point of our boat at about 10:15, only to discover that the boat was not ready to board and that it would take another frothy five minutes before departure. We stepped in to the tourist guest house. It was in poor shape, and not surprisingly without electric power or backup, considering the fact that tourism generates huge amount of revenue to the region. While we were waiting the organizers split the team in to Team A, also known as WINNERS who later changed their name to SIBERIA, and Team B, also known as KIDUS KALAMASSERY. SIBERIA had Anenas, Alice, Anu, Rashid, Sreehari, and Syam whereas KIDUS KALAMASSERY had Biju, Ramesh, Remitha, Sandith, Sushama, and Karthika. The organizers were also put in two teams since they had to play the Survival game which Sandith was conducting. Soon the time came to board the vessel and we all strolled to the boat.
The boat was ready at 11. They started the engine. It was at that moment we realized that we didn’t pick up stones to do the load testing of the bridge (which is a game and will be explained later). Karthika and Sree Hari went out of the boat to pick up stones. They picked the smallest stones they could ever get (for the load testing)! Anyways! We started our journey. They gave us the welcome drink. We went to the upper deck and let ourselves settle down for a while.
After a few minutes we decided to start the games. The first game was bridge. The game was to build a bridge with raw materials given to you within 30 minutes. The raw materials given were
1) Ice cream sticks
2) String
3) Glue
4) Putty
5) Paper and paper clip
The team started making the bridge. Team Siberia started making the London Bridge with lot of pillars!! They didn’t read the question correctly. The question was to build a bridge with span not less than 30 cm and height not less than 7 cm. Since they have violated the rules, the organizers gave them a small clue. They brilliantly picked it up and started reworking the bridge. Finally the teams made their bridges (they should have been in the Army!). Now it is the time for load testing. Everybody knew that the stones won’t be sufficient for load testing. So we used our mobile phones. With those stones and 3 mobile phones the bridge of Siberia collapsed. Then we load tested the bridge of KIDUS KALAMASSARY. It was very strong and obviously they were the winners. 10 points for KIDUS KALAMASSERY!
The second event was a survival game by Sandith. The goals of this Lost at Sea game is to teach the effectiveness of consensus – seeking behavior in task groups through comparative experiences with both individual decision making and group decision making and to explore the concept of synergy in reference to the outcomes of group decision making. The organizers were also put in different teams. Karthika was in team KIDUS KALAMASSERY and Syam was in team SIBERIA. Sandith distributed two copies of the Lost at Sea individual work sheet to each participant. The work sheet contained a scenario where we are lost at Pacific Ocean on a private yacht. Fifteen items are there on board out of which the participants had to choose the most essential items and rank it accordingly. First they had to individually rank it and the group should give a ranking by discussion. The team with the lowest rank wins. The time was one hour. In 30 minutes they completed the individual stories and then the group discussion started. After one hour the game was over. The teams exchanged their group work sheet and started correcting it with the correct ranking given by Sandith. Team SIBERIA got 64 points and KIDUS KALAMASSERY got 75 points. High ranking score is the least score as it denotes the least deviation from the correct answer. So SIBERIA won and they got 10 points!
Then after a short break they started the quiz program. The organizers made power point presentations for the quiz. It included Puzzles, Kerala, Famous Personalities, and Historical Monuments.
After the puzzles we had Kerala lunch with Karimeen fry. The sambhar was great. Then we continued the events. In these four events KIDUS KALAMASSERY won with the help of the stunning performance by Ramesh. They got 10 points again! So clearly KIDUS KALAMASSERY was the winner of the group events.
Then they started Tambola. It was an individual game. The organizers distributed the Tambola cards. It had random numbers on it. Then the organizers start picking up random numbers from the lots they kept and the person who has that particular number on their card has to strike out that number from their card. The person who strikes out the first five numbers will get the third prize. The person who strikes out a complete raw will get the second prize. The person who strikes out the full numbers on the card will get the first prize. That was the rule of the game. After a brief time of changing lucks Sushama won the third prize. Then it was Rashid’s turn. He won the second prize. Then the luckiest moment of Alice came. She won the first prize.
Then it was the time for prize distribution. Remitha distributed the prize. The organizers got presents for arranging the event.
From the moment we get in that boat, it was only after the prize distribution we began to watch the beauty of Kerala back waters. The program turned out to be so fine that the beauty of the back waters was nothing in front a group of energetic personalities and their enthusiasm. When they began to enjoy the beauty of back waters, there was a sudden silence among all of us. The music in the boat was so mesmerizing. Those moments were so beautiful.
Meanwhile Syam got a chance to drive the boat. Others were engaged in enjoying the beauty of backwaters and taking photos. At last they reached the finishing point of their journey. They got out from their boat and took a group photo.
Then they started their return journey. From the last lazy moments they again came into the dancing mood with Karthika’s Tamil songs in the background. Sandith, Karthika, Sree Hari and Rashid started dancing. Anu jumped up for dancing but his head was hit on the roof of the bus and sat down at the same speed. Syam was first reluctant to dance but joined the group for some time.
At last we reached at our office at about 6.45. There came the end of a beautiful outbound.
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