Irresistible ICRISAT

A blend of the traditional and the modern, ICRISAT is all about simplicity and rustic beauty.

It all started at 3 PM, 4^th of june which happens to be a Thursday. A bunch of 14 strangers are required to stay together for 2 nights and 3days, where different in-door and out-door activities will be happening. The supposed kick off session was at 3:00 PM (SHARP), which conventionally started at 3:30 and finally the journey at 3:45.

Well, driving into ICRISAT, leaves you nearly with visual schizophrenia. The 2000 acre land with more then 20 km perimeter, which is meant for research on various types of crops and food item’s is absolutely stupefying.I can term this journey as “journey to childhood”. This trip refreshed all the childhood days which are entombed. The games like thief-police(chain game), lamb game etc. The ICRISAT gate is typical wodden gate painted in vivid colours. Across it: Wide, very clean streets, buildings with bright, painted motifs, full of trees , green grass, open lands and lakes. There are hardly people inside this paradise, the traffic is orderly and no one is honking. There were people who were checking the pollution levels of all vehicles driving through. These images really summarizes ICRISAT: A beautiful blend of the traditional and the modern. It is a theme that recurs and haunts you for the rest of your lives. ICRISAT is such a “fairy-tale city”. It takes days to walk from one end of main street to the other. It is easy to lose time here, soaking the sun, and watching the swans and ducks on lakes, foxes, deer’s and peacock’s in the open lands. Not that there aren’t things to see, but seems such a shame to reduce the charming place to the touristy trap.

 

 

Well, Archana volunteered to be the anchor of our group and we all reached at 4:45 PM  and checked into our rooms and there met the Mr.Navel, who is our facililator for the next couple of days and we were asked to assemble at conference room at 5:30 PM. There I got to meet Shekhar, who is my room partner for the next three days. And we have been told that even a delay of 1 min will cause fine, So i quickly slipped into my room, had a shower and was about to ram into the conference room with others, but we noticed that 2 girls are yet to come and thus we all started waiting for them. In the meantime we all shot some group pics and it was during this time I got introduced to Kiran, Raju, Priyank and Ramu who also happens to be from the same team(at work) . As even some more time passed we decided to start and after reaching conference room we are surpised to see these two girls ( Seshi and Vijaya),  waiting for the entire group at the conf. room. Then, we had gracious snacks, (wait is it really a snack?—this was a big question in my mind) before the actual indoor program. 

 

The very first program was very much of arousing or holding the attention. Here in , we were divided into 3 teams of 5, 5 and 4 members. I belonged to the group of 4 members and we were asked to know about the person sitting adjacent and tell about him. My counterpart was Nisha. And with extreme difficulty I could know something about her which I expressed before our facilitator and the team and the adjective given to her was “Natural Nisha”. In this was every person was assigned with an adjective and this process really helped all of us not only to know the names but also to know about how we are as a person. It was then followed by an activity where in we are taught typical Oracle values—here we were asked to guess each word then explain what it is all about and after that we have to demonstrate this through a small skit. Well, the third and the last activity for the day was to find a technique or pattern by which we should balance a ball from falling through holes, in a sheet. It was really stimulating activity which tested our team work and proper usage of resources.  And the session was concluded by a melodious song by saurav

 

Well with this we were done with that day and had a unstinted dinner. And the food like everything else , is a contradiction. Lamb is staple, the meet comes from outside. Ironically, the vegetables are brought from outside (Even though all those vegetables are grown in these lands). I brought all vegetarian items mockingly. Although I know I don’t progress beyond two spoons. A bunch of green chilies in carrot. And that is pretty much it. Its incredibly and unrelentingly fiery. And I guess this is the staple food there. The rest of the cuisine- you could try the array of typical dishes almost anywhere in A.P-is palatable enough. And they mostly resort to cakes, pastries and cookies which are good and popular.

Well, after the king size dinner, we all boys went out for a evening walk across the period of calm weather. By this time I got introduced to almost everyone including “Saurav-Ramu”, without whom our team would have been void, Priyank, Kiran, Praveen, Santosh, Shekhar,  Raju, Nisha, Tripti,Archana, Vijaya and Seshi. I made 13 new friends in one single day. I was absolutely felicitous.

 

The next day we are supposed to assemble at cricket ground at 7:45 AM. Regrettably my cell was out of charge the last night and I had to rely on the wall clock. So sincerely, I got up at 5:00 AM , reinvigorated  myself had a hot cup of tea and then went to the cricket ground at 7:43 AM. Surprisingly I was the only one in the ground. I had waited and waited. It was 8:15, and still I no site of any creature. In a bewildering and confusing manner, I have rammed into Saurav da’s  only to learn that my rooms clock is one and half hour fast. PHEW!!!

Anyway, that gave me a big relief , soon we all gathered at cricket ground and our facilitator had some warm up exercises for us—this made me to remember my school days where in I used to perform all these exercises in my “Physical Training or P.T” period. This entire trip is of “food and fun” oriented types. After the initial warm-up, we were to split in teams and then were asked to walk couple of distance from one point to another subject to the condition that all our leg movements should match. Sounds simple right? Even we thought the same. Despite anything to the contrary, it was one of the most difficult task for us. This taught how team work and proper planning weighs.

Then it was time for snacks. It was during this time I had talked to Trupti and come to know that she is basically a Mumbaikar, and happily married with two kids and later I came to know that she also have contacts of many film personalities which also include Jhonny Lever. 

OK! Now its time for another game, and facilitator chose Myself, Nisha and Archana. And he then said that we three are police and asked us to catch the others in a circumscribed area where in we are supposed to run holding the thief’s hand once he is caught It was very much unclear, indistinct, or blurred for me. Suddenly Nisha proclaimed “Didn’t u ever played chain game in your child hood?” For a moment I thought, “didn’t I really played it?” Later I could feebly remember something of this sort and we really had fun in recapping it again after 15 years. This taught in how to make complex things simpler, what do to first and what to do next. This was followed by another game where in we need to protect one of our team mate (Lamb) from the other team. We may circle around our team member or form square or whatever subject to the condition that no other team member should touch the “lamb”. This is also known as the famous lamb game. Although, we lost this was so nostalgic to me. This game again took me back to 15 years, wherein I almost daily used to play this game. And I also remembered how I used to form different tricks to protect my lamb.

We had more snacks and plenty of time is left with us. So we decided to have photo sessions.  Saurav Da’s pose which were in accordance with nature and relating to or concerning nature were some of the highlights among our photography. I hope all my team mates will agree with this J. Then we all went near the swimming pool and its here where we are all spread out with distinctive interests. I tried teaching Archana as how to balance a bicycle and was successful upto great extent and I hope she agrees with this J.

Praveen, as usual and as always was busy in phone although Nisha tried many ways to bring him into group, that didn’t work. Again Saurav da made our afternoon with his sweet song. Thanks to him!

 

And then, after lunch, There is something really different which we never did before. We were taught about couple of knots and its usages and later made us to build a bridge with 4 wooden piles and ropes. Thanks to Trupti and Raju, who really mastered this art and helped many of us (including me).

Finally we are all set with the bridge and it was supposed to be inaugurated(used) by Saurav da, but die to some unforeseen reason’s he could not start it and Trupti started climbing It and without  scintilla of hesitation she succeeded and rest followed her. I was, little nervous but trainer made me to climb the bridge with my eyes closed. That was a good experience and taught that we see more obstacles then goals, the moment we sww our goal obstacles vanish and perish.

 

Later that day, I spent some time at Ramu and Saurav’s room which was perhaps the most happening room. Within eye blink 2 and half hours passed away, I was completely laughing for those two and half hours. Saurav-Ramu –YOU guys are certainly the best pair. And immediately after that we rushed to conference room and had skits, and games like “crossing titanic”, “crossing obstacles with the help of animal sounds”, “Banker game”, wherein lot of planning team work and mental acumen needs, that was indeed a fun filled evening with loads of learning.

 

Although this day started not up to expectations, but ended magisterially. We are supposed to have parasailing. WOW, this in itself is exciting. But again, wind has to favor us and regrettably, wind was not up to the mark in cricket ground. So we had our share of snacks and left for a break hoping that wind god will shower mercy on us. It was during this break where I got another opportunity to train Archana on cycling. And also we guys had multiple photo sessions with various postures. Ramu and Raju left to  fields and they had their own share of photography which was indeed praise worthyJ. The rest of the group except Priyank and Shekhar, were present and we all had good time. Although we planned to visit the so called “Peacock park”, but it didn’t really work out for us.  Then finally we all assembled at the Gazebo, which is a small roofed building affording shade and rest—basically a fishing club. We had an another interesting activity where in we all teams need to stand on one sheet with two guys outside helping, and we got to move forward. Here under Priyank’s and Kiran’s leadership we WON with a considerable margin. And the next activity was to lift a ball and place it over the cone. Seems simple , but let me tell you-we go to lift the ball with rope , YES a rope. This was the most challenging task for our team , but again three cheers to Priyank and team we won it J.  Now comes the final and most awaited activity that is parasailing. Fortunately or unfortunately wind was not completely in our favor, but some how our facilitator make it happen. This time it was Trupti and saurav who could get this opportunity and I am sure they must have cherished this. This made Archana let down as she was the first person to ask Navel(our facilitator) about parasailing then suddenly Nisha exclaimed that she was the first one to ask about parasailing and she indeed emailed Navel long before J. 

Well, good things end soon, our trip is no exception and it was concluded with a small gyan session by our honoured facilitator.And what a refreshingly unstuffy person he is, friendly, approachable and quite uninhibited by his reputation. As he knew that all of us are software engineers, he confessed endearingly that he is uneducated. Seriously the trip is a whiff of the past.

 

 In ICRISAT, be prepared to believe in getting fun and knowledge. In goodness and simplicity. In beauty, rustic and untarnished.