My experiments with life

Day 02

Well after drinking till 3 in the morning, we never expected the group to be up before 10 am, but surprisingly everyone was up by 8 am and the breakfast was over by 9 am. Today like yesterday five teams went for rafting for marine drive to Shivpuri.
The remaining five teams were kept busy by various activities by the Priya Kapoors people. They started by playing carpet volley, but due to non availability of enough linen they had to settle down to chappal (slippers) volley ball.
While the whole group was busy we had nothing much to do, so we sat lied down on beach and enjoyed the volleyball game, in the sun.

After the game the teams went to the upper camp for some more activities such as Australian walk and stepping stones. We were left with nothing much to do, so we sat down at our favorite place, the stream for a bath. It was fun with vijendra doing water yoga and harry trying to fight the current of the stream.
Our fun and mischievous activities ended when the teams that went for rafting came back at the camp.
With lunch served it was time to see that everything was in place. After the lunch the teams interchanged their activities and we were busy with the camp staff in getting prepared for evening snacks and dinner.

Later I got a chance to take a nap which I took with closed eyes, but my dreamless sleep was soon interrupted with the clamor of the teams returning from activities from the upper camp. I soon realized it was 4 pm and time for some evening snacks.
Soon the team that went for rafting came back and then it was business as usual. After the snacks they all assembled at the upper camp (the last night’s bon fire venue) hoping for another round of booze and music, but they were greeted by Priya kapoor and soon they were all busy with the briefing session. In the meanwhile we were running from place to place as chicken has not arrived yet and it was time for cocktails to start. Soon we got the news that the camp guy got the chicken, but it will take about 1 and half hour to get ready.
We hoped that the briefing session last that long. The cocktail venue has changed this night due to some issues with the local people. Tonight, we had the bar just above the dinning area and the seats were arranged there. Since we saw no sign of people coming here soon, so we decided to get some liquid into our system, and then the rum started flowing with Navin in full mood to get drunk it was time to have some desi cocktail ( Rum and coke).

By the time the group came we were pretty drunk, so bartending was even more fun this time. Soon the alcohol started flowing and the party was alive with the live music.
As they were already late, we had served dinner alongside since they were leaving early morning for Delhi.

They party continued till 1 am and after having our dinner we came down to our tents, but harry was adamant to get a disclaimer from Priya kapoor about the safety of the group as they all have decided not to sleep the whole night and with the river so close it was dangerous.
Soon we all hit the bed and in no time we left all the singing along with the noise and were engulfed in our sleep.

Udit Bhalla
http://www.adventures-india.com
http://www.myadventuretrip.com

Day one

This was one trip that I was looking forward to for many days now. I was handling the biggest group of my life; it was 120 people for NDTV MEDIA. It began about a fortnight back, when Karan, from Priya kapoors called up our office and had a talk with harpreet. Then began the process of negotiating the costs and many other factors. To finalize everything Priya Kapoors herself came to Delhi and then visited the camp to inspect the facilities and services, after being satisfied with the arrangement we started the process of managing this mammoth group.
The group began to reach Delhi on 9th Oct, it started at 6 in the evening with some misunderstanding with the training company people at the airport, but soon it was resolved. Almost 50% of the group was coming from various cities in the country the rest was from Delhi only. It took us about 4 hours at the Domestic airport to receive the group as they were coming from different flights. All of them were to assemble at NDTV MEDIA gurgaon office. Soon we realized that air conditioning in one of the bus at the airport was not working, after an animated discussion with simit ( the Priya kapoors guy) and with the transporter, we decided to change the bus on our way to rishikeh in Delhi. The journey back to gurgaon was an eventful one on the Shining Endeavour of the company, with the driver Gopal showing his skills on the road. It nearly give a heart attack to one of the client.
Later simit and I went for booze shopping, the shops at Iffco Chowk, gurgaon had a killing as we shopped for snacks and water bottle for 120 people.
We all started the journey to Rishikesh about an hour late and by the time I reached Delhi-UP border after changing the bus and tanking up the fuel tanks, Simit had called me about 30 times. At the border all the drivers were given instructions to stop at Rossette inn for some snacks.

We reached Rossette Inn at about 3 in the morning; half of the group didn’t even left their seats and were sleep. Soon we realized that we are one bus short, then began the panicky situation between Simit and Karan, but after I had a talk with the driver they calmed down. The 6th bus reached there about 30mins later. After some small discussion with the drivers and some more instructions we all left for Rishikesh. The later part of the journey was uneventful as everyone except Naveen and the drivers were sleeping. We reached Rishikesh at 7:30 in the morning and the shivpuri campsite about an hour later.

On arriving the camp, I was left stranded for an hour at the parking to guard the luggage, which looked like a small river of bags. When I reached the camps, there was chaos as some people didn’t got their luggage, soon with some shouting( on the camp staff) it was all taken care of . Then everyone had their bath and were at the breakfast area, while we were running from place to place for the arrangements. Soon with the help of the 2 walkie talkie ( I got 4 but only 2 worked) we were able to manage things easily.

We had booked 2 camps due to the size of the group, one of the campsites was at the beach and the other one was up at the road. The camps were at a beautiful location, with mountains all around you and the river on one side moving with a thunderous noise. After breakfast the group assembled at the lawns of the upper camp, for briefing session. They were already divided into 10 teams, with each team having a slogan, flag, team t-shirt and a marshal. Due to the size of the group, there were two simultaneous activities planned. For river rafting 5 teams were chosen and the remaining five for trekking. I went for the rafting and for the trekking a team of our staff who knew the trek very well was sent.
Originating from the heights of the great Himalayas, river Ganga speed down with all fury and its takes a true adventurer’s guts to ride on. Rafting put to test your strength, both physical and mental, and it is in this that the whole excitement of rafting lies.

The rafting was a fun as always, with our guide successfully maneuvering the rapids, and keeping us afloat. The body surfing on the rapids was something to look forward for my future trips also. We reached the camp at lunch time; I was to go on with the next group on the next stretch about which I had heard stories of raft getting flipped. After lunch when we all assembled with a new group for rafting, I found out that in this group due to more people there was no space left on the rafts so I decided to go for this stretch the next day.

One of my friends were at the camp( I have fixed them there), so I met her there after almost 3 years despite being living in the same city and talking to each other almost everyday.
So with all the teams busy in their activities, we( I, Harry, Naveen and vijendra) were left with virtually nothing to do and then we all decided to sit at the stream near by and enjoy the nature.

After about and hour there, we went on to check out the dinner arrangements. The evening cocktail party was a huge hit with the group( the party was the at upper camp as parties are not allowed at the beach). I and Naveen were at the bar, and I had loads of fun making some very interesting cocktails with whatever we had.
There were live performances by a small unknown band and soon everyone was crooning along. We had to unwillingly shut down the music by 10 pm due to the regulation there. The party continued after dinner with a small group of enthusiastic people returning to the bar.
Later we (I, Harry and Naveen) had our dinner with some RUM and then we were off to our special alpine tents.
The next day had lots of work and fun in store for all of us.

Udit bhalla
http://www.adventures-india.com