*Please excuse for mistakes, I am not so good at English...

Out of the bounds of city
(An outbound learning program in Pegasus)

4:40 PM Office Bangalore, Announcement “The participants of the OBL batch-2 are requested to gather at the parking lot, the cabs will leave sharp at 5 O’clock. Thank you”…I and my team mates in the cafeteria having our regular evening cup of tea… Came to the cubical, typed “I will be out of office till…” turned on the Out of office assistant, shutdown. Rushed towards lifts with our luggage… as usual found a very few turned out in time, giving attendance to our own Deepak from HR, A few safety tips, and his cell number incase of emergency, and a smile with handshake full with care and concern, occupied a cab with packets of the evening snacks from our office caterers and a full case of the packaged drinking water headed up for the safe journey.

The small drizzling, a heavy traffic, cutting lot of jokes, eating snacks, shouting a loud while overtaking the other cabs, didn’t realize when we came out of the city, first break to wait for the other cabs so as to keep ourselves in group, again the all 5 cabs full of 56 people started moving in a set… slowly the dusk started making the way to night…

Second break was damn necessary as all tanks [hope no explanation needed!] were full, stopped near by some village, and had road side tea; the taste of the khadak tea was really good. The funny part in the journey was that, even though the other cabs had TV we had only a cassette player, and were shouting at the other cabs as “TV TV TV”. Chetan purchased “Mungaru Male” [Monsoon rain] cassette as most of us wanted to listen to those soothing hits….

The journey recommenced again… The bad muddy roads were waiting for us, as headlights peeping through the dark way surrounded with dense bushes, we felt as if lost somewhere in forest like in a horror movie… Full loud song “Ding Dang Ding Dang… da” everyone were dancing without any effort to the rhythmic oscillations of cab due to the potholes of the road…

A hearty welcome from the Pegasus team, and an escort to the tent area, occupied the first tent, and relaxed a bit. As all reached, we gathered for a session, got some tips about security, do’s and don’ts from Sathya, coordinator. By that time it finished, rats were running all over in the stomach, had a very good food, the taste was really superb, nor spicy nor salty.

Time for the Campfire, Some music, some danced, I didn’t try, feeling bit shy... participated in Dumb charade, Antakshari [Game of songs], even sang some songs too. Thank God! Donkeys were not anywhere around. Some even tried their hand in cricket with floodlights. Mostly after midnight reached the tents back to sleep, again some kidding started by Vinod, Sunder, Shiva, Sonal and Deepak; After chitchatting sometime with Ravikumar and Chetan; slowly dozed off.

Morning 6 O’clock, woke up with a small alarm, many complaints about the snoring guys heard from all tents, Our MD Rajesh, even suggested to make list of those so that next time if any such trip is organized then to make sure they are all in a single tent away ha ha ha... Had nice hot water bath powered with the Solar. Got ready, walked around a bit enjoying the nature, had a light breakfast.

Attention!!, Colonel Raghavan, Session started! The discipline is very important in Pegasus; they will not start any session till all the members supposed to come have arrived. We did welcome to the late comers with claps and thousand rupees fine! [Kidding]. Everyone put their views forward, me too…

The first game… Paint factory escape. The game was that, we have been struck up in a Paint factory, some explosion happened, acid is all over the ground, shouldn’t touch the ground, we have drums with insulated bottoms [green portion], some planks to reach out… hurry up! 7 minutes to be on board, only 45 Minutes to reach out… I had the timer in my hand, till 14th minute we were on the ground, got a warning, suddenly the whole thing changed, we chose a leader, we got a perfect strategy, within few minutes all on board and reached the circle in no time. Gathered again in a hall, discussed and found out that, the leader is very important in any task, start with a proper plan even though you have to spend some time in doing so. Some tea biscuit Hojaye! [Let’s have].

The second game… Bug fixing! We have taken contract, we have some bugs there are some four teams, and each team has to finish bugs one by one. There were some mats with numbers, step on them to fix the bug, no simultaneous touches, and no repeats. We came up with a strategy, some faults, but still stood up with our strategy, we didn’t score well, and later with team leader with teams consent changed the strategy. Leader answered for our faults. Good game, after discussion about the game in bamboo hall, conclusion is that, Leader has to follow a strategy, and take his team into confidence, should try out the different strategies, the same as we did. The game is not about winning, is about understanding the learning part of it.

The third game… A vehicle game, There was a bamboo vehicle of “A” shape. Leader has to stand on it and others have to balance it with the four ropes around it, leader has to move it ahead. We successfully finished the round, some left in between, and some fell down. The real learning from this was Leader has to be backed up by his team, team has to be balanced, and he has to lead it further. He should not loosen or lean much towards anybody, as here too much leaning can make the whole vehicle collapse. Very physically straining game, yup! After sitting in A/C room on a cushion chare for many days, it will be really a strain...

The last session, discussions, feedback, and thanks giving finished… with caution by the instructors that, not to throw any caps to the children on the way, who will come asking for them, had some tea, some snacks, started packing the bags by 5 O’clock evening. Again occupied the same cab, same team, and some more musti [Fun]… Many wanted to come in our cab as we were enjoying the journey too… Cabs started moving, saw many children asking for the caps, felt very pity at them, but as instructed we didn’t entertain any such requests. Took a break in between, thanks to Sonal, who brought some snacks and necessary water too... As the drizzling started to rain heavily out side, inside the cab Mungaru Male [Monsoon rain] songs were flowing.

Call from the office, low battery of cell phone, some issue, gave explanation about table, query, code, process, again the same old routine. By the time reached the Bangalore, Office, It was late night 8:30PM, Switched on the PC, turned off the Out of office reply, and started typing a mail “I am in Office now, The file….”

Place	Pegasus Institute, near Doddaballapur Karnataka.
Date	29-30’ August 2007
Distance	60 KM away from Bangalore.
Summary/Tips	• Carry adequate food, water for travel. • Some 5 KM Road is very bad; if you have a problem with backbone can go in your own vehicle slowly. • Carry your torch, some pullovers and windcheaters in winter. • Please don’t entertain any requests of the children to throw the caps while coming back, as there are situation they might be getting hurt by coming in front of the vehicles. • The place is surrounded by the hills and you can enjoy the nature, trekking can also be tried, if so get ready with trekking kit.

Prabhuraj Moogi
2' Sep 2007