It was 9:00 am in the morning of 16th
and I was about to drive to my university when I received a sms regarding my
selection for the OLP. I was happy and confounded
to know that I was selected. Confounded because leadership,
similar to adventure, is a state of mind. Always the dispute
within me has been with –‘Getting started’.
Coaxing the inherent self to do it. Indeed they (who else? google guys? Naah!)
say that beginning is half done. So, after the mental dressing, I started
packing for the 3 great days I am gonna spend with every single person up for
the program.
It was 9:30 am in the morning by the time we
(motor-poolers) reached the venue. We found a bunch of adventure enthusiasts
who already reached there and we started conversing with them. All of us had
few things in common but every single one of
us were trying to make some sense out of his or her presence here, to find some
meaning with the opportunity presented, to become an ‘Outdoor Leader’.
After a hefty
breakfast, the first day started out with an introductory session followed by
the prerequisites for a trek-- planning, equipment, safety and execution. To
facilitate better interaction between all the members, the whole team was
divided into groups of 5 members each. They were fun filled sessions with one
member of the group introducing other members of the respective group and
chalking out the probable prerequisites for a trek. The class breaks for lunch
and the much awaited session about survival began in the second half of the day.
It is the third session of the day which dealt with the basics of survival.
These skills were later experimented by each of the groups. Later in the
evening, we got to chop the vegetables, cook them to make a decent meal (Veg.
Pulao, Mixed veg curry and white rice) and taste it numerous times (thankfully much
more was left to eat even after the tasting session: D). After the delicious
meal, we proceeded to bond near the bonfire. The highlight of the night was
the sentry duty which was given to only guys (lucky chaps, they got to stay out
of their tents for more time) and then we retired to our tents, which we pitched
before cooking dinner.
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| 9th Outdoor leader ship workshop for future leaders of GHAC |
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| Col Rajeev Sharma Explaining on collecting Firewood |
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| Yes we did start a fire |
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| Cutting Vegetables for Pulao |
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| The Yummiest Food Ever |
The classes on the
second day began with basic scrambling and bouldering sessions followed by the
ritual of breakfast. A much anticipated session of the day for me indeed was the
map reading session which was followed by a practice session which requires the
map reading skills. It is worth a mention that the practice session was much
spontaneously decided by our leader. Much to our pride of wanting to be the
leaders, most of us dosed off in the sessions that followed post lunch.
Nevertheless, we survived (with dreamy eyes) the session by presenting each of our
game-plan for the survival challenge given and died in 10min (You will know
what I mean if you have attended the OLP ;)). The evening was made exciting
with the knots and lashing session followed by ‘Barbecue’. The day ended with
dinner followed by campfire and sentry duty assignment.
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| Diyanat the original Outdoor leader conducting a workshop |
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| We had 2 doctors telling us about basic first aid in outdoors |
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| Finally Time to get some rest in our tents |
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| Next morning every body was fresh |
Here comes the third
and final day: Early in the morning, we were led towards a temple atop the
hillocks for a sunrise hike. The hike was certainly worth cherishing for most
of us. Why was that so? Be-cause, it had the most powerful element of all –
“Silence”. The session consisted of exercises that help to build inner peace
and clarity of mind. While the sun planned to hide under the clouds, we
proceeded for bird watching.
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| Trust is the basic building block of any team: Trusting your team member with eyes close |
After the end of the
bird watching session, we had different tasks to work on (namely- the balloon
task and river crossing task) where everyone had put their game face on. The
tasks clearly exemplified that leadership skills include working as a group
towards a common goal either be it protecting one’s balloons (figuratively our
egos in the first task) or one’s life (figuratively our common interests in the
second task). The next session had a simple but revolutionary exercise which was
about trusting the leader and as a leader, keeping up to the trust of one’s own
group. In the exercise all the members of the group are blindfolded and are
lead by their leader. By then everyone could take in the feeling of the unique
leadership that was aimed to develop among us. In the second half of the day we
were briefed on accounting and steps on how to organize a trip etc followed by
the vision, mission and rules of the club.
The
3-day program apart from building new and strong networks between the members
created a lasting impression of leadership development for the new ‘Organizers
aka Leaders’.
At the end of the day all of us bid farewell with
a promise we made with ourselves to bring on the Vagabond in us, to bring out
the Outdoor Leader in us!
Check here about an earlier OLP
About the Author:
AkhilA Manne is an outdoor enthusiast and an Inquisitor, she is a trainee organizer with GHAC and attended the 9th Outdoor Leadership Workshop recently.
