Highlights of a jungle trip

What happens when 16 members from two teams in office go out for a trip to a neighboring state jungle for two days? Find out!

The team: Vivek, Vimal, Temesh, Amrit, TC Ravi, Deepa, Kumar, Mohsin and Mervin from SP. Palas, Stanley, Ditsu, Bharath and Veena from Belk. And of course, the team manager Sandeep with his wife and kid.

The vehicle: One Tempo Traveller which sits 12 and Sandeep’s Palio NV.

The destination: Mudhumalai jungle in Tamil Nadu.

Date: 10th and 11th June, 2006

We left early in the morning from office after the shift. Reached the resort at noon. Jungle Hut is a beautiful place with a few hills providing the back drop. Deer come in to graze at their will. The place is run by an American family and most of the guests are also foreigners.

After settling down in our rooms, some plunged into the swimming pool while others simply rested before lunch. After lunch, we went for a jungle trek in two groups. We walked for about two hours but all we managed to see was some birds, flies and some “elephant cow dung”, the last term courtesy Ditsu. Oh… and Vivek got bitten by some ants. Anyway, we reached a small stream and after relaxing for a while there, we returned to the resort. The other highlight of the trek was my slipping and falling on a rock. No big deal, although the left elbow hurts even after four days.

Evening was relaxing time with bonfire arranged by the resort. Soon enough, we were playing Antakshari between two teams. In our team, Vivek and I were the only two regular contributors with occasional ‘surprises’ from TC and Veena. On the other team: Ditsu, Temesh, Sandeep, Mohsin, Palas and others were all singing and contributing. At one time, Vivek and I were the only ones sitting at our side. Still we managed to hold fort and at the end of the battle, come unscathed. It ended with a free jam session with Temesh singing “Raat kali…” at least four times and requesting everyone to sing “One song… fulllll song, antara, mukhra… fulllll song” he would say and then start “Raat kali...”! After a hearty dinner, we retired to bed early, since we were to leave early the next day for a jeep safari.

The next morning, we started at 5:30. There were plenty of deer all around. However, after the payment was made at the checkpost and we entered the reserve forest, there was not a single ant to be seen. It was all like “there was a tiger here the day before”, or “once a tiger ate a deer here for 30 minutes”… Nevertheless, the safari was refreshing.

After breakfast, a game of cricket was played with some (four) senior players joining us. Temesh and Vivek were the two captains. After a fierce competitive match, Temesh’s team lost by 16 odd runs. True to the tradition of Indian subcontinent captains (Sourav, Inzy) Temesh got a key player (me) run out. Otherwise, I was about to win the match on my own. [Note: no comment on this one allowed]

Our senior players (a group of old friends who were also there in the resort) treated us to beer and coke after the match before they left the resort. All of us then jumped into the swimming pool. Some crazy new games evolved… one of them being catch – catch where a team had to catch the ball thrown at them by the other team. Another was water basket ball, where the rules were not very clear to me… I only saw some very mismatched fights over control of the ball happening: Kumar against Stanley (truly David and Goliath). The highlight there was a swimming competition between Palas, Vivek, Stanley and me. In the cramped pool Stanley first tried to grab Palas’ arm and when Palas pushed him to left, Stanley grabbed my… ahem… shorts. Anyway, Palas and I managed to get away from him, but as soon as I turned, there was Stanley, with no hurry, swimming directly towards me! Palas won the match, but the chaos caused by the unruly behavior of Stanley gave us a rematch. This time it was one on one. Palas and me in a clean race, where I managed to beat Palas by a slender margin.

Before lunch, we had a small gathering where we discussed our office, process and related stuff. This was an official trip after all. Again the deer came in the resort and managed to distract us so we called the meeting off soon. Lunch was again a very elaborate buffet. After stuffing ourselves to glory, we left for Bangalore. DJ Palas was extremely efficient with my mp3 player and played one hit after the other, prompting Vivek to whistle a record breaking three minutes at a stretch.

The trip ended in office. Thanks to Ravi for providing the drunken entertainment and Ditsu for doing much more without getting drunk. It was a thoroughly enjoyable trip where we came to know so much about each other. We need to do this more often. What say guys?

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was a great blog showing each and every moment of the trip. But Subhodeep da the Term "ELEPHANT COWDUNG" was not by me. I have objection on that.

Last but not the least I would be glad to go in this kind of trips regularly

My name is Palas...and i'm no more an active blogger said...

Dada, a beautiful penning down of events..Another trip like this is something even i will look forward too..U cud have added Ditsu's "CATWALK", Saandeep's car bang and how Stan got left out right in the middle of M G Road to add some spice on to ur post..
But over all an awesome presentation.

~ ॐ ~ said...

aaaaaaaaaaaasome !!!

ViMaL said...

Subho correction: Temesh and Kumaran were the Captains for our 6 over match.

ViMaL said...

I can't think of any team planning an outing for 6 + months. lol.

Thanks to Vivek, I learnt to float in the pool, I think learning to swim wouldn't be a big deal now.

It was amazing to see Mr. TC learning to swim with the water inside him ;)

Ditsu u gave us an awsome company. Stan it was a great experience, thanks man!

Anonymous said...

Well Well Well...

Soon we are planing a small outing.
Most probably it will on Bikesssss. Near by area(50 to 100) KM. Intrested guys need to Bug Kumaran...This time we will look for Water fall.. if the same team comes...Ohh I have started dreaming of the fun we will have there....(^^)

Vivek

Kanika said...

Guys have all the fun eh???

Sounds BEEEAUUUUTIFUL!!

Simply put, imagining the day makes me so envious of you all. One day...i will be there with my books and a laptop and loads of rough sheets and pens and finish my first book.

One day!!!

R said...

I thoroughly, THOROUGHLY enjoyed reading this. All I want to say: YOU GUYS MAKE ME JEALOUS every month! You have these wonderful ways to have trips, hang out and assimilate moments. This sounds great. Wish I could be doing all this soon :|

And, okay, I missed Me First this time. Ahem. But SayanDi se to pehle hi post padha. Muahahahaha.

R said...

And, ahem, any pictures of the drunken entertainment session? :P

Subhadip said...

Ditsu: It is an established truth that you coined the term "Elephant cow dung".

Palas: This was a highlight only. One can write a book about Ditsu!

Prashant: Ass some? Thanks anyway :-)

Vimal: Who cares? Did they contribute? And if official trips can't happen, we will go dutch.

Vivek: 50 - 100 kms? Shivanasamudram is there. Or rappeling at Ramnagar. It will be fun. I am in.

Kanu: There were a few gals too! I am sure they had fun too! Two questions for you: 1) Why would you carry both laptop and paper? 2) Do you mind if I use your real name while addressing you?

Rohit: Every month? It was actually not that great... I write it that way to make you jealous. Does that make you feel any better? I know I am not very good at this. No pictures of the drunken entertainment... only memories.

Anonymous said...

There is one suggestion Subu. Why don't you put in more snaps of the "Elephant Cow Dung" to be exact if we have a snap of it.

You can put in a snap of the guys inside the pool and the two teams which went for trekking.

And I really hope we all go together once again to a place where we can enjoy as the same.

Anonymous said...

It was amazing trip .. filled with Fun and Humour and not to forget the memorable moments captured by my fav Subbu and 2 more people ... Hats off to them, this will cherish forever and ever and ever ... Wish to catch some more like this in coming years :)

Anonymous said...

Subhu once again has proved that he is great in exaggerating things.
LOL.

Subhu is awesome. We had lotts fun. I agree to it.
I think we could have more fun if we can take a bike trip.

Wat sat ppl ?

Anonymous said...

Dada, I was the winning captain of the cricket team. Vivek was in my team.

Unknown said...

"Elephant cow dung" is a superbly brilliant term indeed. So innovative! :) Congrats to the innovator.

Excellent trip from the looks of it. But am not so jealous today...Am back from a spectacular one myself... so what if it was primarily for work? :)

R said...

I wish there were pictures :/

Anonymous said...

Hey , while Shubhu was busy in jungle I was making sure the business in IBM keep growing so I went for interviews on sat thouggh did none :-)

Anyways sun there was a friendly gathering and Amar prusty joined me and Sammy.

Same experience I had in Mudumalai a week before just saw a wild pig and it was wild only as we saw in in jungle.

~ Deeps ~ said...

raat kali.........heheh this sounds goood.........seems like u guys had loads of fun..........:)

Banvri said...

so u ppl had grt time in madumalai jungle :D

srry i m late in ur blog but yes loved ur write up ..:)