It was a nice relatively colder Saturday early morning and I was not really feeling like getting up but after snoozing the alarms 2-3 times I finally got up to get ready for our Global Solutions trip to Durshet.

It all started 2 weeks back when Bhakti, couple of other GS members and I started looking for a perfect picnic spot for our trip. With the restrictions like a place less than 3 hours’ drive, should be colder, in the woods and with good foodJ, we had tough time in finding one. Then we finalized on Durshet which is located towards north of Pune at about 100 kms. We did the bookings and were looking for a perfect weekend.

I reached Sigma House at around 6:10 where Sanjay and Rajan, the two early arrivers and true GS members were wondering why there is no one when we were supposed to start at 6:00J. As usual people started arriving as per IST and finally we started exactly at 6 AM…Ahem… at 7:30J. In the beginning all were silent and everyone probably was thinking about why I woke up so early on Saturday morning. But after a while people started coming out of their dreams and something called Antakshari (as per Tathagata Screaming ladies) started. And suddenly we all were charged up and singing, dancing and screaming (a lot…) in the bus and finally the driver and the cleaner had to close all the doors, windows and everything that was in between the driver and passenger compartments. All were shouting at me (chai… chai…) after every alternate song about giving Chai (Tea). Soon after that Akshay joined us at the Talegaon toll booth and there was one more voice added in the screaming.

We reached Durshet at 9:10 which surprised us all as we thought that it would take about 3 hours to reach there and all were happy that they got their Chai in time. We got the room keys, the day’s schedule and headed towards the dining hall and had a fine breakfast. idli, Vada Sambar, Omlet, Jam and bread, bananas wow what a way to start the day. We had breakfast and there was plenty of time before our adventure activity would start so we took out our cricket kit.

In the beginning we struggled in setting up the rules of the game but eventually the teams were formed and the game started and we kept setting up the rules. It was our batting first (I still don’t remember who was our captain but I think it was Dhananjay) our scoreboard kept ticking up (not just because of the batsmen but also because of all support that we got from all people counting the runs and I really thank themJ ) It was a great game though where we saw some great batting by …..??? but I remember Kunal, Dhananjay and Anupam did some good batting. I think they are now also going to apply for Pune’s IPL team next year. Let’s see if they get buyers :-).

At about 11 AM we headed to so called the “Adventure Sports”. We were told that it’s called valley crossing but we came to know that its Foxflying. Some of us started to look up in the sky to see if there are any flying foxes. But then we came to know that we are going to be the foxes… I still wonder who gave that crazy name to this sport. So the sport is like this. There are two ropes (normal line, life line) tied to trees separated by a distance of about 100-125 meters with one end to a tree on at bottom of the hill. You are tied to a safety harness and attached and you have to lie parallel to the rope and keep your head down and look towards your destination. And the rope is released and within seconds you come from uphill to the bottom (without taking any extra efforts and breaking any of your bones) The hardest part is later because you had the fun earlier in coming from the top of the hill to the bottom and now you have to climb back to the top on your foot L But were are happily to get back as the next activity was swimming.

We got our stuffs, put on our swimming suites???? Don’t worry this part was censored so there are no photos in this section. But this too was an adventurous activity for some of us. Anupam thought that the pool was very small so directly jumped in it in the section where it was about 6 ft+ deep and then he suddenly realized that he cannot swimJ. He tried to look for people around him on whom he can jump and try to come out of water so finally Yusuf / Tathagata rescued him. So both have them now have filled in online form for “Red and White” bravery awards. And Anupam is probably looking on google about “How to swim”. Anupam later on tried to convince people that it was intentional and he was trying to find out his real friendsJ but he did not know that both Yusuf and Tathagata thought that it was some girl they are saving but then later they realized that it was AnupamJ. But the pool was real fun but Ritu could not really enjoy it much and swim from one end to the other end because she was saying that she can only swim under water and the pool was too long for her and she cannot breathe for so long??? I am still trying to figure out what she was trying to convey by saying “Arey you are not getting, I can swim underwater but cannot swim from this end to the other” is that because to take a breath she needs to come at the surface and then there she cannot swim right so she will drown?.. what a logic :-)

After we had a great time in the swimming pool we all were very hungry and headed towards the lunch room. It was damn crowded but we managed to get some place before we die of hunger. The menu was good and the taste as well. Some of us were not satisfied with the flying foxes so they decided to have some flying chickens for lunch. Jayesh was desperate for this particular part of the trip. With our stomachs full we came back to our rooms thinking that we’ll either play some games or will take a little nap. (Bhakti was very eager to keep everyone awake and she told me that “Agar koi sota hein to mein room mein ghus ke maroongi and I was just imagining Bhakti beating Yusuf / Sanjay”)

It was not even 30 minutes after the lunch when the Adventure guy (That’s what I had named him) asked us to gather for rappelling and Ritu was worried about the tolerance of the ropes because she had just finished a couple of chickens during the lunch (rest were saved because she is doing diet J). We headed towards the huge Rocky Mountains for rappelling. After about 20 minutes walk all great trekkers (which is normally completed in 10 minutes by Amateurs :-)). We reached at the bottom and Ritu was constantly complaining to her Bhaiya about these efforts and constantly saying “Kya bhaiya aapne itna paise leke itna chalate ho aur ye itne pahad pe jake rope se neeche utar te ho” (Actually she was upset because she was afraid that she would lose weight because of all this extra exerciseJ) But finally it was a great experience and we had fun in doing rappelling on that Huge (30-40 ftJ) rock.

Finally all our adventures were over and we headed back to our rooms. We relaxed there, crack some jokes and then it was a time for a group photo. Bhakti wanted to stay there overnight and was trying to see if she can convince Bhavana or someone else but her efforts were not enough and she had to return back with all of us.

But overall it was a great Saturday with a great team. I found that there are of talented team members. Dancers like Rajan and Shailesh (people started looking elsewhere after looking at their dances), Singers like Mukesh, Ritu (driver had to close the cabin doors), Cricketers like Jayesh (who was more on the outside of the ground injured rather than being on the ground), good swimmers like Anupam, Ritu, Mukesh( Anupam was a great first swimming experience, Ritu a great underwater 5 mtr swimmer and Mukesh is just always ready to jump in the water), Jayesh also showed good talent in doing the job of cleaner / assistant to driver and helped them find out their missing CDs, which they eventually played when we arrived in Pune. Soon we will discover the best photographers (who would compose the picture to cut the unimportant parts like foreheads and above , right or left hands and legs of the people standing on the sides etc.) But it was eventually a great GS trip ever with lots of fun and Adventure all the day.