Van Nivas > Ahaa!!!

Himalayan Workshop is a mandatory 5-day workshop for the second year students. As part of this program, our group, consisting of 10 members, went to Nainital. The journey started on Oct 15th 2011. The route was Indore --> Delhi --> Kathgodam --> Nainital. Some of our group members also visited the great Taj Mahal, Mathura and Gokul during our waiting time in Delhi. We all know that this is a kind of one-off life-time opportunity and were keen to enjoy every moment of it. But little we had known, before the trip, that this trip would encourage everyone of the team to take some important lessons for the life ahead. We thank Prof Gunta, Prof JV and members of Van Nivas Ashram for making the trip memorable.

We reached Van Nivas ashram on Oct 17th morning. The introductory speech given by Prof JV Avadhanulu gave us a glimpse of what is in store for us. We understood that the next few days is going to be fun-filled and more importantly a very unusual life for an IIM student completely away from technology, away from the outside world, more close to the nature and importantly to the inner-self. The volunteers of the ashram were very helpful through out the trip. Everyday we had to do some adventurous activities along with Yoga and Pranayamam.

We started the first day with a trek to Tiffin Top. The path was extremely tough, narrow and at some places a bit dangerous. Most of our group members were doing such an activity for the first time in their life and enjoyed every moment of it. We had loads of photos after reaching the view point. It just gave us a taste of tryst with nature.

The second day we went on to do scrambling, trekking through caves). Though a few guys were skeptical if they would pull it through, at the end everyone of us comfortably completed the activity. This just gave us all the confidence that we can do such activities.

The third day we had a choice of going to either a 19-km trek or to Jim Corbett National park. All of us chose 19-km trek. I should day that this was the best part of the entire trip. The trek was a test of endurance and stamina than anything else. For the first time in life, many of us are very close to nature for at least 6 hours and completely forgot our body pains. We came back with loads of memories.

Day 4 started with bouldering, rock climbing using hands. This was a bit risky in the sense that it's more of ability to balance once body and shed the fear of heights. At the same time each of us kept encouraging each other and completed the activity.

On Day 5, we had rappelling (rock climbing using rope) and river crossing. Rapelling was very challenging and river-crossing was a different experience. Though we were disappointed with river-crossing, we all enjoyed rappelling.

We also had to perform skits on Day 4 and Day 5. This is also a highlight of the trip because it made us realize what we are capable of and every has a artistic angle in him. The preparation for this event was more of team building exercise and we all will always remember the fun we had. We came up with a skit "Chalo Nainital" with a small but effective message about the importance of preserving our environment.

On a whole, we had many lessons about having self belief, importance of Yoga in life and more importantly the impact of being close to nature as much as possible. Each one of us were very impressed by the stamina and agility of Prof. JV even at an age if 60+. We came back from nainital with many gifts to near & dears, and more importantly loads of memories.