Notes from the Tycoons Journal- P2

We hit Rishikesh at 5:30 next morning. And for the record, we had a camera crew following us everywhere we went. The previous night, just as the bus started from Delhi, the crew came around to each one of us. One guy (forgot his name) who was handling the recording mike, thrust the lights,lens and the mike in each of our sleepy faces and asked what we expected the outbound round to be like! We answered, of course.

Krishna was the facilitator for our group. We crossed Rishikesh and went 12 kms further. It must have been around 6:30 when we stopped in the middle of nowhere. We got off the bus, rubbing our sleepy eyes. And Krishna announces: "The whole team together needs to do 250 push-ups." Rude awakening number one. We realised how rusted our bodies really were as we did push ups on the road blocking the traffic! Advice: Exercise. We carried our huge suitcases downhill for almost a kilometre before we reached our tents by the river. 48 of us were put into 8 groups of 6. I was in team 3 (and subsequently in tent 3) with Yash, Pikoo, Piyush and Saumya. Jasleen was the girl in the group.

We lined up for river crossing after breakfast. What an experience walking across the breadth of a flowing stream forming a human chain! The rule was that if the chain broke midway, we start from the beginning. Guess what happened? We crossed the river to and fro 4 times without our human chain breaking once. We played a soccer game (versus Team 4, I think). We were 1-1 and the game went down to shoot-outs. 4-4 and the last kick was there to be taken. The decider. I took it. And missed. I ran back to the tent (I wanted to drown myself in shame). After lunch that day, we set out on a 6-7 kms trek to the main Ganges river for rafting. (For the rafting experience, look up on the post titled 'Rajjan'). Jumping off the 20 feet cliff was the craziest thing of the day. 100 points for anyone who jumped off the cliff.When you stand on the cliff and look below, there's only green water visible. It feels as if you are on Mt. Everest, I mean it feels so high! And the boatman who's there tells you not to look down but to keep your gaze fixed on the hill straight ahead and just walk beyond the cliff. One chilling experience as the ground from beneath your feet disappears and the 9.8 kicks in!

We got back that night, gobbled down dinner and crashed in our tents. Some 14 people were called to sit for a 'hot seat' session with the facilitators after dinner. Rumours went around that these people were already selected for the next round (24 out of 48 were to be picked. So we were told by the rumour mongers that 14 were already booked). How untrue. Advice: Trust your judgement, not the rumour.

(to be continued)