“Surya Shibir- The Exciting Trailer of a Rocking Film to Come!!”
“The date of your birth, the trailer of a movie,
Are enough to decide what will be the coming excitement and paparazzi ”
As all of us know, in Indian tradition, the birth of a child and merely the birth date of his existence is enough to determine what his/ her entire journey would be like.
So , goes for a movie..the trailer of the movie is a precursor to determine what the movie will be like!
And so was my first experience with my new SCIT mates at Surya Shibir-the trailer for what SCIT holds for me ahead…and here it is…the content of this thrilling trailer.
PRE- SHOWER
The beginning of this event happened one night prior in all the hostel rooms, with all girls rolling in their bags, some going for shopping to buy track pants, shoes, raincoats..some buying the girly make- up stuff..After all girls are girls..Even if it is a trek, we have to be loaded and ready with our most important requirement in the world–Our make- ups 24*7*365..Many girls turning up after their shoppings, followed by the bag packing session which included last time important decisions like “How many bags are we taking.(though the requirement could be stuffed in 1 bag, but we girls cannot really be satisfied until we carry over luggage:D), How many pair of clothing/shoes are we carrying etc,?, How are we gonna be able to wake –up sooo early morning to be able to report by 6:00 am”. These sessions , which almost extended to 1:00 am the prior night finally leading to a sleep time of barely 3-4 hours before we start decking for the main journey.
The excitement among all was at its peak as it was the first session of formally meeting everyone in the batch (though , as the college rule goes, the guys and girls had mutually almost checked out each other completely during the very crucial timings of the entire day when they are most attentive-the lunch and dinner timings 😀 ) . Keeping the humour aside, the excitement and thrill also were at a high quotient because everyone was excited to stay together as a group and indulge into sport and team activities which had for long not been done by many in the industry in front of their machines 9-5.
DAY I-
The morning, which had not been anytime before 8/9:00 am for all in prior days, that day began at 4:00 am with all girls getting up and warming up,getting ready for the 6:00 am reporting. The morning reporting in the SIU Hinjewadi Campus at 6 saw a lot of photo sessions followed by an attendance which had for long been forgotten in the mental system.
Post our attendance , all of us were seated into buses sectionwise . That was a good decision as that helped us know each other , atleast by faces . A few moments of silence that happens when new people meet for the first time, was followed by interactive activities like Antakshari and Dumb-Charades which helped us know each other and gel along together . A journey of 2-2.5 hours made us reach the resort named “Surya Shibir, the haven for the SCIT fun” , and the rendezvous of this fun ride is as below –
Upon reaching the resort with few of our faculty members , we were distributed in small groups and assigned rooms wherein we , post landing our luggage , were supposed to meet in the Dining Area for breakfast. What followed this was an amazing joy ride of introduction to our team of trainers who were responsible for making us perform certain group activities .
“THE STORY OF THE JACKET” –
Post introduction to the team of trainers, we all were split up into few teams for performing certain group activities. A person from the instructing team told us that to start off with the activities, each one of us would be given a Paper ID- Card to write our name, a Pen , and a “JACKET”. The news of getting a jacket for the camp excited each one of us, for the girls, a saviour from the tanning and for the guys, a symbol of style.
However, to our utter shock and dismay this jacket was nothing but a laminated transparent plastic cover of 3 inch by 2 inch(approx) to cove r the Paper – ID Card that we were given :D:D.This jacket along with the ID Card were supposed to be our life- saver as we were informed that without wearing it and showing this ID and jacket we would not be given food at any time. Hence, we ensured that we took care of this “JACKET” till the end of our journey, as much we valued our lives. :DD
Coming back to the flow of events, after the Jacket Ceremony was over, we , in the divided teams of 12 members were made to perform group activities like “Pass the Ball” , Chariott Race, Ball Race,
3- Legged Group Race which helped us getting close to each other and working in teams with people whom we had barely met few hours back.
Each team of 12 members was given ID Cards of a specific colour and each team was supposed to give a unique name to their teams. There were teams named OMG(Oh My God), Pink Panthers to name a few..And among all such names was one of our teams, which , due to the colour of the ID Cards, and also because of the self-obsessed people of the group claiming to be hot;) was named by us as “Hawwtt Pink”. All along the stretch of our stay at “ Surya Shibir ”, we were supposed to perform activities in this group only, hence this was one group of people with whom, in mere 2 days of time I got real close. The group members of this group were Amrita Palmal, Shweta Tiwari,Rahul Simon ,Vaibhav Shah, Harshita Khatri , Nisha Y, Fenil Gandhi, Ravi Prakash(alias Benny), Shreyas Amte , Parth Desai, Lovepreet Sidhu and myself-Suhaani Khemchandani.
All the activities that we were made to perform at Surya Shibir were aimed at imparting necessary lessons needed in practical life for efficient Management , with the basic Mantra –
“ Learn while you have Fun ”.
Some of my takeaways from the 1st session of group activities were-
- Importance of Unity in Team Work
- Importance of Efficient Resource Utilisation
- Importance of good Convincing Skills and Listening skills in team work.
This session was followed by another set of group activities and games like Cobweb, Shepherd and Sheep (wherein all members but one were blindfolded and the sheep/ master was supposed to guide other blindfolded sheeps to a particular destination) , Save Aishwarya (a metal heavy weight rod which was named Aishwarya, to the utter shock of guys expecting something else from the game name, had to be transferred from one side of a field to another which had certain obstacles.)
My takeaways from this session of group activities were –
- Work Smart, not hard always(As ‘Save Aishwarya’ game had certain smart techniques which could ease the game)
- Trust (As the sheep shepherd game required all the blindfolded sheep to merely listen to the Shepherd)
These 2 sessions of intense group activities, which were timed perfectly( as per the discipline of our trainer -Colonel) were followed by a group interactive session wherein each group of 24 members(2 groups of 12 people merged) was supposed to prepare something entertaining to be presented in front of the other groups in the evening hours of 8pm -9pm. Our group(H group- merger of Hawwt Pink and Pink Panthers) had decided to do a Fashion Show and with that planning all in place, we decided to part ways for some rest.
Post relaxation, we met in a common area where few groups performed skit, dances, few individual performances and the closing ceremony saw our Ramp Walk along with 2 solo performances by our H – group which included a brilliant stand- up comedy by the natkhat and very shy guy of the group -:PRahul Simon(his tagline—i am always shy with girls) and a breathtaking dance number by Fenil Gandhi. It was really nice to realise that there was soo much of talent in the SCITians I met and I was bowled to see such companions. This was followed by dinner and the day closed at this, with all tired souls kicking into bed to report at 6:00 am the next morning for the next day activities.
DAY II –
The next morning saw all of us in the rooms getting up and decking up in the fastest ways possible. Waking up at 5:00 am and getting ready was a habit long forgotten by many, and “Surya Shibir ” reminded us of all of this. The prior day , we were divided into 2 major groups, of which one group had been taken for trek and some indoor activities while the other group indulged in outdoor activities. So Day 2 saw the roles swiping in.
So, Day 2 , for the group , I was part of, was headed towards a trek for 5 kms or so. The trek was a really challenging one as the trek was quite steep uphill and downhill as well. The newly made friends of day 1 , Hawwtt Pink and Pink Panthers, together the H Group , had by now become very friendly and the trek saw a lot of care and concern for each other, with guys helping out the girls in steep slopes and helping them with luggage etc. Loads of pictures taken for memory, eating berries and mangoes from trees on the way of trek followed by reaching “Surya Shibir” just in time for lunch was what followed. Post Lunch we all were instructed to assemble for certain indoor activities which included interviewing and drawing sketches of your group members and describing them to the whole audience and “Banner making And Selection” .
This formally ended the list of activities meant for us to train, intermingle , break the ice and make us friendly with as many people as we could.
Finally , the icing on the cake was the distribution of sweets to the winner of the group activities which left all of us thrilled!
This was the end of thw 2 day tour to “Surya Shibir” after which we were packed into our buses, again sectionwise, though this time the enervation and exhaustion of the activities led to a silent comeback journey, getting back into our rooms with the luggage and
“That Was The End Of The Rin Tin Tin ”
Apart from the team activities and personal lessons meant to be learnt by means of Surya Shibir, one major take – away for me from the Surya Shibir was the discipline of Colonel and his team, their punctuality and fitness which I realised is the major thing for being able to accomplish big goals in life..As the saying goes ,
“Health is Wealth”.
Summing up my entire Surya Shibir Experience in a closing phrase would be something like-
A lot of new friendships for journeys to come,
Moments of noise and Mum
Loads of lessons, activities and fun,
The amazing warm- up for the coming Run!
Meeting friends for Lunch, Dinner and High- Tea,
A beautiful beginning of SCIT! JJ
