Startup Leadership fellows from Mumbai and Pune had an amazing time on their outbound trip to Lonavala on February 3rd 2013. Twenty four in total and some were accompanied by their spouses and friends. Shared below is some personal experience by one of the SLP Mumbai fellows.
Punit, the event organizer’s ice breaking technique helped the fellows to pass the hurdles of formality and create a friendly atmosphere. And in 10 minutes the intrepid fellows were divided into 2 groups of 12 each. The two teams were asked to choose a name and both the teams quickly came up with funny names; team Ghanta “Bell” & team Strombss+.  Both teams also decided to add a tagline to their team names (Ghantey sey Panga, Jagah pey Nanga – “You mess with the Bell, We strip you on the spot”) and (Dhishkyaon, Dhishkyaon – “Shoot ‘em dead”).
The teams engaged in some great team building activities and  discovered that some of the most soft-spoken and seemingly introvert members could get very aggressive and strong willed- “cue Bhavna with her “Shut up, I’m concentrating” and Abhijeet with his strong leadership on the “Cross the River” activity. The teams also found some great camaraderie, mostly as a result of winning the first 2 activities hands down through a combination of calculated risk taking, teamwork, and acceptance of ideas.
Team Ghanta and Team Strombss went to lunch where we recapped on the activities and discussed some of the different aspects of the teamwork we saw. The lunch menu was all vegetarian and beer-free, so a bunch of us (the Magnificent Seven) went next door to KFC and demolished 3 buckets of unsuspecting chicken.
Post lunch, teams had a round of formal introductions where the person to the left introduced the person to its right. This took some time and included hilarious anecdotes about peoples’ choice of favourite Actor / Actress with a majority of the guys plumping for Deepika Padukone or Katrina Kaif. Notable outlier and trailblazer was Noel Sequeira with his choice of Scarlett Johansson.
We then indulged in the cake cutting ceremony of Pranay, who was celebrating his 34th birthday. A lot of gravity-defying birthday bumps later, we managed to eat most of the 2 cakes, and smear some of the icing on a few chosen fellows in gratitude of their boisterous welcome to my new year This also awarded the opposition some brownie (pun intended) points to come level with Team Ghanta to make the games interesting.
The next activity was a memory-based minesweeper game with a lattice laid out on the ground and for team members to remember their previous member’s mistakes and not make them twice in a row. Here too, Team Ghanta dominated, with all the team completing the route before even half of the opposition could make it home.
The last activity was a bomb defusing activity that almost set the proceedings alight with Pradeep and 3 other team members challenging the judge’s ruling that disqualified the win on a technical ground. Further investigations and this was sustained in the favor of team Ghanta.
We finished up by 1730 hrs but not before Punit showed a game that none were able to do in time. It was a hand held snooker game with a large sheet to maneuver balls into the intended pockets…An uneventful drive home, and some dinner with friends capped a great end to an amazing day.  ~ Pranay,  SLP Mumbai