We wrote about our annual off-site earlier and talked about how much fun it was. We also told you that we’d write about the Amazing Race, which turned out to be the most exciting activity of the trip. Deepali Panjabi, our wizard from the Delivery section was roped in to give you her experience of the events that unfolded that day:

The Reach Camp – our very own Amazing Race in Goa. Actually it was better than the Amazing Race because there was no selection of people who would take part in it. Everyone had to be part of the race. Why? Because this was our last training activity at our Off-site of ’08.

The race was quite simple – everyone would get dropped off at a common spot and each team (all Pinstormers were already split into 12 teams, each consisting of between 7 to 9 people) along with the ‘Outdoor Expert’ (OE) would have to travel from one point to another across Goa. Sounds simple doesn’t it. It was actually easy except for a few ‘catches’

• Each team was given one map.
• Each team member was given Rs.20
• Each team member was given 1 litre of water
• Each team member was given 1 packet of Tiger biscuits
• There was a time limit of 19 hours from the drop off to the final destination.
• At no point in time was any member of the team to be separated from the group.
• Only 1 mobile phone per team was allowed and this couldn’t be used except to call the organizers and find the next destination to get to once we were at our destination.

Think 19 hours is a lot? Well not for 80 kilometres. YES! 80 kms was the distance we had to cover with only a few packets of biscuits and few litres of water. Of course water and biscuits could be purchased as could accommodation but really what can you do with Rs.140 -Rs.160 for 7-8 people? The organizers were a little nice to us and said that we could buy from them water, biscuits and blankets (remember 19 hours) at discounted rates.

So at around 5:30 P.M. we got dropped at our drop-off point and given our first checkpoint of the race, a distance of 4 kms. Obviously most of us thought we had to walk the race and figure out ways to find cheap travel means, etc. but our OE very correctly told us that we could decide between walking, taking a bus or hitching a ride. We decided hitching a ride is the best thing to do and so did every other team. So here we are on this road, some 100 odd people, all pointing their thumbs outs for a ride. Imagine the scene: Pinstormers from the world over, screaming out to truck drivers the location of where we wanted to go.

Now the post talks about my team specifically and what happened to us. I don’t remember the names of all the places we stopped at but it’s the journey that counts. My team consisted of Netra, Savita, Jigar, Manish, Jayant, Vinod, our OE, Rahul and myself.

The first van that stopped for us was filled with 6 – 7 people but the driver allowed us to get in. Now that van could have taken about 3 extra people but guess how many jumped in… EIGHT! That turned out to be a crazy ride with Rahul and Vinod standing on the edge of the van and holding on for dear life. Okay that’s a little exaggeration but if they did slip, there would be major injuries. I have been in cramped cars many times but never like this. The people who were already sitting inside couldn’t understand what was happening. They couldn’t understand the concept behind this race/competition and having no money and only biscuits and a long distance to cover.

All said and done, they were great. I bet they were super happy when we got off at our stop. We gave hearty thanks to the driver and he just kept laughing.

At the next checkpoint, we saw another team just in front of us getting into a mini truck and we ran to catch them. While running, I was on the phone with Shekhar (organizer) asking him for the next stop. By the time we got to the truck, they drove off and we started to stick our thumbs out, all over again.

We got into this Sumo and it was brilliant because this guy was going in the same direction that we had to go and therefore ended up dropping us at the next four checkpoints! Of course each time we got to a stop, all of us had to get off and make the man wait till we got the name of the next checkpoint. He was a nice man. An electoral officer if I remember correctly. By the time he dropped us off, I bet he wasn’t thinking nice things about us :)

What was funny was when we explained to the drivers why we needed the lift. They were all shocked at how a company can set up such a task and let us out loose in Goa with no money.

We went on like this for quite a while, some times ahead of teams, sometimes behind teams. The few things that everyone in the team did for the first time which we never thought we would do were -

• Being driven around by a millionaire in his Maruti SX4.
• Ride on coconuts – yup a truck was transporting coconuts and we just got on top of them.
• Ride inside a truck – with the driver, cleaner and eight other team-mates crammed in the front of the truck!

Eventually, only two teams finished the whole race and got to the last checkpoint. All the other teams did not have that privilege because the cops found a couple of teams hitching ride and were not amused. They were pissed because Goa after 10pm can be quite deserted especially some of the roads that were on our course. And hitching rides especially in trucks isn’t really safe. So the game had to be stopped and all the teams except the ones that finished were transported back by the organizers. Unfortunately for the 2 teams that finished, they had to start walking back towards the hotel. Having finished the race and sitting on the sidewalk for an hour and a half and seeing nearly no traffic pass by, to be told that we have to walk back to the hotel cause there are problems with the cops, was not fun. But what can I say, fortune favours the brave. After about 10 – 15 minutes of walking, we found a mini-bus come along our way. And the driver dropped us to our hotel. Of course he got paid for it.

Anyways, there was great learning from the whole activity. For all those who were involved. Some of the most important lessons from the race are those that apply to nearly everything in life.

1) All of us went into the race thinking it was the worst thing to do and impossible to complete. It wasn’t. It was way easier than we expected and a lot more fun that we thought possible. Life is always different from behind the start line. Only once you start running do you see things as they really are. Being uselessly worried about things before you know enough to be worried is foolish and unproductive.

2) Our preconceived notions can hold us back. Every single person in the race was amazed at how helpful the people of Goa were. No one entered the race believing that we would get the kind of help we got. I mean most of us, as a strategy, had decided to stop trucks because car owners would obviously not take us. We were horribly wrong! I later heard of teams that got up to 8 members into Santro’s and Maruti 800′s.

3) No matter what you do and how you do it, you are creating an experience, a memory. It will stay with you for life (unless you get amnesia) and each of these memories will be cherished when you look back at them.

4) If you work together and really hard, you can surpass anyone’s expectations. We had up to 19 hours to finish the race. The teams that did finish the race did it within 7 hours. Not one single person in any group thought about where they would stop and rest for the night. Even at 11 a lot of tired teams decided only to push further rather than stop for the night and start in the morning.

You can find more about the Pinstorm 2008 off-site here.