Akshit Kalia: Our first year student shares his OutBound Learning Experience

Courtesy: Anjali Kishanchandani

“Why not be happy after a while? You get to a certain stage where you prepare yourself for happiness. Sometimes you never remember to get happy.”

The day finally arrives, after going through the rigorous filtering process, one arrives, gets amalgamated into a group of unfamiliar faces, albeit excited but apprehensive. The joy of getting in slowly shifts to worry about the future. Some get along instantly, similarity and dissimilarities around the spoken language slowly creeps in, and people sink into comfort zones.

5^th June, after getting slotted into different classes and boarding different buses, the new batch of MBA 2018-2020 at SIBM BENGALURU headed towards the same destination. The funny thing about the bus journey was that despite changes in generations, it’s the same old reliable games as “antakshri” and “dumb charades” which got resorted to, why change something that isn’t broke. These games are like starter ice breaker packs, light in content but highly effective in setting the ball rolling, by the end of the journey, a glimmer of cohesiveness was seen in the air.

Courtesy: Mrunalini Deshpande

If there is a perfect recipe for an outbound learning program it sure can’t be better than this: mountains, tents, vegetation, a group of young energetic students and to top it all, mellifluous weather. Over the next two days, this group of students got involved in various activities which forced them to open up. Each activity whilst different in nature drove home the same sacrosanct message, the concept of an isolated individualist genius is more myth than reality, major tasks are completed in groups, and the ability to make people work effectively are the ones worth acquiring.

For an observer, this was a bountiful opportunity to access what people are gunning for, what are their past experiences, future expectations. It’s only when the formal walls come down, do people start mingling and getting along. The outbound program shook the students out of their comfort zone and pushed them to unshackle apprehensions.

Under the guidance of professional instructors, students got involved in games, requiring varying levels of physical and mental prescience. This provided opportunities to identify strengths amongst team members and appropriate distribution of roles. It was all conducted in just a way that, it didn’t feel like a chore but like fun fables with valuables moral lessons at the end.

Courtesy: Krishna B

Time flies when one is having fun, the same could be applied to the days that were spent at the outbound program, time just went by like a tracer bullet. The trip also gave glimpses of how people behave under sleep deprivation, a premonition of things to come in a B school. The eagerness for tea and coffee was widely felt. At the fag end of the trip most people had more people to talk to then they had before. Many had made significant headway in conversing with the opposite gender, many had aspirations to seek after coming back.

The journey back felt like a journey back home, a place which would be an integral part of life for the next two years and many years to come. The learnings were plenty, but it’s the application of those learnings, that would determine how things pan out. Till then, it’s important to take risks and learn something new in this place which has loads to offers to everyone .