Mallya Aditi Children's Camp

The first view of the camp

It was a typically chilly Bangalore morning that greeted the children of Mallya Aditi . The reason, they were about to venture out on a 4 day outdoor camp at Germalam. None of them, including the teachers had any notion of what would be in store for them over the next few days………..…… The first views of the camp send their spirits soaring.

The briefing

On the first day at the camp, the children were busy getting settled in and preparing ourselves mentally and physically for the days ahead. They were split into four groups and asked to come up with names and logo’s for each of our teams.

Team building games

After much deliberations, discussions and heated arguments, the teams finally came out with a few interesting options. Group 1 called themselves Gorbachov’s, Group 2 was Veerapan’s, Group 3 The Haboobies and Group 4 was the Fluorescent Adolescents (F.A). And thus began the camp games, which the children enjoyed thoroughly.

The second day started with a 2 hour trek into the forest and its periphery, where they were on the lookout for wildlife and some interesting varieties of flowering plants that are found in these parts. Although we didn’t have much of a wildlife sighting, we did have a night visitor, a solitary bear, the very same night.

Post lunch, the emphasis was on some team building games. Each of the teams went through the Spider Web, Pipeline, and Minefield.

Tug-O-War

The teams had an opportunity to test their strength with the Tug-O-War. Being a competitive event it was held over the 3 days and team Haboobies proved to be the strongest. We even has an all girls team which created quite an upset when they beat Gorbachov’s.

Love Shack

Now it was time for the teams to build the team shelters. Creative juices flowed, forgotten skill sets were brought out of their closets and spies were send to other team camps for reconnaissance. At the end of it all Team.F.A were declared winners.

En Route to build rafts

The Relay

On Day 3,we were taken to the Tibetan colony nearby. Here we were given detailed instructions and taught the fine art of raft building. After toiling for more than 2 hours we all finally managed to get the team rafts ready. And now we were all set for the raft race. A relay race with 6 in each raft competing against the other teams for the honor of being the first to cross the lake and return. Then they exchange places with another 6 members of their team. After a grueling and closely fought race, Team F.A was declared the winners.

Hungry tired and famished we trundled along. Only to find out that there was a surprise treat waiting for us. Authentic Tibetan Momo’s. We gobbled them up. Prannoy was the momo champion with 8 helpings (After which he had to be carried back in a specially build stretcher).

Cultural Programme

The last and final item on the competitive list was the cultural programme. Each team was allotted 10 – 15 minutes to showcase their talents. We were kept amused by an entourage of talented singers, actors, dancers and musicians.

F.A won the cultural competition too and was crowned the overall champions.

By now we were all starving. A delicious dinner was what we were hoping for and that’s exactly what we go. A sumptuous spread of local cuisine.

Mallya Aditi Team

The last and final day was quite a sad one. The camp was such great fun that none of us wanted to go back. There is no doubting that they will definitely be back soon.