IGTC Chennai - Kodaikanal Outbound Educational Tour, January 20 - 25, 2010

The IGTC Kodaikanal Educational Tour between January 20-January 25, 2010 was the outcome of the desire of the first year students of IGTC, Chennai to venture on an out-of-town college trip, that was to be loaded with a huge fun quotient and balanced with doses of learning through presentations (faculty and students), CSR activities, group exercises (including inter-collegiate) and the like.

With accommodation and travel arrangements in place, the tour began with 20 students and 3 faculty members (Professors Jayashankar, Lakshmi D Chand and Bhuvana Venkatesh) taking the bus to Kodaikanal on January 19. The first day of the tour’s events commenced with an interactive session on Transactional Analysis (TA) facilitated by Prof. Leo Arun. The students appear to have imbibed the key concepts of this theory as TA related terms peppered their conversations thereafter during the tour!

The afternoon session was devoted to tracking down leads, collecting data through interviews and secondary sources for the presentation on various local topics (native practices to preserve Kodaikanal’s ecology, tourism promotion activities, local media in Kodaikanal, local women’s perspectives on life in Kodaikanal, and the like). The assignments were aimed at promoting student interaction with the local community, introduce them to the concepts of research, data collection and interpretation and sharpen their presentation skills. This activity was carried right through the tour, in their interaction with a cross section of the local community, while on outdoor activities, shopping – at every opportunity that afforded a local perspective!

The day was rounded off with a viewing of the film “Pursuit of Happyness”, the review of which is to be carried forward through in a regular classroom session.

Day 2 (January 21) was devoted to a tour of the town and its various sights. With a friendly local guide and an almost-native Kodaiite in Prof Lakshmi, nuggets of local information on the “sight seeing spots” was interspersed with adventurous trails down the forests and little streams, with almost every tree/log/waterfall featuring in the shots of 15 odd cameras whirring away! The day was rounded off with a campfire, music, dance, games and dinner.

Day 3 of the trip was eagerly anticipated as it was scheduled for a visit to Kodaikanal Christian College (KCC). This esteemed institution led by Dr. Sam Abraham graciously offered IGTC students an opportunity to visit their campus and interact with their students. The senior management of the institution along with the Department of Management organised two group activities for IGTC and their graduate/postgraduate students - the first activity called for a tower to be built using only 20 sheets of newspaper as the only resource. Ten teams of 10 members comprising IGTC and KCC students worked on this activity for 45 minutes – the results were amazing and ranged from a precisely constructed tower (awarded gifts as the clear winner!) to a rocket, to a wind/solar/weather satellite and even a human shaped tsunami detector/alarm!

Post a sumptuous lunch, IGTC and a select cross-section of KCC students were directed to work on a business plan to draw in tourists to Kodaikanal, especially during the off-season. The group dynamics were at play, with even the usually reticent students keenly participating in the development of the business plan, the teams restructuring themselves into functional subgroups, opinions vociferously expressed, discussed, discarded, absorbed enthusiastically, with many a eureka moment in between! The presentation of the plan was comprehensive and the panel of judges appreciated the attention to detail and the ability of the participants to think on their feet. The warm interaction/networking amongst the students offers immense potential for further such events in the future. 

The evening was devoted to cultural programs developed and conducted by the students as part of their CSR activities. The audience for the program were the orphans of the 2004 Asian tsunami, around 20 odd children who are currently under the care of the Abraham Trust. The students’ immense and genuine effort at entertaining the young children and gifting them with stationery was warmly reciprocated by the young children. Overwhelmed by the scale of the loss of family and support that these children have been deprived of, IGTC students have vowed to sustain and extend their support to these children and other activities along these lines, through a corpus with an initial funding of Rs. 10,000 by a student – Senthil, a most laudable gesture.

Day 4 had the students excited at the prospect of visiting Berijam lake - a favourite site with restricted entry - along with the visiting faculty trainers, Mr. Shivdas Narayan and Mr. R. Diwakar (ICON Global HR [US] and ICON Center for Training and Career Advancement [Chennai]). The cool environs had the students taking a stroll, playing games as assigned by the student sports manager (cricket, badminton, football), exploring the woods and was followed by a leisurely lunch.  Mr. Narayan assigned the students a task - create a fire using only natural resources. The students put their scientific knowledge to the test, attempted various options as different subgroups, and assigned roles for individuals to source raw material as they attempted to create a fire. The activity provided a lesson in resource management, planning, communication and other key management concepts, as discussed further in an interactive session by Mr. Shivdas in his session on Day 5.

The day also had Mr. Diwakar share his perspectives on retail trade selling skills. Drawing upon his vast experience, he skilfully kept the students engaged with comprehensive information, live examples and many stories! The session ended with an impromptu thought-provoking short speech by Dr. David Amritha Rajan (Dean, College Development Council, Madurai Kamaraj University), who set the students thinking on focusing their skills towards the development of the rural sector.  IGTC, through Prof. Jayashankar appreciated all the speakers (Mr. Shivdas Narayan, Mr. Diwakar, Dr. David Amritha Rajan) for their time and generosity in sharing their knowledge with the presentation of the coin commemorating 50+ years of the establishment of the Indo German Chamber of Commerce.

The post-lunch session was set aside for a friendly competitive cricket match between IGTC students and the students of Kodaikanal Institute of Technology (KIT). The match witnessed amiable banter, mock tense moments, lots of wounded soldiers with stories of the results varying depending on the team member you spoke to! The teams then patched themselves up for a trip to town to sit down for the last supper of the tourJ!

The last day of the tour (January 25) began with the viewing of a couple of motivational speeches by noted author Sivashankari and eminent speaker Suki Sivam. This was followed by Prof. Leo Arun’s session on leadership and team building. The concepts were drawn out of the activity that the students were to perform – as two teams, students were to work together and help their leader reach across a drawn line to drop a shoe a the farthest point, factoring in restrictions that no props were to be used and none of the other members were to cross the line. As the students were to later express, this activity and the activities of the preceding days of the tour, compelled students to reach out to each other, interact and learn more about every individual, brought out their competitive, creative, leadership spirits, taught them to be more accepting of individual differences and to take the initiative to band together for a cause, and impacted positively on their communication and presentation skills (personally and professionally).

The session was formally brought to a close with an appreciation of the efforts of Mr. Leo Arun towards training as also in the facilitation of the conduct of the tour. The contributions of Prof. Lakshmi and Mr. Parthiban in organizing the travel, accommodation and the various sessions were also acknowledged.

Interspersed with these events, were the trips to the favourite hang-out Pastry Corner, bicycle trips around the lake, vigorous bargains at the local stalls, sampling the local chai and cuisine, all night rehearsal gigs for the cultural programs, striking up friendships/deals with the local populace (of the human and animal variety!), photo sessions that probably have captured every place/scene in Kodaikanal, lots of laughter and repartee and certainly a richer experience in terms of learning - individual, interpersonal and as a group.

An encore of such a tour? A resounding Yes!

IGTC Chennai