When adventure calls

When adventure calls
Bangalore’s thrill-seekers are embracing a gamut of new high-energy adventure sports, says Shrabonti Bagchi
The Telegraph

Picture this: a masked gang in combat gear carrying vicious looking guns stalks another over rough terrain. As the other group of guerrilla warriors hides itself behind a clump of trees, a lone member is left straggling behind as he trips and falls. Immediately the members of the first group are on to him, pelting him with bullets till he rolls over looking almost lifeless. His enemies advance on him stealthily, a feral look in their eyes and a satisfied smile on their lips.

Deadly guerrilla warfare in the depths of the Amazon jungle? Or, more prosaically for these times, a nasty computer war game? Oh no, it’s real enough, except that it’s not taking place in some dense forest but on a clearing built for the purpose on Bannerghatta Road outside eminently un-warlike Bangalore.

It’s a war-game called Paintball and it has just reached Indian shores. In fact, the facility in Bangalore is the one of the only two of its kind in India, claims Naresh Sheshadri of Yuyutsa Consulting, the developers of this activity.

The game involves two groups being let loose with guns that discharge special bullets filled with a vegetable dye (hence the name Paintball) on a specified terrain that has very realistic obstacle courses and challenges. The rules are simple: each team strives to ‘eliminate’ as many members of the other team as possible. A team member struck by a paintball is marked by the dye and is out of the game.

Simple as it sounds, there can be as many as 40 to 50 variations of the game, says Sheshadri. “The games can be customised for corporate training routines and even for people at various executive and managerial levels,” he adds. Also, if a group of friends wants to get together and play at killing each other, that can be arranged too.

Bangalore has long been considered a hub of adventure sports in the country, and it’s fast leaving other centres behind in terms of innovation. Adventure sport activities here are fast moving beyond the conventional, well-worn tracks of rock climbing, trekking and white water rafting.

Which is where activities such as paintball, moonlight biking, microlight flying and parasailing come into the picture. According to S K Sheshadri who runs an outbound travel and adventure promoting organisation, Care in Bangalore, the field is opening up with participants looking for the unusual in adventure. Care has extended its list of activities to cave explorations, parasailing and microlight flying solely to cater to these demands.

Aviation has always been a big draw in the city, what with the presence of aviation PSUs such as National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Several of India’s aviation pioneers have also had strong associations with the city. Today, the trend is moving towards hobby flying and an increasing amateur enthusiasm towards flying as a hobby sport.

According to Audrey Maben, who along with husband Wing Commander Ashok Mehta runs Bangalore Aero sports, one of the most popular microlight flying training centres of the region, most individual hobby fliers belong to Bangalore. “One sees a lot more machines here than in any other part of the country,” says Maben.

“Also, the weather makes it extremely conducive to fly through the year,” says Maben who is also a pilot.

Since setting up shop in 1999, Bangalore Aerosports has seen more than 6,000 hobby fliers lining up to take air experience rides. “The average hobby flier could be anywhere between 25 and 65 years old, but it would typically be someone who has the money and time to dedicate to flying and, above all, an unfulfilled dream to fly,” says Maben.

Flying enthusiast Anurag Jain fits that category. Jain has been up in the air with Bangalore Aerosports as well as Agni Aerosports, another company offering flying as an adventure activity. He wants to take it up more seriously, maybe even apply for a pilot’s licence if he can chalk up enough flying hours. “The interest in flying is huge,” says Jain who runs an extremely popular blog on adventure, aviation and other interests and is inundated with queries about flying from Bangalore and other parts of the country.

The people behind a one-of-its-kind aviation store that operates out of Bangalore would vouch for the fact that flying has quite a following in the city. IndUS Aviation that set up India’s first aircraft showroom here in 2005 sells itself as a one-stop shop for any aviator. From the light Thorpe T211 two-seater planes it specialises in to aeromodels (remote-control operated model aircraft), maps, manuals, pilot-training software to key chains, T-shirts, sunglasses and even crockery emblazoned with aviation motifs — you get it all here.

“We have more than 10 people walking into the store everyday merely to check out the aircraft,” says David Bennett, joint managing director of IndUS Aviation. The company is planning to set up its own flight training school soon. “We think there’s enough interest to sustain a flying school here,” says Bennett.

Yet, it’s not just aviation that’s keeping the adventure flag flying high in the city. Ever heard of moonlight biking? Organised by TI Cycles, owners of the BSA brand of bicycles, this is an activity that took the city’s youngsters by storm when it was launched earlier this year. It has taken a break because of the monsoons, but the company plans to revive it soon and also add new trails.

Organised on biking trails on the city’s outskirts, moonlight biking is aimed at biking enthusiasts as well as those who can barely keep their handlebars straight, says Ramprasad G, president TI Cycles. “Abroad, especially in the UK, countryside biking is very popular. We thought why not introduce this concept to India in a new ‘romantic’ package,” says Ramprasad. Organised only on weekends, each day saw at least a 100 people turning up for the sport, including couples sold on the romance angle.

So what gives adventure a fillip in Bangalore? There are several reasons, say the veterans. Firstly, no matter how many individual enthusiasts there are, one cannot help give due credit to the corporates who adopted it in a wholesale manner to push their outbound training programmes.
Enthusiasts give moonlight biking a shot

Corporates are increasingly turning to adventure sports and outdoor camps as a way to improve team spirit, reduce stress and ensure that their team stays at a high productivity level,” says Saumil Mazmudar of Sportz Village, a sports and adventure tourism company with a presence in several centres like Bangalore, Pune and Delhi.

Veterans also say Bangalore’s famed weather has helped to boost adventure activities in and around the city. Unlike in the northern and eastern Himalayas, where adventure sports is also big and where the winters can be harsh, the temperature in Bangalore is at a pleasant 24 degrees almost all the year through.

“Also, there are quite a few good locations that aren’t too far away, ranging between one and eight-hour drives,” says Saumil. Being close to the Western Ghats, a rocky terrain and natural hiking and walking trails is ensured while the Cauvery provides enough avenues for water sports like rafting and coracling, along with other activities such as fishing.

Considering the level of interest in adventure, it’s not surprising that there are a number of entrepreneurs who’ve left safe corporate careers to launch their own springboards for adventure.

Naresh and his group of four friends who launched Yuyutsa Consulting all had perfectly safe corporate careers. “We’d go for the same training programmes and longed to do something different. Then we thought, why not start something of our own?” recalls Naresh. They stumbled upon Paintball quite by chance and decided it had the potential to be a hit among Bangalore’s youth, and today they’re expanding their repertoire to other activities.

Ecotrailz is another company started by a group of young enthusiasts right out of college. “We came into the scene by accident. We were on a trek in the Himalayas and hit upon the idea of a trekking club in Bangalore,” says Jayanth K, chief co-ordinator of the fledgling trekking company that also offers biking in the Western Ghats.

They started off selling their new services in their own colleges — obviously with an emphasis on budget treks, for as low as Rs 500 for two days. These proved a major hit with the student community. They also ventured into parasailing and now a major chunk of their income comes from this activity, says Jayanth.

With all these adrenalin-charged events taking place in the city, one thing that’s taken a beating for sure is Bangalore’s fusty image. Who said geeks can’t be macho too?