The arrival at the Delhi airport was Ok. But, it took a long time to get our luggage, pass the immigration process and finally transfer to thedomestic terminal. We took approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes. I also had a problem with my ticket and Naomi supported me running from one side to the other to have this problem fixed. When we arrived in Bhubaneswar, Orissa the organization provided taxis to drive us to the hotel where we stayed for a week. I really thank the organization which supports us all the time.

When, we arrived in the hotel, we had a very nice welcome reception and started to received the initial instructions about the next activities of the day. The activities we had in the first day were conducted by Prof. Anupam. These activities were used as ice breaking, but at the same time, they help us to understand the purpose of our retreat in Orissa. The first impression that I had was that we, people living in Asia, need to change our preconceptions and re-thing about how we see Asia. Only in that way we will be able to start project that might re-shape the future of Asia in a better way.

The first activity was “thumb wrestling” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k51jG7u0Tcs). The goal was to achieve 40 points in 1 minute. For those who know the game, usually takes at minimum 10 seconds to get one point. Here, the message was: “don’t try to compete when you can collaborate”. If you just think about getting points to yourself, you will always try to compete and you will never achieve 40 points because the “opponent” will fight to get these points too. However, if you enter in agreement with your “partner” then both can get 40 points, you just let your partner get 40 points and after you can get 40 points too. Just don’t fight, collaborate.

The second activity was again about team work. One of the group members had the knowledge to guide us to a target place, but he/she could not speak or see (the eyes were covered). Then, he/she could do mimics to make us understand where we need to go. After understanding where to go, the group needs to help the member with eyes covered to reach the target place by being his/her eyes. The idea of this activity is that: “we don’t have all the information or abilities to do things alone. We must collaborate so everyone can reach the goal”.

Why those activities were so important? Before arriving in Orissa, we didn’t know what to expect … these activities helped us to understand what we need to do to make a better asia: (a) work together; (b) develop binds that can last long years; (c) be creative to solve “unsolvable” problems; (d) help others and not just ourselves.”

At night we had a wonderful open-air meal. Also, we had our first cultural session where we enjoyed local music and dance. It was really incredible how kids could dance in such an amazing way … they were fabulous !!!

About 9:00 PM people started to live for their rooms, but still the Japanese fellows wasn’t present. I was worried because (Akira and Gustavo) should have arrived by 7 PM after so many delays. So, I stayed in the hotel lobby waiting for them. Together with me, Mary who was the responsible to take care of us, and other two folks waited until about 00:30 AM when they finally arrived. It was a relief to see their faces. After a good session of hugs and laughs they had dinner and we spend the rest of the time talking about their adventure and bad luck.

As a summary of the first day, I can say I enjoyed a lot. It was really a good moment where we met other people and started to understand what the goals of BABA retreat were.

After our 50-hour- Adventure from Narita (Japan) to Puri (India), Akira and I could rest in our designed cottages 6016 and 6015 at Toshali Sands Resort. Our humble rooms had a small living with TV plasma, air conditioned and fan, with its own restroom (with TV plasma and fan, but no toilet paper). The bedrooms had a king-size-bed and the same electronic devices.

We woke up at 06:30 to meet everybody, as we missed the briefing session the day before. During our long wait between Delhi and Bhubaneswar, we decided to memorize all the BaBA’s participants’ names, countries (Bangladesh, China, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam), and their fields of specialty. So when we arrived at the dining room, we greeted everyone in their own language: “Namaskar, Marjjuk and Biju“; “Non ho, Weigang, Lingling and Zheng”; “Kumustá, Menandro, Wilfredo and Rosalie”; “Menyapa, Andi and Herry”; “Salam, Fitri, Ilham, Reny, Rina, and Yeni“; “Konnichiwa, Hisako”; “Chào bạn, Anh and Ben“; “Bom dia, Naomi and Seiji“. It was a quite funny introduction.

After breakfast, the speeches started:

“BABA, Asian Dialogue Society and Orissa” by Mr. Amitav Acharya (Deputy Director and Head of Research at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies of Singapore)

“Session on Leadership” by Mr. Tathagat Satpathy (Indian Parliament Member).

Mr Satpathy is a notable Indian Parliament Member, whose wife Mrs. Adyasha Satpathy (past-model and actress, local newspaper Dharitri editor) joined us at the coffee break.

After lunch, we had the following lectures:

“Orissa Ecology” by Mr. Saruj Kumar Patnaik (Retired Chief Wildlife Warden Orissa).

“The Nippon Foundation and its Affiliates” by Mr. Shuichi Ohno (Executive Director of The Nippon Foundation, TNF).

During Mr Ono’s lecture, he pointed out the “7 Basic Action Policies” of TNF:

1. Deal with issues in depth and in detail in accordance with priorities rather than trying to tackle all issues comprehensively.
2. Attempt to create new projects and ideas without being bound by precedents.
3. Act promptly without being afraid of failure.
4. Be open and transparent to society.
5. Never forget to evaluate yourself and educate yourself constantly.
6. Discover signs of new changes and cope with them.
7. Develop good human networks, worldwide.

Afterwards, Aruna Mohanty’s traditional school of Odissi Dance brightened the evening.

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