Life, death, love, hate, trust, betrayal, concern, disinterest, anguish and elation. For four days, 22 senior and middle managers of NTPC ride a roller coaster of emotions, on just one promise of Maheep Singh, trainer/consultant, NIS-Sparta, who is conducting the "Adventures in Attitudes" workshop: "You're going to have a whole lot of fun."

Fun? Or fundamentals? For, in the next few days, Maheep uses a bristly bunch of tools and techniques to slough offyears of neglect from disused emotions and forgotten experiences, in each one of us. As the scabs of insouciance get scrubbed off, the participants' emotions and attitudes lie exposed. Raw, sensitive and vulnerable.

The balm: The surprising discovery that within each one of us exist vast, untapped reserves of finer, softer feelings of patience, understanding, goodwill, tolerance, sharing, and even love. Consider the emotional evolution as the fun and games begin.

Picture this: Vasu has a sketch of stacked rectangles in front of him, which he has to instruct his partner to copy on the blackboard. Awaiting instructions is Juneja, who is not allowed to ask any questions. Communications break down early: Juneja tries hard to follow Vasu's instructions but the final "artwork" looks nothing like Vasu's sketch. Everyone cracks up.

In the second round, Dinesh and Rakesh are allowed to communicate with each other -- and Rakesh is able to follow Dinesh's instructions almost exactly due to the feedbackprocess. Everyone sobers up.

Missing pieces: Each of the three teams is given a jig-saw puzzle to put together. Mayhem breaks loose as each team tries to finish first. Finally, all three teams discover that each is left with two empty spaces in their jig-saw, and that the missing pieces are with the other team. As hectic negotiations begin, the puzzling project is solved: Each one of us carries around with us some of the missing pieces that would make another's life more complete. Share them.

Level 5/EP3: Each person picks one negative emotion -- frustration, anger, jealousy, rejection -- and one positive emotion -- joy, relief, satisfaction, trust -- and shares with a partner a recent experience that caused him/her to feel those emotions. A startling fact emerges: Growth is possible only when you begin to know yourself and help others to get to know themselves.

Of the six possible levels of communicating emotions -- from level one of casual small talk, to level six of rare moments of peakcommunications -- the group agrees that the least level of communication should at least be Level 5: You talk about the way you feel and who you are. Honestly and courageously.

Each participant also realises the need to take charge of emotions and adopt a positive Emotional Position, EP3 (I can't help the way I feel, but I can help the way I think and act) instead of EP1 (I will act the way I feel) and EP2 (You're going to act the way I feel). Later, there is much good-hearted ribbing when a manager tries to prove his point forcefully. "Remember Level 5/EP3!" the rest shout.

The slanging match: Half the group -- the "persons" -- select a topic for discussion "Arranged marriages versus love marriages.'' Strangely, the second group -- "the non-persons" -- just don't let the first group conduct the discussion, interrupting often and shouting from the sidelines.

Both sides are mad: Non-persons complain of being ignored, and persons crib about unimportant interruptions. When everyone isasked to make a list of non-persons in their life, a somber hush descends on the group. At one time or the other we are all guilty of treating our colleagues, friends and even spouses and children as non-persons.

Team values: We call our team of six "Sparsh". Together we have chosen five team values which each one of us pledges to put into action in our lives through team ground rules. For example, for the team value "One must seek to understand before seeking to be understood" our ground rule is: "At least once a day we will make a conscious effort not to interrupt someone talking to us." It's not easy, we soon discover.

Scoring goals: The workshop is nearly at an end, and we all pledge to goals -- long-term, short-term, and every day -- which dovetail into each other. To reinforce the goals, we then set affirmations and visualisations (a characteristic image which will strengthen our determination to bring the goals to reality). There is a pensive hush, as each one struggles to commit torealistic career, finance, physical, mental, family, social, and spiritual goals.

At the end of the workshop the positive emotions threaten to spill over as everyone hugs each other, shares numbers, promises to stay in touch. But while the spirit is willing, will the application be weak? To ensure that the new attitudes unearthed at the workshop don't quickly dissipate, NIS-Sparta introduces a new innovation: facilitation days. For the next three months, we will all meet again, once every month, for a full day of sharing experiences and reinforcing our commitment to goals.

A ripple of cheer runs through the group. Four days ago, when we first met, there were 22 strangers in the room. Today, it's hard to bid farewell to 22 intimate friends who have shared each other's worst and best moments -- and still learnt to respect and love the other individual. On August 17, we will gather again to offer support and succor to each other. Somehow, parting is much easier when we know we will meet again.