IndoPak Faceoff

India and Pakistan are not currently at war, but last year, nationals representing each country got the chance to duke it out—on television. Participants representing each country competed in extreme sports challenges like diving into frigid harbors and battling packs of queen bees.

One of them was Gaurav “Libby” Yadav ’06, who took time off volunteering at a South Indian NGO to represent India last summer. Yadav ’06 was traveling around Bangalore with roommate Peter J. Doyle ’06 when he heard about the competition—“AXN Xtreme: India v. Pakistan”—sponsored by and then aired on the AXN extreme sports network.

Experienced at rigorous hiking and competitive squash, Yadav easily accelerated from auditions to the finals. Then it was off to Taipei, Taiwan, the city selected for the competition’s final stage because of its relative neutrality.

In Taipei, challenges included diving into the frigid Taipei harbor, swimming out 200 meters, climbing a rope, and “gladiator-combating” another contestant. Another dare involved shimmying out on a 10-meter metal pole off a 30-story building above a freeway to retrieve a flag.

At one point, Yadav’s partner refused to participate in a challenge in which 12 queen bees were attached to contestants, attracting the rest of their hive. Yadav stepped up to the plate, shirtless, to gain extra points.

“I focused so much on being still for one hour,” he says. “I was stung by six or eight bees but it was better than a hundred.”

After three weeks, Yadav emerged victorious.

Roommate Andy L. Gaylord ’06 concurs that Yadav’s Fear Factor stint was hardly an aberration. “Gaurav is always looking for the edge,” says Gaylord. The pair enjoy adventure sports from skateboarding, to surfing, to whitewater rafting.

Yadav says that such wild adventuring is par for the course in their room. “We’re a self-selected, no-holds barred group.”