6th January 2009 - The Scindia School

‘THE WALL’:
A Milestone
“Forward all boys!! Paddle harder!!
The instructor shouted as we rolled down ‘THE WALL’.
Suddenly the raft overturned and I hit the water ……. SPLASH!!!
Fortunately this was just a dream. But today was the big day! We were finally
leaving for our adventure camps which we had been waiting so eagerly for.
Labour camp
at Jhansi
Unlike other years this year as the time approached to leave for the annual
camps none from my batch were excited about it. What is the fun in spending a
week in a remote village doing hard labour work was the question in our minds.
This would be our worst camp, feared the others.
The adventure camp was a six day rafting
expedition from Srinagar to Rishikesh in
Uttarakhand. We were escorted by Mr.
PrabhuRaj and Mr. Shitole. We left on the
26th of October by train to Delhi from where
we took a bus trip to the starting point in
Srinagar. The sight of the mighty Alaknanda
river and its surrounding was picturesque.
An aura of calmness and serenity flowed
across the environment. We were given our
respective rafts. There were nine people in
my raft: Swadesh, Aditya, Abhinav, Rakesh,
Sarang, Aakarshan, Aayush, Debashish and
myself (they would have killed me if I had not
mentioned their names!!). We named our raft
Peeli Pari as the colour of the raft was yellow.
We travelled three hours down the tributary to
reach our beach camp. There we interacted
with the guides and got acclimatized to the
climatic condition.
The weather was very pleasant. As it had been
a very tiring day, we slept early that night. On
the 28th, we got ready for the first phase of
the rafting. We attached our luggage and tents
on to the rafts and set sail. We had to cover
a distance of 35 km in a time span of five
hours that day. The river was really cold but our
excitement compensated for that. Everybody
shuddered when we were told to jump into
the cold water but some of our batch’s brave
hearts mustered courage to do so and swam
about 1km with the life jackets intact. We were
shivering when we came out of the water. The
wind pierced through our skin. We reached our
camp at 4:00 pm in ‘Bagwan’ where we set up
our rafts for shelter. It was a good experience.
There we built up a volley ball court and had a
match between the ‘Scindian All Star Team’ and
the rafting crew team (who were indeed very
good!!). But to our surprise the Scindian team
somehow defeated them.
We were provided with delicious food
throughout the camp. With our tummies full we
slept early that night. The next day was a little
disappointing as we didn’t have rafting that
day. In the morning they took us for a trek to a
nearby hill. The view from there was exquisite.
Soon came the much awaited day when
we had to face ‘the wall’ – one of the most
dangerous rapids of river Ganges. Everybody
was excited. We started our venture. As soon
as our raft slid past the first rapid, I turned
back to see 3-4 boys howling as they had
fallen off their rafts, but we continued. It took
us three hours before we took a halt to see
‘the wall’ from the top of a cliff. It was exactly
the way I had imagined – fast and furious, as
if waiting to gulp us all. But we had come too
far to say ‘no’ to it. Namay’s raft was the first
to enter it. Everybody was tense. But soon the
tension turned into excitement as the seven
rafts made through the inferno. The instructors
were the one to be thanked for this feat. It was
the first time in Scindian history when all the
rafts made through this rapid safely. That day
we camped in “Byasi” where a little town was
situated.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” I opened my eyes to see
my friends smiling and jumping on top of me.
Yes, it was my birthday and the day when our
camp was to successfully end.
We rafted along the mighty Ganges and across
rapids like –“Rollercoaster’, ‘Golf Course’ etc.
We also played a little recreation game in which
Namay, Aditya and I won. We had a lot of fun
that day. After a brief outing in Rishikesh, we
left for our school in the night. I would like to
thank my teacher escorts, the guides and my
batch mates who made this camp beautiful. I
will always remember this trip.
The dream, I mentioned about had come true
except for the part when I fell into the water
So, my friends, DREAM ON!!
Harsh Bijoy Bora
XI-A
However once we reached there and got
involved in the various activities all our
misconceptions vanished. Every thing we did
gave us a great sense of fulfillment and we
came back with greater appreciation for all our
blessings.
We stayed at a farm house, owned by an old
boy, Mr Ramesh Sharma (ex Ravindra ’67). It
was a beautiful place surrounded by a wide
variety of medicinal plants. The village that we
had to work in was very near to the farm. We
identified a government school in the village
and did three things-Firstly we constructed a
drain for the flow of water that came out from
the hand pump present in the school and
connected it to a nearby plot in order to stop
the wastage of water. The second task was
making a shed over an elevated platform which
would serve the purpose of a kitchen for their
mid-day meals. Lastly we cleaned the waste
present in the school area and planted several
trees.
The entire work was divided amongst the eight
houses so that it would be easy to give us
points for the coveted Narmada trophy. Since
each house wanted to clinch the trophy, all put
in the best of their efforts. I can bet that it must
have been really hard for Mr. Ramesh Sharma
to decide the winner. Inspite of the underlying
competitive spirit between different houses,
all of us also co-operated with each other to
complete the project on time. One day we set
up a Langar and invited the entire village for a
hearty meal. A large number of villagers turned
up for it, so many of us pitched in to make
puris. The guest had great words of praise for
our warm hospitality and the sumptuous food
that we served.
We also went for a trek one morning. The
view from the top of the hill was picturesque.
However the best part of the camp was
reserved for the last day -the cultural evening.
Each house had prepared one item which
we presented in front of the old boys and
parents whom we had invited. Our Principal
Mr Samik Ghosh was also present at the
function to encourage us. Each performance
was commendable and I was amazed at the
immense talent that my batch mates possess.
The evening ended with a special dinner and
dance.
Through the various activities, there were
some invaluable lessons that we learnt. We
learnt to work as a team and to enjoy the
pleasure of selfless service. We also learnt to
empathise with the less fortunate ones and
realized the hard labour which goes behind
each thing no matter how insignificant it may
appear at the surface level. We returned to
the school after a fruitful week. Each one of
us had a sense of accomplishment as we
had brought a positive difference in the lives
of some who are not as blessed as we are.
Rishabh Jain
X C
19 Literary
Section
VOL 6 | Jan 2010