I have been longaway from the blogging world for almost a year now. The fact is that there is so much to tell, and so little time left to type. Now that i have got my fingers to the keypad (replacing the old pen to paper saying), i will try and keep you up to date with the happening things in my life. Believe me there have been loads. Ok, enough of an intro and time for the real deal now. I will start of with the latest tour that I have done. The only reason being, is what AMAZING. For the first time I actually feel like using the word perfect. Anyways, here I go...
Having being working with Foliage Outdoors for 8 months now (another story, later...), I had accompanied a camp to Rishikesh in December 08.This blog is not about that camp. Read on to know more. What was the camp? Lo & Behold, Rafting. A rafting camp on the Great Ganges. Do you believe that? Mihir Chhatre, a person scared to death of water, who would actually go on a beach and just sit on it for the whole time when his family goes in the water, was going for a camp which has nothing but water! The Dec camp very well and I was selected to be a part of the next camp in March 09.
This camp was a special camp for students who had just appeared for their 10 Std. Board exams. We i.e me & Bishwajit (this guy deserves an article.. later..) were told that this group would be buzzing with energy and would need to be kept a good eye on. After hearing this, all my 10th std memories came rushing back, when me and my school mates had gone for a trek in the Himalayas.
Finally after getting everything organised, I went to my first pre-camp ever with Foliage. The worst part was I wasn’t doing the slideshow but explaining the What to Bring Kit. I mean slideshows are fun, you can put in anecdotes and what not, but reading the kit, was like explaining how to cook Maggi. I did my best. The first time I got to meet campers, but they seem to have taken me to be a substitute, and nobody even blinked at me .
But then, that was like the opening of the curtains to the movie, the trailer was yet to come, so was the movie.
Lets just skip all the back-office work and jump directly to the 28th of March ,2009 the fated Saturday when all of us were to meet at the front porch of the Pune Railway Station. Me , Bishwajit & Shivani (another interesting person...), were gathered at the railway station awaiting the young and the fun. Just as said, they were on time geared up to what would be many of them’s first camp. All the anxiety, and nervousness was clearly visible on their faces. All was well and the train was on time (phew!!) ...
Most of the group was together in a bogie, and being 10th std students, the proved their worth. It was already decided that I would be a friend of theirs, someone like a undercover spy who would be talking and having fun with all the present / absent there. I entertained all. Let us just keep it at that. Cause typing a on the spot joke, is a hard thing to do, and should never be tried with supervision. And unless you have goggles do that you wont have super – vision. Anyways, the train journey to Delhi was near perfect. The only reason I use the term near perfect being that a perfect journey would mean I got perfect sleep. Which I didn’t. I was sleeping on the floor at one of the compartments as one of the berth was taken by a kid, who seemed immune to my attempts of waking him up.
The next day went as the day before, where I was in the highest of spirits, and with loads of coffee, bring out some of the best / worst (everybody’s opinion differs) jokes, keep everybody’s mind off the 25 hrs journey that we were going under. There was a small incident about the eunuchs , but I prefer not writing about it. The cards, the jokes, continued right uptil we reached Nizamuddin or as per the Indian Railways call is NZM. The bus was waiting right at the bus stop. Our next destination was the Old Delhi Station to board the Mussorie Express at night. This train has a life history of being late, and was living upto its name. The train as fated was an hour and a half late. In the mean time we had our food at Comesum and it was pretty good. The camper’s weren’t allowed to take the bags inside and hence had me and Bishwajit had to take turns look after the luggage.
The train left on exactly on the delayed time, and having told the participants to go to sleep, they did!!! We woke up early in the morning to get down at Haridwar. The city of Haridwar, said to be one of the most holiest cities in India, was the place we would be picked up from the railway station. The bus was waiting for us at the station, and we proceeded to our campsite which would be around 2 hrs drive from Haridwar.
The bus journey wasn’t much fun. We crossed through the holy town, passed the Ganges, and just went right through the Rajaji National Park. It feels that we have done loads, but it wasn’t. Everything was just at a glance, and we reached Rishikesh. This was when all the campers could see the Ram Jhula, and now everybody knew that we were going to reaching the camp-site soon. And we did.
