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What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the brutal words, ‘school camps’? Probably, an adventurous trip to one of the undiscovered places, or a typical scout’s camp where you have to wake up at 6 a.m. in the morning and follow a strict regime and routine. Let’s just say in our case it was this paradoxical paradise situated in Byasi, Rishikesh. Rishikesh, the place that often reminds us of the sport ‘rafting’, opened an entirely new dimension of thought to many of us on the trip. As I now close my eyes and go back to those four transcendent days, all I can think of is the turquoise water of the Ganga, whose beauty can’t be put down into words but can only be felt by the heart. Once at campsite, you could hear all ethereal melodies, voices of the wildlife in the nearby forest, rolling waves hitting the huge boulders and rocks, low chit-chattering from the kitchen and of course, the swooshing of the wind. The place resembled a typical Bollywood movie’s beach set, as I’ve told and retold all my friends and relatives how perfectly the silhouettes of the mountains, the Ganges, the sand shining due to the rare presence of mica flakes, and our army green colored tents made the whole view just so picturesque and spell bounding. The best thing about this place was that at any point in time, you could just walk and run barefoot on the sand and then when you were all dirty, just go stand on the shore and wait for the cold water to wash all the dirt away – literally and symbolically. I had never seen a place ‘so calm so serene’ as the cliché goes, a place that had a vague way of tampering all our negative emotions and all our worries into peace, and tranquility. Coming to the adventure part, I took back my first rafting experience, my first rendezvous with the rapids, my first rafting waali maggi, and of course a lot of stories. During the trip I realized two things – first, how amazing and worthwhile it is to trek for four kilometers about dawn time to land up into a beautiful village, a village characterized by remoteness yet beauty. And second, how ‘the’ river will gladly welcome us and rejoice in our happiness and enjoyment, at all times. So apart from the ghost story sessions, where I sat with my brain and ears closed, I enjoyed each and every second of the trip – the food, the water, the pit-hole bathrooms, the bus rides, our raft jingles and most importantly, I am going to cherish the time I spent swimming and shouting through most of the rapids with weird names I can now hardly recall.
Sameera Khurana
Gr 9