Camping @Mahuli Fort: Part II

Day Two: 28.10.2002

I got up at 5.30am. It was still dark and too cold. My teeth were shivering while brushing. Thanks to the organizing team, the water was warm. We just washed our face and hands and legs, basically had crow-bath. We had to assemble at 6.30am on the ground. Then we went for jogging and did some exercise. After coming back to camp-site, we had shira and tea for breakfast. At 7am we went for the activities. Firstly, we did Rifle-shooting. Then we were given demo of Rappelling and River crossing. I was not getting the harness of my size; so was Nimisha. I guess it is difficult to find harnesses of the ant and the elephant size. We both had to wait; sitting on the rocks we were watching our friends doing those activities. At last, we got the harness.

Rappelling

I went for Rappelling. Sonali teacher (Sonali Churi) explained what to do and how to do. She said, “Do not bend your knee”. And I bent my knee; dashed against the wall; got hurt on right-side of forehead, right elbow and right knee. After some time, I actually got it and completed the activity. 

 

River Crossing

Then I did River crossing. We had to wear the mittens. You really had to apply force to move yourself to the other end. The slower you do it, the more tired you will be. I stopped in between. I could hear only the sound of waterfall. Then I heard Sheetal teacher (Sheetal Koradkar) saying, “Pranita, move ahead, the next one is approaching you.” After completing the activity I had to answer what I was doing midway. We were the last batch to return at camp-site, thanks to the harness!!

Back to camp-site we had lunch; rice, dal, aaloo ki sabzi, pickle, papad and salad. Post lunch we went for Swimming. I do not know swimming; I just went to play in the water. Nimisha was floating on the water (read the buoyancy concept). Then we had to get ready for the next activities. The instructor narrated the story of Mahuli Fort. Then we were given information on types of knots and how to make those.

 

Zummering

Later we had to do Zummering. This was toughest of all for me. We were back to camp-site and had tea. Time was just passing by doing some or the other activities. We watched the slides of Himalayan trek, along with the tomato soup. Groups were preparing for the camp-fire programs. We had dinner; rice, dal, I do not remember the sabzi, pickle, papad, salad and laddu. Then we had the camp-fire and bourn-vita. We had many skits like Banning Tobaco, Unity is Strength, Importance of Nature, Old is Gold, Bad effects of copying, The North Star, etc. Some groups sang songs. The girls of Class X performed a dance on Mohabbatein Love Themes. Then there was an important announcement (disappointing one for me and friends). Only the students of Class IX and Class X were allowed to climb the fort next morning. Never mind!!

 

Day Three: 29.10.2002

As usual we got up at 5.30am and had our crow–bath. We assembled at 6.30am on ground, went for jogging, did normal exercises and also we had laughing exercise. Morning walks are really very necessary, you feel fresh and are ready for the day’s task. Back to camp-site we had Poha and tea for breakfast. All students could not complete with the activities yesterday. So they went for it today. As we were done with all, we were spending time in the mandir. We played Garba and Anthakshari. Then we had to play a game, “Finding way to the Bengali baba”. The organizers had arranged for a magic show in the jungle. We had to find way to that spot.

We started off with the initial clues, made marks on the trees and rocks, etc. But later we got confused with the route. Each different path we took, we ended up getting the message “Rasta Chukala” means this is wrong way. The message was written on the Gits Gulab Jamun packs. So we were pretty sure of getting gulab jamuns in lunch. At last, Sneha teacher (Sneha Kamath) found the correct path and we reached the spot. We had the Magic Show.

Back to camp-site we had lunch; rice, dal, aloo sabzi, puri, papad, pickle, salad, Manchurian balls and Gulab jamun. Post lunch we packed our bags and assembled on the ground for Vote of Thanks. Everyone was thanking, thanking and thanking. I got my prize. It was a pen, to add to my collection of Pens. We got in to our buses. There was full-on masti in the bus, at certain point we started with the Ganpati aarti and followed by aartis of other gods and goddesses. Teachers were thinking have we gone crazy? Then started the mimicry and jokes (half of them were PJs) like “Door se dekha toh...” types. We reached school at 7.30pm. Our parents were waiting for us under that tree (N.G.Vians, you guys remember the tree). We wished “Happy Diwali” to each other and went home with loads of memories.