It's 6 AM and pretty much everyone is wobbling about like dazed zombies with backpacks slung over their sleepy shoulders. Amidst the many yawns and eye-rubs i was able to find some 'hey man, how u been?' & 'how were you're exams?' greetings being exchanged.
We were all getting set for yet another trip to Mr Martini's farm.As opposed to the summer program where only 14 kids came, here we had 22 and that gave me the jitters. In retrospect though, i feel silly for having felt nervous at first. The kids were naughty and sly pranksters but at the same time they were the type who'd crack jokes u could take with you even if u went backpacking in Venezuela 6 yrs from now, simply hilarious!
The group that came had a general mix of loudness(??), super energy,chatterboxes, spontaneity and quiet solo explorers. To name a few, we had the Lil cricket champ Lee, she knew more than some of the boys if u ask me, Cat malika and the sri lankan holidayers who spent a lot of their time giggling and playing with the animals. Ved who we realised suffers from Cow-o-phobia. Siddarth ,Arvind,anirudh and Chetan- the 'poi' boys who mastered that art in a matter of 48hrs. Aditya(1) who sadly had a fever throughout the programme & Aditya(2) who has the most adorable smile iv ever seen. Must not forget the PIS kids who accomplished a lot too,namely catching frogs(put a few to sleep and squish a few others), happily enjoy watching Gerry slaughter a pretty chicken, behead as many as 10 fish and my favorite --gulp down hot chillies while everyone laughed at their plight. SANJANA!! boy was she a handful! , what with wanting to "go see herpetology" and also "can we slaughter Kau?...or otherwise any other cow?"
The oh so cute Felix Holland and his dimples. Now i wont be surprised if he considers Machete production one of his career options!
During the 4 days we spent there not only did they learn to design n make bamboo rafts ( partly sink them too) but some of them even managed to climb up a coconut tree- Xavier style! We spent a Lot of time in the lake -rowing circles in the coracle & swimming among the reeds.
We saw some gorgeous snakes too and watched Shyama really bond with the checkered keel back water snake, ah! was so touching. Ha Ha.
The food was simply Mmm-mm...OK that covers the vegetarian aspect of every meal..but im guessing the chicken was splendid too. However most of it ended up in Shyams 'Lil belly.
The trek up the Nagarhole Hill was special in it's own way. It was BEE-U-T- FUL!
however, i didn't go with the entire group once we reached the 1060 m (above sea level mark) because Aditya(1) was beginning to feel exhausted.But Shyam, Xavier and i did our best to entertain him while the others carried on.
On our bus ride back from Nagarhole, we stopped to take pictures of two tuskers at the forest dept quarters that had been chained but enormous and gorgeous all the same. But as expected all the kids turned their focus to something else(which i choose NOT to mention here) Ha Ha.
Not everyone gets to bump into old friends in the middle of a forest but yea, Riddhi can tell you what that feels like!
The last day saw the kids displaying their skipping talents and Gerry's athletic skills.My oh my it was the best way to end the camp, playing lagori, dog in the bone and Xavier's Ram n Raavan.
The bus driver played horrific music which was more like noise wanting to sound melodious so for the bus ride back to Bangalore we flicked one of Gerry's Cd's. Everyone sang (read Brayed) along with the songs they knew (amazing performances i must add) and managed to guess & learn the lyrics of the ones they didn't. Precisely why i have a sore throat right now.Once we were back everyone said they're goodbyes and left. Sigh.
The point of writing this was so that we will never forget the little things in life that make us happy.
OK I'm very sleepy now. G'Nite.
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