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Cliff
high in Panchgani
“BZZ!”
“Agh, Stupid alarm!”.
Waking up at 6 a.m is not something anyone would enjoy.
I groggily managed to get out of bed and began to look
for my uniform. It took me fifteen minutes to realize
I was supposed to go to school not to study, but for a
totally different reason. We were heading to Panchgani
and Mahabaleshwar for our Annual Edu-Tour.
On 3rd February, our batch, the glorious Grade X, made
our way woozily to school an hour earlier so that we wouldn’t
miss our coach to Panchgani. When all of us (finally)
arrived, we got onto the bus, got a head count done, and
officially began our trip. Most of the best memories that
stuck with me after the tour were probably from the bus
journeys. Cards, REALLY loud music, irritating other people
while they’re asleep, the works… After a stop
at McDonalds, where we had our fill of coffee and food
we finally reached our ‘abode’ for the next
2 days, the Millennium Hotel, Panchgani.
We then went to Sydney point, a precarious yet serene
ledge that overlooks (almost) the whole valley. We spent
around an hour there, taking photos of paragliders, birds,
and ourselves and eventually it got too dark and we had
to head back to the hotel. On the way back, we were told
we would be watching a unique flick from world cinema,
“Aguirre” – the Wrath of God (in German)-
in order to expose ourselves to the ‘World of I.B’.
I was able to hear at least 15 ‘sighs, international
movies really don’t appeal to us. Although some couldn’t
handle it and left after an hour or so while five of us
managed to ‘brave’ out the rest and we liked
that it was different from any other movie we ever watched
before.
The next morning, we received our wake up call at 5:30
in the morning, and almost ended up throwing the intercom
out of the window. A lucky few of us had hot showers and
then made our way to breakfast, on time, at 6:30. The
girls of course, were half an hour late. (Surprise, Surprise!).
We then made our way to the bus, and were introduced to
Mr. Bhupen, who was going to be the head of all our adventure
activities for the day. He then took us to a plateau,
where we geared up for the first real taste of exhilaration
on the trip – rappelling. After getting a briefing
on the basics of rappelling and all the safety instructions,
we all lined up for our turn. Surprisingly, all of us
managed to do it (including the teachers). We then went
horse riding on the same plateau, although a few of us
were not such big fans of horses.
After the half an hour bus ride, we headed to a huge mountain
and began the best part of our entire tour, a two and
a half kilometre long trek. As soon as we began the trek,
we realized it wouldn’t be easy. Wading through waste-deep
grass is no cake walk. Many cuts, scratches and bruises
later, the first group of us reached the bottom of the
mountain, and the second group followed us about half
an hour later and we made our way back to the bus. Badly
sunburnt, but satisfied, we headed back to the hotel for
a much needed lunch break. After a long and gratifying
break, we made our way back to the bus and headed to a
campsite for some rifle shooting and an obstacle course.
Once again, we received a safety briefing and proceeded
to a make-shift range where each one of us tried our hand
at shooting at a target. Few hits and a LOT of misses
later, we made our way to the course. Unfortunately, darkness
had set in, and we traded the obstacle course for a camp-fire
instead. Dr. Banerjee there told us we would be watching
another movie, but this time, it would be French. Try
and imagine all the ‘groans you would have heard
if you were there. The five of us who stuck around last
time stuck to our roles this time as well. In the end,
we actually enjoyed the movie (Jean de Florette). After
making our way to our rooms, someone screamed ‘water-balloon
fight’ and, well, chaos erupted- Water Flying Everywhere.
Even a couple of teachers joined in, dousing some of us
with buckets of water.
The next morning, we received our ‘late’ wake
up call at 8 a.m. (Late it seems.) Many cups of chai and
a lot of dosas later, we made our way back to, yes, you
guessed it, our bus- this time it headed to Mahabaleshwar
en route Arthur Point, Malcolm Point, Tiger Point and
Suicide Point. Our next pit stop was to be the go karting
track where we drove about eight rounds each. A lot of
‘zooms’ and three accidents later, we headed
to a swing sort of contraption, where about half the class
dared to go for a ride. We ended up getting off very ditzy,
but our visit to the Mapro jam factory compensated for
all the pain where we satiated our stomachs with a whole
variety of (delectable) junk. The night allured us with
the promised disco night. After dressing up in our fancy
shirts, shoes and so on, we headed to a meeting hall where
we kicked off the party. Although the music wasn’t
contemporary or anything great in fact, some old classic
dance beats came on and some of us danced on into the
night.
Day, 4. Our last day on the trip. Some of us managed to
half-heartedly close our bags and headed for our last
breakfast on the trip. We then went for our last ‘event’
of the trip, a boat ride on the Mahabaleshwar lake. We
enjoyed the calmness, tranquility and the soothing feeling
the lake gave us. We then headed to the Mahabaleshwar
market, where we all bought our shares of strawberries,
chikki, and what not. One short stop and six hours later,
we reached Mumbai at around 7:40 p.m.
The entire tour was a much needed (and well deserved!)
break among a flurry of studying and exams. Realizing
soon we would be entangled in our prelims and board examinations,
I managed to enjoy and savour every part of our trip,
and hope we head back somewhere similar soon.
If only it was a little bit longer.
— Grade X
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