Time locked in Hampi

February 2, 2010...we were all waiting for the day when we would get a double treat- freedom from structured time tables and a respite from the ever so compelling academics- Our Annual Education Trip. Boarding the exclusive bogie reserved for us, we waited for the wheels of our exotic journey to Hubli in Karnataka to turn. A promising array of activities were lined up in our itinerary, which was enough to sustain our soaring excitement levels through the length of the night had it not been for the curfew our teachers had decided to adhere to. Soon we started playing music from our iPod docks, browsing the Internet on the phone and playing fun games like, Stockmarket, Truth or Dare and Quidder. The journey was 17 hrs long but with our class, even a rock would start having fun!!

After having defied time and space, we reached what was going to be our transitory but heavenly abode...a massive heritage Rajasthani resort….in Karnataka! We ran to the dining hall and gulped down the delicious Marwari food. Then we saw some fantastic acts of mind over matter. Women standing on a bed of needles, balancing up to 8 pots on their head and a boy swinging round and round and upside-down. Then we moved our tired bodies to our cosy, eco-friendly (as they were solar powered) rooms. After a refreshing night’s sleep, we got up the next morning, awaiting the journey that vouched to bring time to a standstill. We drove to the 4000=year old ruins of a temple and a palace. We were merely witnessing the remnants of a spectacular life that kings had actually lived and even its vestiges of this grandeur left us captivated and awestruck. However, we had to pull ourselves from this luxurious time capsule to prepare ourselves for that adventurous part of our trip.

Located 10 km from the “heritage village” was the Tungabhadra Dam, its reservoir was one of the most beautiful ones probably anyone in my school would have seen. And as all good things come with a price, we had to exert ourselves with a 2 km walk in order to partake this breathtakingly beautiful scene. Our Geography and Environmental Science classes came flashing back in our minds. It was now time to head to our new destination- that had 5 hours of time stretch lying in between.

We filled the road trip with our own turns of excitement and enthusiasm to finally arrive at VSL Wonder-Valley, and as the name suggests it was wonderful. We all got our chalets/rooms, unpacked our important assets and headed towards the “Kings Area”, where we had our bonfire night. In the cool night, the fire warmed us; so did the delicious food and sweat we got while dancing around the fire. We got a good sleep and then at 6:30 a.m. about seven of us woke up and decided to go for a trek into the farm/jungle close-by. Our guide and a teacher came along with us; we walked for about 10 km. At first it seemed to be a bit boring but as we decided to walk further in, the level of anticipation mounted. We heard myriad sounds of animals; saw many birds and landscapes that people would die to see. At about 9:30 we reached back to the hotel, had a small snack and got ready for Go-Karting!!!! The track and weather were perfect for it. We got our passes, got behind the wheel and speeded away to glory. We had races against teachers, classmates and our own IGCSE co-ordinator Mrs. Franak Bandekar. After the tiring karting, we chilled out in the wave-pool and boosted our excitement in the rain-dance.

After the long day we rested in our rooms and then began the countdown to the most awaited portion of our sumptuous edutainment trip- the contemporary grooves of the “Disco”. As it turned out, the DJ hoarded a collection we thought we could outdo....what with our digital and mobile collection of our favourite music. The budding talent of Grade IX showcased their mettle in the most unnerving manner possible. Ipods and music phones charged out serenading sounds and delectable decibels of music under the expert hand of our in-house DJs while the rest of us raged the dance floor, doing complete justice to the grooving sound waves.

To wake up at the stroke of 5 was an ordeal, to say the least. Yet another long bus ride awaited us but this time we knew it was to take us closer home....a place we had forgotten to miss in our rollercoaster ride at Karnataka. Little did we know that some tense pulse of tension awaited us at the Hubli station- after everyone was settled in, we realized the 7th had not come as yet. The sevenths came running without bags and entered the train. The bags were being chucked into our bogie and we kept passing the bags along to them. These five minutes seemed like 30 mins and once the chaos was over we finally found peace.

We fell asleep for most of this train ride and discussed things we will be doing once we are back home. This trip was awesome and I am sure that all of us are looking forward to go to Corbett or Rishikesh for a camp, where we can quadruple the excitement we had just returned from.


— Mahir Kothary, Grade IX A

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