It seems like yesterday when I was packing up for an eight day trip to Karnataka considering the fact that it’s a long trip so I had to pack everything accordingly the clothes, the medicines , the items of daily use everything should be done perfectly or else it may create problem later on. I have never been to any south Indian city though I have heard a lot about it, having being with some south Indian colleagues but still the curiosity level was too high, what is it going to be like ? Reading the brochure again and again about the places to visit, somehow I was preparing myself for the adventure. Apart from thrill to adventure there was a responsibility also. The responsibility to take care of the students which was the first and formative job assigned to us. We had a total of 125 students with us and considering their age group it was a herculean task to make sure they enjoy these days with utmost safety nevertheless we a team of eight teachers filled with experience , energy and enthusiasm were capable enough to tackle any situation.
As per schedule on we assembled In the school campus Monday morning around 8. The children came along with their parents, one could easily notice the anxiety on those face who were about to leave their beloved ones for eight long days. As we completed their settlement in bus, we left for Mumbai railway station. On the way we had breakfast cum lunch in the place we have been before, actually for previous trips we had been to the same route same even the resort was same. So after brunch we headed to the LTT station, we reached their quite early but the extra time was needed to allot everyone their seat no. coach no. believe it was not easy at all as we had seats in every single coach of that train and the seat no. were so randomly arranged that it was impossible to keep an eye on every student as the same time but somehow we divided different group with the most suitable combination for both boys and girls and the teachers and adjusted everything in the train easily. It was an overnight journey next morning we reached our destination Mangalore station.
We have been told that it might rain there and indeed as we get down from train It was drizzling lovely weather. We had to continue our journey from Mangalore to Mysore by bus. The route was filled with greenery hills and mountains as we moved forward the drizzle turned into a heavy rain. On the way the scenario was so mesmerising that I could not stop myself from capturing a video which later on I shared with others. The journey was too long that the hunger got better of us. We stopped at a resort named Raj Gardenia for the lunch and then resumed our journey to the hotel at Mysore. We reached there in the evening around 7 o’clock. After the allotment of the rooms. Everyone went into their room and then we had dinner. As everyone was too tired of the journey we postponed our scheduled visit of musical fountain at Vrindavan.
The next morning just after breakfast we went out to visit different places in Mysore city. Starting from Chamudadevi’s temple, we saw Mysore palace it was so huge and with full of facts that we got guide to describe it well enough. After that we had lunch in the from of traditional karnatakan thali which I don’t think anyone of us enjoyed. Anyhow after finishing the lunch we headed to the Mysore Zoological Garden where we saw so many different kinds of animals and birds. Its always amazing to see the different creations of nature. By the time we finished the entire zoo it was dark and we had walked so much that day as I looked into my watch I had already completed more than 12000 steps. Most of the students were very tired that they were striving to go to hotel but we had Vrindavan garden left as we skipped it yesterday and we didn’t want to miss out anything so we took our bus to the vrindavan garden by the time we reached there it was total dark a hint of moonlight was there we allowed us to see the damn made on river kaveri build inside the garden. There also we had to walk through the garden to reach the center attraction point of that place, the musical fountain. The moment it started we all forgot all the tiredness and enjoyed a lovely show, I was watching live for the first time so for me it was a wonderful experience. I guess everyone of us enjoyed that show after that we came back to our buses and went to the hotel which was not so far away from there. Everyone had dinner and they were instructed to pack their pack as next morning we had to leave for Coorg.The children were willing to enjoy the swimming pool next morning we had a swimming coach in our squad so decided to let them enjoy there for half an hour in his supervision. I myself don’t know swimming but went inside as it was not deep at all and it’s always fun to be there in a cold winter morning. After that we went in our room, got ready with our luggage came out had breakfast and left for the so called Scotland of India.
It was a 3-4 hour journey to Coorg on the same route we came while reaching the main city we stopped on the way to visit a monastery ( temple for Buddhist) indeed a nice sculpture. After that we headed towords our resort the same where we lunch on the way to Mysore. It was quite good in terms of having big areas for students to play , so many activities to do, bike on rent and a beautiful swimming pool which we were forbidden to use as a safety concern for children. Children just loved that arena and took no time to get some fun. We had a place to visit on the schedule but as the students couldn’t get over the resort’s attractions we decided to postpone it to the next day. After evening snacks the DJ’night was arranged for children which they enjoyed a lot with music full on and their desi thumka. It was quite a fun to watch. Though very eager, I resisted myself from dancing and deicide just to enjoy the proceedings.
The next day we had to rush as we had many places to visit starting from the fascinating waterfall of river kaveri , the sunset point at raja’s seat and elephant camp at dubare which was a leftover of yesterday all incredible experiences after all the calories were burnt for the day we went back to resort had dinner and given the next morning instructions as we had to check-out to continue our journey. I was experiencing a little pain at back so decided to get up early next morning for running and exercise, few of my students looked keen for the same so next morning we woke up at 5 and came out for running. With my companions it was a fun hour after that we want back to our room to get fresh and then came for breakfast with all the luggage.
Now we moved to the next city, Hasaan, on the way we visited the huge statue of bahubali which was situated at the top of a hill, it was quite an exercise to climb up more than 700 steps but once we reached at the top it was worth it. It was a religious place for Jain followers. We continued our journey to our hotel in hasaan and believe me it was a wonderful feeling to see our hotel. It was a five star hotel I think. Everyone seemed quite happy to get into such nice hotel after the rooms were allotted, everyone went into their rooms to get fresh. We assembled for evening snacks after an hour and then we decided to enjoy a camp fire till dinner gets ready. All gathered around the fire and few teachers took initiative to start antakshari with children divided into different groups. Everyone enjoyed music for sometime and then as dinner got ready, had dinner and went back sleep.
The next morning we had to check out of the hotel so with carrying all luggage in the bus we went to see two of ancient temples of Indian history or monuments as declared by Indian archaeological department, amazing sculptures in both of them, we had guide to describe the temple and its various creations which gave a little hind how things used to be during that time period after visiting both the temple we came back to the same hotel just to have lunch. After that we had to return back to the same route all the way to Mangalore station from there we took our train back to LTT Mumbai station after an overnight journey we were in Mumbai where our buses were waiting for us to take us back to the school, just one stop on the way to have lunch and after that we continued to move till we reach the assembly ground of our school, we could see parents waiting for their children at the gate. One could easily see joy of meeting their loved ones after eight long days. They all seemed very happy and thanked all of us for taking care of them.
That’s it the circle gets completed, It is like waking up from a dream. Just couldn’t believe that the tour is over, with all the memories we made it will remain memorable experience for all of us and will cherish each an every moment of it be it the time spent in bus and train or sighting the beauty of Karnataka. I feel very fortunate and blessed at the same time to be a part of this wonderful voyage and thank everyone for everything they did to make this tour a success.
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