Reasons I can never forget an Nature Club Camp

1. The highest peak, the longest walk, the toughest climb, seems completely doable when the NC junta is around

2. No matter what, we always sing!

3. You see a place you’ve never seen before, talk to people you’ve never known, do thing’s you’ve never imagined, and come back with more stories than you can keep count of!

4. The C.O.M. (If you don’t know what that stands for, go for a camp!!!!)

5. On the first camp, the people I knew were 0. So what?

6. There’s never a dull moment! Even when you really really wishing there would be!

7. You’ll see birds you can never remember the names of (& hence get whacked )

8. You’ll possible even see an animal you will never forget for the rest of your life. In my case this was a tiger…

9. After a tiring day, trekking in some beautiful forest in the middle of nowhere, you sleep better than you would, any other day, any other time….

10. And, somewhere, on the banks of a distant river somewhere, or maybe sitting on a hill, overlooking the forest, you find yourself…
I know I did….

NC and the Art of Vehicle Non-Maintenance

It is a known and proven fact that a camp without disasters doesn’t quite feel like a camp. We almost look forward to the stuff that isn’t on the itinerary. But this time, we didn’t know what we were asking for.

I have limited knowledge about the anatomy of an automobile. But the vehicles we hired for the North East camp this year made sure I got a crash course in atleast naming some of the monsters that slept in the depths of its engines. From time to time, the parts of our vehicles made their presence felt by bursting, leaking, tearing, blowing off or just mysteriously coming to a standstill.

Also, as if it were a small mercy (or not!) the Motor Gods granted us, not all of this happened on the same day. It happened every day. Once the radiator blew, another day something was wrong with the gasket. Our tyre goddess had lawfully wedded the puncture god in the mountains of Mizoram and there was no telling if we ever had a brake in the first place.

Beyond a point we realized there was no point in worrying about the performance of our glorious vehicles. If they broke down, we walked when possible or just waited. When there was a biker who crashed into our bus (and escaped with surprisingly less injury) the first aid wallahs of the group hopped out to attend to his wounds without batting an eyelid. It was as though we were here to learn about the highway disasters.

But things eventually got better. Not that the vehicles worked fine, but we didn’t just pay that much attention anymore. Somewhere in the spirit of things on an NC camp, getting cranky doesn’t fit in. even those who made a few feeble attempts at complaining eventually gave up.

And in the same spirit of things, we learnt the biggest lessons of these camps. That long forgotten lesson of kindergarten. We learnt to share and adjust and squeeze in. we learnt to inconvenience ourselves just a little, and just be happy campers.

Another FYBMM…

Another day will dawn and Wilson College will throw its gates open.

ID-cards in their hands, dreams in their eyes and not a clue in their head, they’ll step in.

Another FYBMM will embark on their journey just like we did.

They’ll have that first lecture with Sudhakar Sir again and they’ll be scared of him…

They’ll make those quick friendships, those sudden ‘love’ affairs, started by some teasing…

They’ll spend rainy afternoons by the beach and of course,

Click those pictures…

They’ll have fun through their first Polaris, the ones in Security…the ones in 104…

They’ll discover themselves as they discover projects

The first night up before Suddhu’s (that’s what they’ll learn to call him) submission

It won’t help really. They’ll come five minutes after 7:30…the train was late of course!

Then they’ll spend the next two days getting him to accept the project.

Phone bills will shoot up, hours spent at home will plummet.

Parents will worry, wardens will warn and they’ll be at this one’s place…chilling…

The fights will happen too, big ones, small ones, i-can’t-do-another-project-with-him ones…

The breakups will happen too.

Bitter and frivolous…and we’ll be friends again

They’ll be divided and united…and maybe someday, they’ll boycott an exam of their own…

All this, before the first I.V.

Another FYBMM will embark on their journey just like we did.

I don’t know if this is their story or ours…

But it sure is one helluva story, isn’t it?