Class XII at Shoja
Pragya Seth, Class XII
The trip to Shoja provided us with a much-needed break before our forthcoming examinations. It started off immediately after the excitement of Founders’ Day. Even though our bus was an hour late, it failed to dampen our spirits. The journey was good to start off with an assortment of popular music playing but as the as the day went on, so did our high spirits. We stopped at Kaural for a quick meal and rode on to the bus driver’s house for tea.
We finally reached our destination – Shoja well past noon. We pitched our tents and set off for a walk. We returned before it got dark and brought wood for our campfire. It was extremely cold.
The next day we woke up anticipating the feel of hot water but were disappointed. There was a geyser in the bathroom, which gave a red light when switched on, but to our dismay gave no hot water. At about 8:30 am we left for our 4 km trek to Jalori Park. From there we went further 2-3 km to a fort and returned to camp at 5 pm. A bonfire was lit and we all sat around it. Some students played cards.
We woke up the next morning ready to go for another trek. Some of us experimented with rock climbing there. In the night, we were all subjected to Mr. Sunil’s perception of ‘levitation’ and had good laughs while watching others levitate.
The next day, we walked down to a village through the fields. The bus picked us up on the way and we set off for our journey home. We stopped at a market place where we ate some snacks. We stopped yet again at HPMC. We brought fruit juices. For dinner we stopped at the bus driver's home where we ate traditional Punjabi food. We were back at school at 4 o’clock in the morning.
| The bus journey was a killing 20 hours. All of us were trying to sleep in cramped seats, but long legs and fat bodies would not fit. Meera Sareen had to go to the loo every 30 minutes, much to the ire of the bus driver. The trek to the top of the hill to reach a fort was a very very difficult one – an absolute killer. When we did finally reach the top we found that the fort was just a mound of rubble! We were staying at the PWD lodge at Shoja. I decided to sleep inside because my bones were freezing in the cold. Others wanted to brave it out in the tents. In the middle of the night I could hear people crawling all over my bedroom.The second night there were around twelve people sleeping in the same room and the room was like Hitler’s gas chamber. Mr. P. Mohan entertained us with his Hindi – he kept saying “Bahut thandi hai”. "Aramusk sabun bahut din tak ati hai” meaning “Aramusk soap lasts very long”. I had a great time on all the days. I stayed back at the campsite to look after the students who were unwell (Pragya Seth). I soaked in the sun with a view of the snow capped Himalayas in front, endless cups of tea and a wonderful book – ‘What the body remembers’! The levitation was a great hit with the students some believed that they had gone up by 70 feet! Meera jumped and hurt her nose in the bargain. Ms. Rekha Krishnan, |