The Rusty gate

That is all I remember from this Diwali.

But no, I remember many more things. The first day on 8th nov thursday, we met at CRY office and left for Kutumba , about 8 kms out of Bangalore on hennur road at Dodda Gubbi. Although we planned to reach early and finish the celebrations early. It got delayed , we reached there by about 07:30. The Volunteers Rajarshee, Murtuza, Venugopal, shweta, Anil, Sonia and friend, Sabina, Deepak, Devendar and Family, and myself,

The kids were waiting for us, there were a lot of new faces this time, as the strength has increased there, so after a round of intro - we set on fireworks, lit the place with candels, and what next ? lot of fun, crackers, rockets, sweets, Bombs, flowerpots, sparklers, the children had major fun , also we ensured everyone gets involved in this festival .

Then it was time to have a small interaction session discussed things like their courses, etc

NOTE :- we need a volunteer to teach them basic Computer skills , may be once or twice a week visit would be enough, the PCs are going to be provided .

Then chocolates and one small goofup by our dearest volunteers, they couldn't locate the sweet box kept in the car, and we thought we lost the sweets , but none the less we gave them other sweets like gulab jaamoon toffees , etc, then we left, as it was late

But still that rusted gate Haunts me.......

The Second day 9th Nov Friday was at Vatsalya at5 Wilson Garden again most of the volunteers were the same with the addition of Akash, Dharin and Nancy, while some from the previous day had dropped out.

Vatsalya being our regular intervention also happens to become a very pet place for most volunteers . As I entered the tiny tots came running wishing diwali and it was as if meeting old friends after ages. And yes, they remembered the action songs I had taught them and asked me to do those again for them. So without wasting any more time we got into our activities, then some fun activities, and the fireworks started.

The kids were divided into three groups of small , very small and the very very small kids ( Vatsalya has girls between age 5 and 15 years, and there is a fair mix of Children of all ages.
The very very small ones were given only the light ones like the sparklers, bhoomichakras, flowerpots, etc, the very small ones were given the little bigger ones like a mix of sparklers , Small bombs, flowerpots, some fancy fireworks etc the small ones, mostly high school kiddos, were seen with the big B's the Big Bombs, double sounds, and lakshmi bombs and the likes
and yes all under the supervision of the volunteers.the grand finale was our guided rockets which went in every direction but straight , and some special bombs,

Then we distributed the sweets including the sweets that was lost and found. Mmmmmm My mouth waters even at the thought of those exotic burfees, thank goodness we found them..... I got to eat too.

The rusted gate........

The third and Final day Of Diwali saturday 10th Nov we went to shishu Mandir.

This is where lot of thoughts and emotions were evoked again. Reached there at around 6pm saw two rows of girls seated on the road and our volunteers bursting crackers lighting flowerpots, etc... it was a common diwali planned for children in two homes situated adjacent each other a girls home for girls above 5 years and the infants home, for children below 5 years, mostly children lost and found, who went missing, abandoned, are the ones who stay in these homes, even children undergoing juvinile justice stay here.

As I reached the fire works were on. The older girls were seated on one side of the road watching the fireworks, I was wondering what happened to the tiny tots, then I walked a few steps towards the shishu mandir, Where the tiny kids stay, they were all seated on a small pathway that leads to the home and that gate seperated me and the children , the gate was kept locked , a meshed old gate , the children had to sit inside the gate and just watch the Celebrations and fireworks demo being done by us, To me personally it was a very sad scene as these kids looked like any other children, ( imagine some child you know of less then 5 years of age and you standing in front of a closed gate and inside which there is this child who cannot ask for some thing it needs.

I hope the gate breaks some time ....

But to the volunteers even getting permission to allow them see the fireworks was a major effort, so we thought this was much better then them not having anything at all, we gave the bigger kids sparklers and assisted them to light them up.

Immediately after this they were asked to get into their respective homes and we packed up.

Could some one define 'childhood' ? what are the minimum requirements to be called 'experiencing childhood'. What it means to miss the light of Diwali, id or christmas. Does it make any diffeence if they are aware of the MAC D, the internet, , Pogo, etc etc that the other children cant live without, how about Forum, PVR Even small outings, what difference does all this make. And Finally what difference does it make to stay away from Family...... ...

The Rusty Gate.....

By Sunand

Tribal kids

Forests; Jungle; Evoke myriad of images. Animals, trees, rivers, streams, falls etc etc and to a lesser extent tribals. A fortnight back, we got a chance to visit the fringes of Nagarholle forest, and interact with school going tribal children. Herz an account.
The much needed push came from the note book drive Sunand had organised for some of the govt. school children in the Heggad-Devan kote area. Off, we left on a rain promising saturday morning with 2000 - 200 page - notebooks. Santosh came witha 4WD, Vishwas & Nandha joined us. Here, with a beautiful girl watching us, we decided to coverup with notebooks.

The books were more targetted at drop out children in various schools. But, we started with a distribution to all kids in a school. Tobaco is majorly cultivated in these parts. Herz how the plant looks.

A web can be seen as a you-will-get-lost puzzle or can be seen as a wonderful supporting structure. The tribals that lived in the Bandipur-Nagarhole-Wynad forests now live in the fringes and try to make a living.

The predominant tribes are

• Kaadu Kuruba


• Jenu Kuruba
  
• Yarava


• Soliga

Some of them have some land to cultivate, and also engage in basket making & honey gathering. Most of the seem lost between the jungles and the towns. A lot of them go to Coorg a few months a year to assist in their plantations. The Kabini back waters.

Helping the tribes make a healthy living is the NGO - Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement - http://www.svym.net/

This group started of with health, and have now moved onto education among other things. They have a good hospital in Saragur, where a tribal can avail facilities for Rs 2.

And yes, they have a residential school for the tribal children. This houses 400 kids, studying from first std to 10th std, with 218 boys and 182 girls. The school is close to Kabini back-waters, a place called Hosahalli, on the other side of the back-water one can notice the Kabini Jungle lodges.

We spent a night and half a day at this school, interacting with the children. A lot of the current 10th kids said they have seen a tiger in the wild! And, here, I was going through a bird book with them, and they could identify a lot of them.

The school has wonderful facilities. They seem to follow a montessori like system.
One of their primary school class-room. They have a good library, wonderful lab, and a computer centre.

Leaves collected by 3rs std kids!!!
The class-tribe-sex break-up.

Well....a snake molt....and the spine of snake ;-)

At this point, my kyamera fell and got damaged ;-(

So...the rest of the day, we got to interact with the 10th standard students. It turned out to be intense sessions. They were around 40 of them. What was amiss was the exposure. Growing up so far from the cities/towns - depite all the facilities the school offers - they seem to miss the bus. A desire to go away from the place was there, but what next wasn't clear. A girl who scored above average marks aspired to be a bus conductor!!! We spent a lot of time talking 'bout career options etc etc. The kids lapped everything up.

What was striking was the closeness amongst the kids. The teachers remarked that they don't have a concept of mine/yours. There are no fights in the class when the teacher is not around. And, that the word 'orphan' doesn't exist in their language!!!

The kids look very promising, eager to make it. What they would do well, are more visits by the outside world (you & me), to inspire, show directions, and help them take those next few crucial steps.

Most of the 10th standard pass students are sponsored into higher education by the NGO. Currently, 10 such students are persuing their 11th standard science at Mysore. These children would benefit by regular mentoring by someone in Mysore. Mentoring would involve talking & motivating them, and an easy way is to teach some subjects or clear some of their subject doubts to build the relationship. Interested, let me know.

Ganarajyothsava

India's Republic day means & doesn't mean a lot of things to people. But to school children, itz fun time again. Marchpasts, community processions, speeches, flag hoisting, songs, skit, dramas & chocolates!!! It was 9ish in the morning, when I reached the Chalghatta school. For a change, all the kids were neatly seated, and awaited the proceeding to start. The chief guest was to arrive, and there was no sign of him. And soon, there was these colorful distant objects in the sky that got the kids excited. Parachutes, balloons ? None of us cud make them out.




The 6th std kids rehearsing

Shivaji & a look-alike!
Awaiting the chief guest.

Finally, we decided to go ahead.



The culturals started, but we guyz had to move to the Bellur school.


Initial photshot with Chetna & Hena.

' Bharath Matha ki Jai'

The Anganwaadi kids.

The Vande matharam song. Chetna & Hena had trained these kids for it. One complicated version, with tounge twistors galore.......I regarded it as pain & torture to my kids.......but to my surprise they pulled it of with aplomb.

Loose control... One more time!

Man...now for THE skit. The 'Punyakoti' song. Chethan, who sang was running away with the song. I barely managed to click a few snaps.

We had wonderful masks for the cows & tiger, but the one for the calf wasn't available, and we had to make do with a rabbit mask!!! Here Punyakoti is talking with her calf....'bout her impending surrender to Mr. Tiger.

After sentimental scenes, Punyakoti goes to Mr. Tiger, who for reasons I haven't fathomed all my life, feels sorry for wanting to kill her and instead of sending her back & going home, jumps from a cliff, and ends life!!!!

Teaching with my 5th std kids goes like this....45 minutes of English...restlessness.....and suddenly they jump and say 'Uncle, we will dance'......and thats it...they have their 'n' dances...that includes Dhoom machale!!! Here, we have them as Gopika's cribbing 'bout Krishna!!!

Speech in English. Chetna came with a simple written speech, and thrust it in my hands. None of the 4th & 5th were ready to speak it out, for they can't read it in the first place. Shocked. Well, thats the way it is. And, as I loudly contemplated writing the English in Kannada, and getting it read. Manjunath, a 3rd std kid, jumped, and forcefully said, he wud do it, and did a wonderful job of it. Long way to go for us.

3rd std kids singing the poem 'Bannadha thagadina thuthuri'

Man...this song has climbed up to the top of my charts. Something like 'Jannadha pannadha mangagallee'......Monkeys... please don't see, speak & hear evil! A dance, that evokes lot of laughter amongst kids.

End of celebrations. Lots of volunteers missed. Sunand, Dharin & Ami joined. And, the best part was the culturals at the Bellur school. Last Independence day, the kids just watched as pooja & speeches took the centre stage. But this time it was the otherway.

After we left the school, came across this injured Brahminy kite. It may have done well with some attention & care, we left it to nature & moved away. And, so are these govt. schools ?

An NCC camp

Sunand vanished sometime in May 06. We waited, checked with his mother, and waited. He still didn't turn up. And, I was convinced that our man has eloped with some girl, will soon 'knock knock', his mother will open the door, to see a grining groom & a shy bride with garlands on!!!

Sunand did turn up, and had an equally exciting tale to say. Sunand writes....

Hum Sab Bharatiya hain,
Apni Manzil ek hai…

Yes these are the lines I have been chanting the whole of last week Starting 10th May to 16th May 2006,

650 Girl cadets from various district of Andhra pradesh ( most from rural background).
7 days of rigorous training.
Total army discipline .

The fifth Andhra Girls Battalion NCC ( National Cadet Corps) Had there Annual training camp at Tirupati, the camp was held with the following aim

TO DEVELOP CHARACTER, COMRADESHIP, DISCIPLINE, LEADERSHIP, SECULAR OUTLOOK, SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE AND THE IDEALS OF SELFLESS SERVICE AMONGST THE YOUTH OF THE COUNTRY.

TO CREATE A HUMAN RESOURCE OF ORGANIZED, TRAINED AND MOTIVATED YOUTH, TO PROVIDE LEADERSHIP IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE AND ALWAYS AVAILABLE FOR THE SERVICE OF THE NATION.

TO PROVIDE A SUITABLE ENVIRONMENT TO MOTIVATE THE YOUTH TO TAKE UP A CAREER IN THE ARMED FORCES.

The KMA team comprising Anand( 4 days), Suma( 6 days), Jagadish (4 days), Kiran ( 7 days)and myself the camp leader had to stay till the end of the camp shouldered the responsibility of undertaking adventure training for the whole battalion

Various activities like firing, karate/self defence, meditation, drill, obstacle challenge etc were a part of the camp

We had initially planned to go and demonstrate adventure activities for two days and return, but on reaching there early 10th morning to be greeted by the Camp commandant and the group Captain I started discussing the nature of the camp its aims, back ground of the cadets, their schools college details etc,

To my surprise more then 80% of the cadets were from rural background, most of them from government schools. Many join the camp( or NCC(National Cadet Corps) on a larger level) just for the good food provided. There was an air of total discipline, the army officers who were managing the camp. Cadets in uniform, a loud call of 'order' from some far corner every now and then.

All this looked very thrilling and tempting …

After doing a preliminary reki( this is a preliminary assessment of the situation) of the camp site for the adventure activities, we located few spots for some activities, we were suggested a hill about 10 Kms from the campsite that is called Chandragiri. At about 9 am we set out to the hill with a batch of about 50 senior cadets in an army truck with an open top, we were accompanied by a lady officer an army Jawan and another cheerful army officer Prahlad who is from Darjeeling.

At Chandragiri myself Anand and Kiran had the task of finding a spot for Rappelling,

It was then that we realized the temperature was soaring ( it was some 40 d c) we found the rappelling spot , got all the cadets to the top the activities went on till about 1 in the noon, we returned to the camp site , wondering what sort of adventure training are we going to do in this heat, after lunch confused about the progress we went to sleep only to be waken up abruptly at about 3:30 pm by some uniformed guy, saying hey guys the cadets are waiting for you for the evening activities, taking a sudden decision we organized a jumar climbing for few cadets that evening, by then lot of cadets were watching us and wondering as to what these guys are doing with ropes, and gear.

The first day I also discovered that I had to revoke my Telugu speaking skills as most girls knew only telugu , none in the KMA team knew, during the briefing I had a tough yet enjoyable moment of having to speak in Telugu. ( I could see some cadets trying hard to control laughter… discipline issues)

Now that we had a fair idea of the camp, the cadets timings, activities timings, climatic conditions, I decided to make a plan for the adventure part of the camp. As that made a major composition in the whole training camp.
We would start as early as 6:00 am go till 7:00 am with the jumaring activity, 7:00 to 7:30 is the camp breakfast time, after that we set out for the Chandragiri hills for hill climbing, rock climbing and rappelling activities, in the evening we would do other activities between 3:30 and 5:00 pm,. With this plan in hand I went to the Camp commandant Lt Crnl Jude rocque and group Captain Ms.Chandra. The plan was accepted with a strong request from them to continue the training till 16th as the top army brass including the group commander were to visit the training camp that day.
All of us had different things to do back home, Anand had to go to work, I had an event at DSF to be involved in and some projects, It was tough for us to decide on staying that long.

That evening during the Cadets roll call I heard the song live for the first time, though I have heard it so many times and love the song too

"Hum Sab Bharatiye Hain, Hum Sab Bharatiye Hain
Apni Manzil Ek Hai,
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ek Hai,
Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho, Ek Hai.
Hum Sab Bharatiye Hain."

After the roll call there was a cultural show

We were to wake up early at around 5 from the next morning to start the session at 6, in one of the boards I saw this:

CARDINALS OF DISCIPLINE
Obey with a smile.
Be punctual.
Workhard and without fuss.
Make no excuses and tell no lies.

There was something in this camp that said Lets do it … JUST DO IT

Next morning we were happy to have Suma with us there was a 'fall in' at 6 and the cadets were there dot on time . we selected about 25 cadets took them for jumaring ( a type of climbing technique. ) we set out to chandragiri Hills early with a mix of senior and junior cadets, a little bit of antakshari on the way to and fro the hill was good , the problrm was most wanted only telugu songs, so we had a hindi vs telugu antakshiri,

Some girls did know Urdu, English and Tamil too, so we took there help during the briefing sessions and giving instructions while rock climbing etc, , the second day I didn't feel the great heat ( may be got acclimatized) reached the camp site a bit early went for lunch then sleep,

For the evening session we had the river crossing rope ready and an extra jumar rope fixed to cater to many more cadets,, as the word had spread about our activities , and many more were willing to be involved, we too were eager to impart the spirit of adventurism, various mountain skills

"Kashmir Ki Dharti Rani Hai,
Sarjaj Himalaya Hai,
Sadiyon Se Hamne Isko Apne Khoon Se Pala Hai
Desh Ki Raksha Ki Khatir Hum Samshir Utha Lenge,
Hum Samshir Utha Lenge."

The junior wing starting from 8th std till the senior wing upto final year degree, all came in batches, company wise, about 50 to 60 per batch per session,

The activities went on the same way for the next two days too and on Friday 12th we requested for permission to visit Tirumala and have a darshan of lord Venkateshwara, immediately special pass and a vehical was arranged to drop us, that was something I was very happy about.

Now that we had decided to conduct the camp till the end and deliver the best possible training, we roped in jagadish on Saturday in order to relieve Anand and have a steady flow of 4 instructors. Myself Kiran and Suma decided to stay till the end. With The team becoming more confident on our training schedule we increased the difficulty level for the Cadets in River crossing and introduced the Zipline into the schedule,

Sunday was a very tiresome day as we planned to conduct training in a little more adventourous manner, ( I had Sunday in my mind as that was the day Bangalore marathon was scheduled and at the n th moment cancelled, so wanted to do something worthwhile that day)

By this time we became friends to some cadets too , who were volunteering with us ( one of them Sunitha has done her Basic course in Mountaineering and has got Alpha grading too… that's cool) another one Taj a very good cadet has a intention of becoming a C A , she has come up facing a lot of difficulties , there were many more such cadets who are highly skilled in these activities, many of them didn't know these things exist.


"Bhikre-Bhikre Tarey Hain Hum Lekin Jhilmil Ek Hai,
Ha, Ha, Ha, ha, Ek Hain
Hum Sab Bharatiye Hain."

For most of the girls this is the first and the last( as they say) opportunity for such a camp, some of them will get married after their degree(I even got invited for two weddings:: - ) ) about 5 of them I spoke to said they will join either the armed forces or police.

On 15th there was a visit by the Group commander who commands about 7 units , the whole camp site was sparkling , we were told he will come straight to the hill for watching Rappelling Demo, thus we set there a bit early, with 50 girls , a mix of senior and junior cadets. They did rock climbing and slow rappelling ( which is a bit safe and that's what we did for all ) but there was more time for the GC to arrive we selected a few confident ones to allow them do fast rappelling , surprisingly there were many volunteers for that both juniors and seniors, we did as many as we could, ofcourse some of them did slip topple but in our hands they were very safe,

The demo in front of the top brass and media glare was superb, I gave an equipment briefing for the second time in that day some talk on nature conservation, The group Commander himself a mountaineering enthusiast was happy about the whole rockclimbing programme and was full of praise for us.

At the campsite we had increased the difficulty level of even the jumar now.

More and more girls were coming forward for the activities, they were eager to learn and take this further ,

There were girls who had earlier said they never knew anything existed like this now pleading for more chances on doing these activities, some of them coming forward to do some difficult techniques of river crossing, a few even dared to try out the other Rappelling techniques like the stomach and side rappelling which we had demonstrated. At times it rained during the evening session , but the cadets would wait in the rain for their turn I enjoy rain, so had more fun and even my team did.

The final day 16th we were supposed to do a demonstration by the Cadets at night in spot lights, we fixed the ropes started early and many girls knowing this would be their last option tried their hands on various activities( by now all cadets had undergone training) there was heavy preparations for the cultural evening with VIP's family members of the officers and other personnel, Cadets,

The Cadets put up a splendid show with a mix of folk dances, songs, classical dances, and a lot of other activities, There was wide publicity of the Adventure , rock climbing activities in the newspaper, My pic appeared in two papers(yeah ;-) Anand's appeared in one, and a lot of write up like "Bangalore team does rock climbing for NCC camp", "Karnataka mountaineers train the cadets at Tirupati" etc, lot of that was in Telugu too.

"Mandir Gurudware Bhi Hain Yahan
Aur Masjid Bhi Hai Yahan
Girja Ka Hai Ghadiyal Kahin
Mullah ki Kahin Hai Ajaan

Ek Hi Apna Ram Hia, Ek hi Allah Taala Hai,
Ek Hi Allah Taala Hai, Rang Birange Deepak Hain Hum,
Ek Jagmag Ek Hai Ha, Ha, Ek Hai, Ho, Ho, Ek Hai."

In his speech he expressed total satisfaction towards the adventure activities and the rock climbing part of the camp.

BADA KHANA … Gave an opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the top Brass and discuss business, While Suma left for Bangalore before the bada Khana saying her job as an adventure trainer is done, Jagadish and Kiran found it more worthy to have food with the cadets, I joined the Officers and during the course of Dinner surprised myself by getting confirmation for two more such camps, ( although I am not sure if I will attend them) , I have also convinced them to think of sending their deserving Cadets for climbing expedition's. and also upgrade their existing adventure equipment gear.. . After a while I too joined the boys,
Time for Slam book, Autographs etc It has been a long time I had done that,

ON THE WHOLE this was the best camp ever as it involved a large magnitude, no scope for mistakes as we were always in the army glare ( they have experienced all this in their training) , the training was for NCC cadets so there was an added purpose of service to the nation also. , many girls who had phobias of height are now confident of standing high… alone …

The overall outcome of the children is very good, the amount of exposure given to them to various activities, from the cadets point of view,

• Waking up at 4:00am or some even earlier
• Getting dressed neatly
• ' Fall in ' at 5 am & warm up exercises
• Following strict rules, disciplined life , group manners
• All the various activities they get involved in and
• The benefits they get after successful completion of the NCC training all this put together makes it a great opportunity.
  

I would suggest more of our children to be put into NCC, Scouts, Guides, Cubs and Bul buls etc, .

After this … Yeh Dil Mange more.....may be a national camp.

Signing out,
Proud leader of the adventure training team
Combined Annual Training Camp ( CATC )
Sunand

Ramnagara school trip

Thorns made red by bleeding hearts.

Well, if not a bleeding heart, I indeed was in a quandary. Chalghatta school - 200 kids - never been on a school trip - wow! lets take them out - but how ??

The logistics was turning into a nightmare. A bus can take 50-60 kids, a long journey makes it 9k/bus, and entry fees. And, food expenses. Mysore beckoned, but entry fees & quite long a journey. Same tale with Shravanabelogala-Tallakad-Bellur circuit.

Thorns.

My morning run ---> solution thrashed. Check with Sunand. 'Yes! we will do it', he says. Bliss.

Funda: Thorns are mostly in our imagination, as in the pic above. The locust intimidates other predators with it thorn like legs.



And, so on a saturday morning 9th of Dec 06. All the 6th & 7th std kids were taken on a outing. The 5th std kids from Chalghatta, along with 3rd to 5th from the Bellur school will be taken to Fun-world sometime in Jan. An elaborate pooja for the bus, seemed to satisfy the bus driver. He had cribbed heavily that only 46 passengers are allowed, and we were 66 kids, 8 teacher staff, & 6 volunteers!!!
And soon, Sunand & Shweta got some major Anthakshari going in the bus. Latest Kannada songs from FM 137.66
Ramnagara was the destination. A rock-climbers paradise. A quite place, with vultures above ur head, place to be. We wanted to introduce the kids to trekking and rock-climbing.
And soon, after breakfast, Sunand launched onto what trekking is....rock climbing is......the equipment used...how you need to be.....water bottles.....discipline....etc etc. At the end of the briefing, a boy promptly fainted!!!!
And soon, the 66 kids were divided into groups with volunteers Leena, Chetna, Shweta & Navrathan leading them. Sunand & Mallesh were the rock-climbing experts and leading the trek/climb. The teachers, esp the school HM Mary had a tough time in the small trek. She kept saying 'Since when have you been scheming this on me'...she struggled.....the kids literally ran.....and after some time 2 kids came back to help their HM!!!

Soon, we reached the base of Ramdevar betta. The joy here is the natural slide thats on this rock....the kids went up & slid down merrily.

We climbed up the hill, pitched in the equipment, and introduced rappling.
And after swift instructions from Mallesh & Sunand, the kids rappled down. It was a good test of their confidence, courage and trust.

Soon boyz & girls clamoured to get down. A few kept away, having a single rappling rope was becoming a botlle-neck.Shwetha took upon securing the harness & gloves.

Mmmmm......

By 5pm, we had finished with the last rappling kid, and went down for lunch. A good number of the kids had rappled down. The plan was also to visit Kokrebellur, some museum at chanpatna, and Rajarajeshwari temple. But, with rappling taking all the time we ditched it.

The school had raised Rs 2300 from the kids 50Rs each, from all those, who could pay. They covered food charges and also bought some canvas shoes for those needing it. Transport charges was covered by DSF. Rock climbing charges raised from volunteers.

The way back, the back benchers started with some major Ayyappa bajans, and soon being tired gave up and slept. It was 8:40pm, when the bus reached the school. Sunand wanted me to 'de-brief' the kids. And so, for the 66 kids seated in a corridor, that glowed in a yellow light lamp, for those who rappled, and those who didn't, with some of their parents watching, I spoke of 'Why adventure'....'Why push the body'...'Striving beyond the limits'...'Marathon running'.....'Rock climbing'....'Their exams'.....'their studies'.....'little more marks' The kids starred back sleepily, and their parents were quite.

Well, we managed to pull thru this outing safely. And, the kids enjoyed it. A new experience.

A zillion thanks to my buddy & Man Friday (Man Saturday ?) Sunand, who made this happen.