It was a awesome Social Trek which we enjoyed the most.
Excellent Write-up by Aarabi Madhavan
My first trek and WHAT-A-TREK!!!
Fortunately we had Omi and Gowri to capture all those lovely moments. And how can I forget, Samantha and her really cool waterproof camera,
which ensured we took loads of group pictures underwater as well .
Let me start at the very beginning...
We assembled at our respective pick up points. A van to pick up the children from the home was arranged. And we had three cars. We reached the
children's home by around 5:30 or so. As we were approaching the home, you could see a bunch of excited little faces looking at us.
Dhevi (organizer) really knew how to break the ice. It was really nice how she got them talking and cracking jokes. This write-up won’t be complete
if I forget to mention Dhevi's christening me by "Jingli”. The name stuck and the kids loved it.
So Dhevi , Gowri , Ganga , Shubha , Kowsalya , Venkat and myself , kids and Naveen and Ravindran from the home took the van .The rest split up in
the cars available. Ganga then put on Tamil songs. "Basha Boy" then volunteered to dance. He did one Step with such gusto , what can i say. No one
in the van will forget that air punching step. He continued to do that step for many hours. Finally exhausted, he decided to stop. Then there was another
really cute kid "Hussain" who snugly fell asleep into shubha's lap. All the kids were so hungry, so Dhevi decided to take pity on them and flicked a
few vadas from the back of the van. It was such an advantage that the food was with us .
We finally reached Nagala hills by 9 am or so. All kids were made to sit in a huge circle and sopper idly , vada and chutney were given to each of them .
Then the volunteers ate a lot .
Prabakaran ensured that no trash was left behind and all the mess was cleaned up. It was really nice that CTC is responsible and takes care of
the places they visit. After all the food and water was finished, each volunteer was given the responsibility of one kid.
We then started our trek at 10 am. It was very hot and all the water bottles got emptied within an hour. Everyone was just waiting to reach the falls.
We then came across a small stream (a run-off from the falls i guess) and all of us just jumped in. There were mango trees in abundance, so there
was this really lovely mango breeze. The stop was very refreshing. Then we continued our trek from there on. The group somehow split up and we
ended up reaching a really lovely pool. But since there was not much of time, we did not stop there. We then continued upward into the hills.
Our last stop was this gorgeous falls and the pool created by it. There were trees all around it and it was heavenly. All the swimming tubes were
out in minutes. The people who knew swimming, went straight to the falls. The main attraction was to stand under the falls and then take a picture
with the water gushing on top of you, and then dive deep/jump into the water .Everyone should do this at least once in their lives. The feeling when
u dive off the rocks into the deep waters is brilllliant! Loads of pictures under and above water were taken.
After more than two hours in the water everyone started to feel hungry. Really good Fried rice and chips were provided to all. The kids made a small
fire out of the dry leaves and sat around it to eat their lunch. Some kids wanted to catch fishes, so they came up with a really clever idea of using
the towels as fishing nets. I don’t remember if they were successful. A few others went for a free fish pedicure.
At around 3 pm we finally started back. The group again split up in three and I can safely say, that we must have stumbled upon many unknown
trails in the hills. We got together back to where we had left our cars and van. And then it was time for group pictures . After settling the account
and a quick stop at Sri Chakravarty for tea and biscuits, we started back home.
This trek was my first and will always be the most memorable. The hills came alive with the laughter of the children and the screams of Dhevi,
Vijay and a few others. I would like to thank
Dhevi, for not only making the trek such a success, but also making it so much fun!! ,
Gowri and Omi for all the wonderful moments they captured,
Samantha for all the Underwater Pictures,
Ganga, Vijay , Thamarai, Venkat, Sasi, Somasundaram, Shubha, Leelakrishnan, Christopher, Mehul, Vaishali, Shobana, Inssia, Tasnime,
Kowsalya and Prabakaran for all the jokes they cracked and fun we had during the trek.
And all the kids who we will miss dearly .
Thank you CTC for this experience.
Another Wonderful write-up by Vijay Prasad
It was 4:20am. The alarm tweeted again at 4:22am. Just 5 more mins, I muttered. I suddenly got up and rushed to my phone to check the time.
Thank god it was only 4:24am. Took a quick bath and drove to koyambedu. The silence in the road was overwhelming, crisp winds were blowing
across, ruffling my hair until I reached vadapalani junction. It was heavily choked with traffic. I still didn’t wake up fully from the night’s sleep and
I pinched myself to check if it was really vadapalani junction. Thanks to the heavy traffic the adrenaline honking woke me up.
This is my 3rd social trek and this time we took nagala’s western entry. We all met at koyambedu and quickly introduced each other. Prabhakar
sir was busy with attendance and calling up the participants. Soon we drove to the home at padi where Thilak was organizing things. It was around
6:45am and we all started to awesome nagala after finalizing the logistics part. Thamarai Selvan, Somasundaram ,Venkat and 4 kids embarked in
my car. While on the way to home I told Thamarai that I shouldn’t have seen “engeyum eppothum” (Incidentally I saw that movie on Friday) movie
which really frightened his ass. Lol. The kids were as usual big mouthed guys who displayed enough courage to conquer the world. Somasundaram
& Thamarai had a tough time in dealing with the kids while I pretended to the kids that “I’m busy in driving so Pls don’t disturb me”:P
The kids were enthusiastic to the core. All the while they were cracking jokes. One unforgettable joke which I encountered when I told to one of the
kid “Enga oorla kappal road la pogum” (In my hometown the ship’s travels in road). Immediately the kid answered “Kappal la chakram iruka”? (Does
the ship have wheels?). We guys were laughing uncontrollably for some time. It also portrayed how sharp minded the kids are. The stretch from
koyambedu to uthukottai was not that good and the kids were shouting chorus “Pls go fast, speed ah ponga” and the bad roads really dampened
my mood for some time. While proceeding towards nagala the roads started getting better and I felt that this was the right time to give some work
to the gas pedal. When the Speedo meter displayed 110kmph the memories of engeyum eppothum movie haunted Thamarai and he told “Dude no,
I’m getting scared” (Vijay, Konjam slow down pannikalaam):P. While my mind voice told “Chicken chicken”:P.
We all reached Nagala western entry and had yummy breakfast. I, gowri & sasirekha gobbled up a major portion of medhu vadas: D. After breakfast
each kid was assigned to the volunteers to take care of them until we return to the base camp. In the mean time gowri, Om, dhevi, gangadharan,
aarabi, leelakrish etc became good friends and the mokka comedies draped around until nagalapuram wanted us to leave: D. We reached the
second pool. The falls welcomed everyone with open hands. All the kids were completely basking in a world of joy. I pushed everyone around me
and ran straight to the pool and took a big jump. The photographers plunged into business and shot whatever they could.
The next 2 hours were full of fun & nothing else. We had a good time in splashing water over each other and posed for random clicks. Our great
somasundaram who didn’t knew swimming suddenly slipped inside the deeper part of the stream but was immediately pulled out by people around him.
Later he claimed that he saw his grandfather. Soon it was time for lunch and the organizer started fishing everyone out of the stream. We all had
sumptuous veg biryani along with 2 side dishes. No one exactly measured how much each of us gobbled up the biryani after all the fun: P.
It was time to leave and we all packed our bags and started. The kids surged ahead excepting Manick (Baasha) and the other guy’s name which
I don’t remember. Those 2 kids were damn cute and every word they spoke contained only innocence. Manick baasha was tied up as Jinglee’s
(Aarabi’s) boyfriend and we had fun throughout the way in pulling their legs. Not to mention the hooting and howling which we were doing it all the way.
It was around 5:15 and we reached the base camp with hell lotta memories to be etched forever in our minds. We encountered lots & lots of fun
which cannot be described everything here.
Last but not least guys please spare & spend some time for people who are less privileged so that we will get the real feel of how privileged we are.
Special thanks to the organizers for making it so wonderful.
Best Regards,
Vijay Prasad
Thank you Volunteers to bring a million dollar smile on kids face.
Hats Off to you guys.
Special Thanks to Thilak who helped me right from the beginning, without him we couldn't have completed this ST Successfully.
And a Special Thanks to Prabakar,Ganga,and Gowri who guided me in all the ways throughout the Trek.
Excellent Write-up by Aarabi Madhavan
My first trek and WHAT-A-TREK!!!
Fortunately we had Omi and Gowri to capture all those lovely moments. And how can I forget, Samantha and her really cool waterproof camera,
which ensured we took loads of group pictures underwater as well .
Let me start at the very beginning...
We assembled at our respective pick up points. A van to pick up the children from the home was arranged. And we had three cars. We reached the
children's home by around 5:30 or so. As we were approaching the home, you could see a bunch of excited little faces looking at us.
Dhevi (organizer) really knew how to break the ice. It was really nice how she got them talking and cracking jokes. This write-up won’t be complete
if I forget to mention Dhevi's christening me by "Jingli”. The name stuck and the kids loved it.
So Dhevi , Gowri , Ganga , Shubha , Kowsalya , Venkat and myself , kids and Naveen and Ravindran from the home took the van .The rest split up in
the cars available. Ganga then put on Tamil songs. "Basha Boy" then volunteered to dance. He did one Step with such gusto , what can i say. No one
in the van will forget that air punching step. He continued to do that step for many hours. Finally exhausted, he decided to stop. Then there was another
really cute kid "Hussain" who snugly fell asleep into shubha's lap. All the kids were so hungry, so Dhevi decided to take pity on them and flicked a
few vadas from the back of the van. It was such an advantage that the food was with us .
We finally reached Nagala hills by 9 am or so. All kids were made to sit in a huge circle and sopper idly , vada and chutney were given to each of them .
Then the volunteers ate a lot .
Prabakaran ensured that no trash was left behind and all the mess was cleaned up. It was really nice that CTC is responsible and takes care of
the places they visit. After all the food and water was finished, each volunteer was given the responsibility of one kid.
We then started our trek at 10 am. It was very hot and all the water bottles got emptied within an hour. Everyone was just waiting to reach the falls.
We then came across a small stream (a run-off from the falls i guess) and all of us just jumped in. There were mango trees in abundance, so there
was this really lovely mango breeze. The stop was very refreshing. Then we continued our trek from there on. The group somehow split up and we
ended up reaching a really lovely pool. But since there was not much of time, we did not stop there. We then continued upward into the hills.
Our last stop was this gorgeous falls and the pool created by it. There were trees all around it and it was heavenly. All the swimming tubes were
out in minutes. The people who knew swimming, went straight to the falls. The main attraction was to stand under the falls and then take a picture
with the water gushing on top of you, and then dive deep/jump into the water .Everyone should do this at least once in their lives. The feeling when
u dive off the rocks into the deep waters is brilllliant! Loads of pictures under and above water were taken.
After more than two hours in the water everyone started to feel hungry. Really good Fried rice and chips were provided to all. The kids made a small
fire out of the dry leaves and sat around it to eat their lunch. Some kids wanted to catch fishes, so they came up with a really clever idea of using
the towels as fishing nets. I don’t remember if they were successful. A few others went for a free fish pedicure.
trails in the hills. We got together back to where we had left our cars and van. And then it was time for group pictures . After settling the account
and a quick stop at Sri Chakravarty for tea and biscuits, we started back home.
This trek was my first and will always be the most memorable. The hills came alive with the laughter of the children and the screams of Dhevi,
Vijay and a few others. I would like to thank
Dhevi, for not only making the trek such a success, but also making it so much fun!! ,
Gowri and Omi for all the wonderful moments they captured,
Samantha for all the Underwater Pictures,
Ganga, Vijay , Thamarai, Venkat, Sasi, Somasundaram, Shubha, Leelakrishnan, Christopher, Mehul, Vaishali, Shobana, Inssia, Tasnime,
Kowsalya and Prabakaran for all the jokes they cracked and fun we had during the trek.
And all the kids who we will miss dearly .
Thank you CTC for this experience.
Another Wonderful write-up by Vijay Prasad
It was 4:20am. The alarm tweeted again at 4:22am. Just 5 more mins, I muttered. I suddenly got up and rushed to my phone to check the time.
Thank god it was only 4:24am. Took a quick bath and drove to koyambedu. The silence in the road was overwhelming, crisp winds were blowing
across, ruffling my hair until I reached vadapalani junction. It was heavily choked with traffic. I still didn’t wake up fully from the night’s sleep and
I pinched myself to check if it was really vadapalani junction. Thanks to the heavy traffic the adrenaline honking woke me up.
This is my 3rd social trek and this time we took nagala’s western entry. We all met at koyambedu and quickly introduced each other. Prabhakar
sir was busy with attendance and calling up the participants. Soon we drove to the home at padi where Thilak was organizing things. It was around
6:45am and we all started to awesome nagala after finalizing the logistics part. Thamarai Selvan, Somasundaram ,Venkat and 4 kids embarked in
my car. While on the way to home I told Thamarai that I shouldn’t have seen “engeyum eppothum” (Incidentally I saw that movie on Friday) movie
which really frightened his ass. Lol. The kids were as usual big mouthed guys who displayed enough courage to conquer the world. Somasundaram
& Thamarai had a tough time in dealing with the kids while I pretended to the kids that “I’m busy in driving so Pls don’t disturb me”:P
The kids were enthusiastic to the core. All the while they were cracking jokes. One unforgettable joke which I encountered when I told to one of the
kid “Enga oorla kappal road la pogum” (In my hometown the ship’s travels in road). Immediately the kid answered “Kappal la chakram iruka”? (Does
the ship have wheels?). We guys were laughing uncontrollably for some time. It also portrayed how sharp minded the kids are. The stretch from
koyambedu to uthukottai was not that good and the kids were shouting chorus “Pls go fast, speed ah ponga” and the bad roads really dampened
my mood for some time. While proceeding towards nagala the roads started getting better and I felt that this was the right time to give some work
to the gas pedal. When the Speedo meter displayed 110kmph the memories of engeyum eppothum movie haunted Thamarai and he told “Dude no,
I’m getting scared” (Vijay, Konjam slow down pannikalaam):P. While my mind voice told “Chicken chicken”:P.
We all reached Nagala western entry and had yummy breakfast. I, gowri & sasirekha gobbled up a major portion of medhu vadas: D. After breakfast
each kid was assigned to the volunteers to take care of them until we return to the base camp. In the mean time gowri, Om, dhevi, gangadharan,
aarabi, leelakrish etc became good friends and the mokka comedies draped around until nagalapuram wanted us to leave: D. We reached the
second pool. The falls welcomed everyone with open hands. All the kids were completely basking in a world of joy. I pushed everyone around me
and ran straight to the pool and took a big jump. The photographers plunged into business and shot whatever they could.
The next 2 hours were full of fun & nothing else. We had a good time in splashing water over each other and posed for random clicks. Our great
somasundaram who didn’t knew swimming suddenly slipped inside the deeper part of the stream but was immediately pulled out by people around him.
Later he claimed that he saw his grandfather. Soon it was time for lunch and the organizer started fishing everyone out of the stream. We all had
sumptuous veg biryani along with 2 side dishes. No one exactly measured how much each of us gobbled up the biryani after all the fun: P.
It was time to leave and we all packed our bags and started. The kids surged ahead excepting Manick (Baasha) and the other guy’s name which
I don’t remember. Those 2 kids were damn cute and every word they spoke contained only innocence. Manick baasha was tied up as Jinglee’s
(Aarabi’s) boyfriend and we had fun throughout the way in pulling their legs. Not to mention the hooting and howling which we were doing it all the way.
It was around 5:15 and we reached the base camp with hell lotta memories to be etched forever in our minds. We encountered lots & lots of fun
which cannot be described everything here.
Last but not least guys please spare & spend some time for people who are less privileged so that we will get the real feel of how privileged we are.
Special thanks to the organizers for making it so wonderful.
Best Regards,
Vijay Prasad
Thank you Volunteers to bring a million dollar smile on kids face.
Hats Off to you guys.
Special Thanks to Thilak who helped me right from the beginning, without him we couldn't have completed this ST Successfully.
And a Special Thanks to Prabakar,Ganga,and Gowri who guided me in all the ways throughout the Trek.
Please share your views and feedback in the following link
0 comments:
Post a Comment