The flashbacks of my school life came back to me. I remember carrying the heavy-weighted bags, doing boring mathematics classes in the first period, and then pulling till the afternoon till school ended. The cycle went on and we thought that we would never be able to come out of this drudgery till our class teacher, instead of teaching us algebra, gave the most unexpected news. Yes, we were going on a school trip. On the first day, we would be going to a nearby village, only a few kilometres away from the school. On the second day, we were to visit an orphanage and old aged home on the third day, we were to have a lovely time out at Eco-Park.
THE FIRST DAY
Our joy knew no bounds as we were finally going for a fun trip with our friends and we were too excited to sleep the previous night. Finally, as we reached the school, the chattering and happiness of the students were uncontrollable, the teachers shouted till their voices choked to get us to form a line and board the bus safely.
Five days prior, we had been putting our heart and soul into practicing for the street play that we were to be performing during our visit to the village. The play was centred upon the theme ‘period poverty’ where we tried to talk about menstruation to both men and women to raise awareness and to remove the stigma around menstruation. Firstly, the villagers were hesitant, some were even annoyed when we brought up this topic but after trying several times, many of them not only understood but also appreciated the message we were trying to convey. This act filled our hearts with pride since this was our first attempt to break the decades-old taboo around menstruation. We have the zeal to take up more similar projects and contribute towards social change in our own way.
Every student was asked to donate three sanitary napkins which were distributed among women and teenage girls. It saddened us to hear about their problems, especially when we got to know that they didn’t even have sufficient water during those days, let alone proper sanitation facilities. Of course, the problem was too huge to be solved by us but we were happy to at least take a small step and make things easy for them at least for a month.
THE SECOND DAY
The next day of the trip involved a visit to an orphanage, Bondana Anathathalya as well as an old age home, Swasti Old Age Home. During the first half, we visited the orphanage where each of us was assigned to teach certain things related to arithmetic and alphabets. The kids were extremely naughty and half of our time went to convince them to sit down and study with us. It was not even five minutes when the kids became restless again and started chattering amicably among themselves. We were extremely helpless since we could not even scold them like our teacher scolded us.
Then, one of my friends got this genius idea of narrating a horror story. The children enjoyed themselves thoroughly without having to worry about anything else. The story was so enriching that the children wanted to hear more of them. That is when my friend negotiated, asking them that they would get to hear the story only when they had studied what we were trying to teach them at least for an hour. That day we realized how difficult it was to deal with kids like them, but it was equally rewarding as well.
Our visit ended with us organizing and volunteering for the lunch that our school had funded, and the joy of seeing them relish the food was inexplicable. Seeing them we realized how blessed we are to have parents who have not just given us all the privileges but also made sure that we have a home and a safe space to go back to every day. We are so busy cribbing and complaining that we never realize how blessed we are.
The second half of our day involved a visit to an old-age home. There, we did not have much work apart from interacting with them and hearing out their stories. Some of them were heart wrenching and I could not even imagine that such type of cruelty and barbarism existed. The son of that grandmother had taken her to the railway station telling her that they would be back in a while. And, they never came back. Just left her there to starve and die. Thankfully, after a few days, an NGO rehabilitated her and brought her here. Life has been better ever since because finally, she had befriended people like her and was even selling pickles and doing embroidery work to make a side income. This helped her lead a life of dignity and respect in the last few days. Apart from her, many others were also involved in making food items and craftwork. We bought some of them to contribute and uplift them in our way. Our visit ended here as well after we volunteered to organize a supper for them, which they relished to their heart’s content.
THE THIRD DAY
The third day involved a visit to the eco-park. This was the most cherished time spent with our friends. On the bus, we chattered happily, enjoyed snacks, and even danced to the music that was played. After reaching there, we got our tickets and were strictly instructed to return to the spot by 4 PM. We did all sorts of fun activities like cycling and strolling around the monuments. We also played different types of games till our stomachs started aching and we went for lunch.
After lunch, we had the best time boating and chatting along the way. The experience was so refreshing, being in the water and among trees while gossiping with our friends about every little thing. Then we got the sad news. It was 4 PM and we had to return to our buses. We were not one of those obedient students and hence, went for another round of boating, thereby delaying another twenty minutes. On returning, inevitably we got a proper scolding from our class teacher, but that was worth the fun. When we got to our buses, we were too tired to dance to the music or even chatter for that matter.
A TREASURE BOX OF MEMORIES
This trip was one of our best experiences as it gave us so much- firstly, the opportunity to contribute towards social change by spreading awareness about periods and donating sanitary napkins. Secondly, we got to share our knowledge with little kids and lend our patient ears to people like our grandparents, the people who had been through unimaginable tragedies. Lastly, we made beautiful memories at the eco-park, things that we would cherish for our entire lifetime. We have learned so much about life, primarily to be grateful and content with what we have, and take steps towards a change no matter how small it is rather than cribbing or complaining about what we do not have.
By: Somdatta Ghosh
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