After a full fledged effort at creative writing in a paper which required none, our HOD called us to his office. I did not want to go to listen to the same old, how was the paper etc etc, but I am basically a nice person..hehe..so I did.
He informed us about a peace workshop In Nepal the deadline for applying to which was over. He said we could still try. After paper 2, bleh……….
But, well I did, and so did my buddy ash, and before I knew it, we ware two of the 4 students representing India in that workshop!!!!
I was to leave two days after my exams, so there was no time for shopping!! It was my first time in an airplane, in the sense that, I have been in one a lot of times, but was too young to even recollect what the loo looked like!!
I was soooooooooo happy!!!!! One week of freedom, one week of meeting new people, but I was also apprehensive about sleeping during the boring speeches which I was sure I would be subject to!!
But the workshop was anything but that!
After spending a day with a Nepalese family in Katmandu, we were shifted to Godavari, Lalitpur, Nepal, in a beautiful and luxurious hotel!! After being given 20 minutes to settle down, we met our fecilitator for the next 4 days, Mr Ekraj Sabur, or Ek, as he likes to be called.
The next four days passed in a jiffy!! We slept for only 5 hours everyday! Me and ash, for 3 or at the max , cuz we had “bhujia eating sessions” in our room from 2 am onwards! We even missed breakfast at times because we couldn’t let India and its tradition for punctuality down because of selfish reasons! Hehe (plus we would rather dress up all prim and proper than go for a heavy breakfast, don’t blame us.)
The days were full of activities, some weird, but it all ended in some sort of a conclusion which left us all amazed. For instance, for one particular activity, the students were divided in to two groups, and asked to draw their version of a peaceful world. After this, the pictures were exchanged and and each of the groups were then asked to destroy the other groups perception of a peaceful world. Students seemed more excited to do this than to create the former picture. After this task, it seemed impossible to rebuild the picture, but our facilitator, asked us to do exactly this. After a lot of thinking, collective effort and team work, both the groups successfully rebuilt their peaceful world pictures. It was amazing!!
I made friends from Pakistan, Nepal, sri lanka and Bangladesh. There was a cultural night where me and ash, performed a play on religious harmony from the eyes of a mosquito!! And it was a hit!
Some of us bonded like we knew each other since forever! Mayukh, Ash and me from Kolkata, Saquib from Pakistan and Kuldeep from Nepal.
On the 5 th day we were to meet the prime minister of Nepal, and submit to him a youth declaration which we had not even started working on till 12 at night the day before. But, however, with 2 packets of lays, one bourbon as fuel, we, 5 of us started our mission and by 3 we had a rough draft prepared. On the last day of the workshop, we finalized( can I say “I” here as my friends decided to give me the “privilege” to do the same all by myself! hmph) the draft and met the prime minister at his residence in the evening. I read the draft out in front of him and shook hands with him,
( manmohan singhji, are you listening??).
The Indian and Pakistani team were to fly after another day, so we shopped went to Pashupati Temple or posupoti as one of our organizers called it. Kuldeep invited us to his place for dinneer where his sister cooked for all of us! We had a blast. The five of us stayed up till around 4 in the morning , and were to go see the “ex” palace and do some last minute shopping in the morning. We were however in for a surprise.
Kuldeep, whom we deprived of any sleep he begged for, knocked at our door at 6 am, to tell us that there was a bandh and no transport was available, so we would have to walk it to the airport, which would take us not more than TWO HOURS!! We felt bad for ourselves, and for him. (the organizers couldn’t make it to the hotel to drop us because of the bandh, and kuldeep who had his exams in a week’s time, whom we did not have any sleep happily agreed to drop us)
We were however lucky to find a bus, specially arranged for tourists with his help, and were at the airport 7 hours before our flight.
I will never forget me and ash discussing about ahem ahem, someone who must not be named, and having “aamshotta” at 3 in the morning!!!
It was all in all an experience of a lifetime, no squabbles, no arguments, making wonderful friends from all over south east asia!!
PEACE!!!!! (or as Jenee our sweetheart called it ‘peash’)
He informed us about a peace workshop In Nepal the deadline for applying to which was over. He said we could still try. After paper 2, bleh……….
But, well I did, and so did my buddy ash, and before I knew it, we ware two of the 4 students representing India in that workshop!!!!
I was to leave two days after my exams, so there was no time for shopping!! It was my first time in an airplane, in the sense that, I have been in one a lot of times, but was too young to even recollect what the loo looked like!!
I was soooooooooo happy!!!!! One week of freedom, one week of meeting new people, but I was also apprehensive about sleeping during the boring speeches which I was sure I would be subject to!!
But the workshop was anything but that!
After spending a day with a Nepalese family in Katmandu, we were shifted to Godavari, Lalitpur, Nepal, in a beautiful and luxurious hotel!! After being given 20 minutes to settle down, we met our fecilitator for the next 4 days, Mr Ekraj Sabur, or Ek, as he likes to be called.
The next four days passed in a jiffy!! We slept for only 5 hours everyday! Me and ash, for 3 or at the max , cuz we had “bhujia eating sessions” in our room from 2 am onwards! We even missed breakfast at times because we couldn’t let India and its tradition for punctuality down because of selfish reasons! Hehe (plus we would rather dress up all prim and proper than go for a heavy breakfast, don’t blame us.)
The days were full of activities, some weird, but it all ended in some sort of a conclusion which left us all amazed. For instance, for one particular activity, the students were divided in to two groups, and asked to draw their version of a peaceful world. After this, the pictures were exchanged and and each of the groups were then asked to destroy the other groups perception of a peaceful world. Students seemed more excited to do this than to create the former picture. After this task, it seemed impossible to rebuild the picture, but our facilitator, asked us to do exactly this. After a lot of thinking, collective effort and team work, both the groups successfully rebuilt their peaceful world pictures. It was amazing!!
I made friends from Pakistan, Nepal, sri lanka and Bangladesh. There was a cultural night where me and ash, performed a play on religious harmony from the eyes of a mosquito!! And it was a hit!
Some of us bonded like we knew each other since forever! Mayukh, Ash and me from Kolkata, Saquib from Pakistan and Kuldeep from Nepal.
On the 5 th day we were to meet the prime minister of Nepal, and submit to him a youth declaration which we had not even started working on till 12 at night the day before. But, however, with 2 packets of lays, one bourbon as fuel, we, 5 of us started our mission and by 3 we had a rough draft prepared. On the last day of the workshop, we finalized( can I say “I” here as my friends decided to give me the “privilege” to do the same all by myself! hmph) the draft and met the prime minister at his residence in the evening. I read the draft out in front of him and shook hands with him,
( manmohan singhji, are you listening??).
The Indian and Pakistani team were to fly after another day, so we shopped went to Pashupati Temple or posupoti as one of our organizers called it. Kuldeep invited us to his place for dinneer where his sister cooked for all of us! We had a blast. The five of us stayed up till around 4 in the morning , and were to go see the “ex” palace and do some last minute shopping in the morning. We were however in for a surprise.
Kuldeep, whom we deprived of any sleep he begged for, knocked at our door at 6 am, to tell us that there was a bandh and no transport was available, so we would have to walk it to the airport, which would take us not more than TWO HOURS!! We felt bad for ourselves, and for him. (the organizers couldn’t make it to the hotel to drop us because of the bandh, and kuldeep who had his exams in a week’s time, whom we did not have any sleep happily agreed to drop us)
We were however lucky to find a bus, specially arranged for tourists with his help, and were at the airport 7 hours before our flight.
I will never forget me and ash discussing about ahem ahem, someone who must not be named, and having “aamshotta” at 3 in the morning!!!
It was all in all an experience of a lifetime, no squabbles, no arguments, making wonderful friends from all over south east asia!!
PEACE!!!!! (or as Jenee our sweetheart called it ‘peash’)
