कभी होते थे ऐसे मौसम
मिट्टी की सुगंध हवा में भरी
छत पर बूंदे टपकने की आवाज़
और झिंगुर की गीत कानो में गूंजते
यह है बरसात सुहानी |
ताज़ी हवा भी गर्मी ले आती
कड़क धूप आंखों में गड़ती
छाँव के खोज में पसीना बहना
इस गर्मी से मुझे न मिलना |
ठंडी हवा काटों – सी चुभती
तीन कंबल के नीचे छिपना
अब आइसक्रीम भी गरम है खाना
सर्दी से बाहर मत जाना |
आखिरकार यह वायु हुई सुखद
पेड़ों ने पहन ली फूलों की पोशाक
न चाहिए पंखा न कम्बल की आवश्यकता
अब बसंती भोर खिला ||
By, Pragya Prachi Bharat, Grade 10, Ekya BTM
Alone in a crowd
Yet another sting travelled down my skin as the little wind left tried to caress it. Flies buzzing through every little inch of the rotten icing. My own little world, shrinking; minute by minute, boiling down to absolutely nothing. Maneuvering midst the amplitudes of the multiple voices circling around my head, somehow still drowning in the extensive sea of commotion. My soul, trapped between inconspicuous fences much like Schrödinger's cat; with no escape. Isolated, stood my mind despite the clattering of the millions of feet, begging to voice out their opinions. Diverse emotions: panic, rage, frustration, delight, joy, hopping off and onto each being. Thoughts evaporating out of my compact skull obliviating into thin air as still, I sat there, alone. Almost as if there was an invisible shield around me making everything drift further apart from me. Getting rid of the maze of my reflection to keep me company. Loneliness initiated it's way back to me. Still, I sat there.
Knee deep in clouds of mellow whispers assorted with laughs and giggles. A small silhouette toppled towards me, taking up the last seven inches of the squeaky, broken bench made of soaked wood. From making not a single sound, to gently whispering a barely audible ‘‘hi’’, as I blinked the faint figure away. It was funny how my brain created the most wondrous things at the most unnecessary times, kind of like having its own mechanism of eradicating traces of agony from the feeling of abandonment. ‘You can be in a room full of people and still feel lonelier than you would when you're actually alone,’ the words outlined my head as, still, I sat there. Alone in a crowd, hoping she would come back today if not yesterday or the day before that.
Remembering me and the small basket of vegetables we’d picked out for Friday night’s supper; although we might’ve needed some more tomatoes, with time, these ones went bad.
By, Sanika Chakravarthy, Grade 10 - IGCSE, Ekya School, JP Nagar
In a blink of an eye, I was at Kasol YHAI base camp in June 2015. From getting on a flight from Chennai to Delhi to inter-state bus travel from Delhi to Bhuntar and a local bus from Bhuntar to the base camp where monkeys sat beside us and travelled , I was completely unaware of what this trip would mean to me. It was an 11 days trek comprising a total of 60km, 3 days to acclimatize at Kasol, a 4-day climb to reach 13500 feet above sea level at Sar Pass, and 3 days back. As unfit as I was for this challenge, low blood pressure, fainting, the multiple falls, spraining my leg, and the constant anxiety that I was pulling the entire group behind; when I think about young Steffi I feel so proud that she didn’t back down or quit. I remember fainting after a day of exercise, however, I was also the only one who could climb a 75m high rock inclined at 75° with just my upper body strength the next day.
While I could describe every detail of the trek, the purpose of the blog would change. Narrowing it down and accentuating an experience at the second base camp-Padri, which unlike all the other camps was a widespread area surrounded by a forest, hills, a river flowing close by, and had a view of the snow-capped mountains from the valley. The camp leader warned us about bears and stayed up with the group all night flashing the torch towards the forest at timely intervals. Unbothered, we sat around the campfire and sang our hearts out to Bollywood melodies. It was around an hour into our jam session that I realized how the snow on the mountains around was still glistening with the little light that it received from the sun at that altitude. It made me smile at how beautiful nature is.
It was then that I noticed a light at one of the tips of the mountains. Very naively I remember thinking that it might be someone flashing a light and believing that it was just “shiny snow”, and continued with the ongoing horror story session. I only took my eyes off for a second from the light, and when I looked back, it had moved into the sky. In disbelief, I blinked again and noticed another, then five more and within seconds the entire sky was filled with stars. And I gasped in wonder, I literally just visualized Earth rotating. This right here would qualify as one of the most magical moments in my life. We all lay on the green grass of the valley, under the starry sky, and wished for shooting stars.
I guess the hopeless romantic in me was very lucky that day, as we did spot two. These are the little things I look forward to in every travel plan I make, and I’m very grateful for having created an overflowing bucket of memories before the world got sick with Covid19. Here’s to wishing good health to everyone around, so that I can be a little selfish and get back to what I love doing.
By, Steffi Nixon, Senior school, Ekya BTM
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