The youreka Experience.
Place: Tirthan Valley, Himachal Pradesh.
Time of the year: may-June 2006
May 6th 2006, Old Delhi railway station: 9.P.M.
A day before I was informed that I should be there at the station by 9.P.M. I was there at 8:45 and there was no sign of the people I was supposed to meet. Wait.
After a while, a beeline of kids started to appear. Accompanied by their parents there were about 60 kids. They all were participants for the youreka kid’s summer camp in Tirthan Valley, Himachal Pradesh. For some it was the first trip while it was the second time for some. For me, it was the first time dealing with kids.
At 9:20, I got to speak to one of the team member. “When are we starting?” I asked. “In about 10 minutes” he replied back. Nice, I was asked to be here at 9 and these guys turn up at 9:20, great, just great. Perfect Indian timing, I hate it. Big time.
Anyways, a meeting was called for all the educators (that’s what I was known as, educator), everyone was assigned a job, it was simple, check all the kid’s baggage and let them inside the train. Isn’t that simple? Trust me, in old Delhi station it is not. 60 kids, 120 parents add to that brothers and sisters of the kid who is going for the camp, plus the usual maddening crowd of a typical railway station in India. Chaos!
Chaos? Chaos is not the word to describe the scene.
All these kids are from rich family background, damn their parents pay 13K for a week to send them here; phew my dad would pass out if I had asked that much of money. All of them are rich, arrogant and have an “I am the Best” attitude. Everyone pushing one another to get the best seat in the train, the entire boggy was booked, so no worries for seat numbers and stuff. Finally, at 10:30, the train left Delhi station for Anantpur Sahib in Punjab, from where the next leg of journey will start.
Anantpur Sahib to Tirthan:
The train chucked into Anantpur Sahib at about 6 in the morning. It was a 10 minute halt and around 70 people where to get down, above that there were supplies for the camp. So, what was the plan? It was simple, from one side all the kids will get down and from the other, the supplies and all the baggage will be thrown down. It worked.
There were about 8 cars waiting for us at the station, all of them had a number. First stop, breakfast, then a 7 hours journey crisscrossing the hills of Himachal Pradesh. The scene was beautiful, it reminded me of my state Manipur, except the roads were better in Himachal. Next stop, somewhere near Mandi town, everyone was served cold drinks and snacks.
At about 2:30 in the afternoon, we reached camp youreka in Tirthan valley.
The Camp:
The camp is located on the banks of river Tirthan, about 25 tents, one big common hall (affectionately named KPRD, that’s Khana, Peena, Rona, Dhona), everything happens here; a kitchen, staff quarters, store room, good toilets, the ghanta ghar (Clock house), Bodhi tree, a volleyball court. The place is awesome.
Shocker for the kids:
The first day, everybody was asked to assemble at the KPRD. There every kid was assigned tents, the shocking part in this was that the kids thought that they will be sharing the tents with their school friends, but here it was a different story, they were randomly assigned tents. Everybody started yelling, not fair, this and that. Now, the second shocker, no one was allowed to carry anything except for a small 35mm camera and clothing. No walkman, Discman, chocolates, aerated drinks, chips, nothing. All were asked to surrender whatever they had in their bags and boy was that lots? Potato chips, Walkmans, Discmans, Video games and all sorts of items were surrendered. Each of them were packed according to the tent numbers and were to be returned to the kids when they leave the camp after 7 days.
Dinner time, another shocker:
Dinner was served at 7:45 on the first day, after all the rules and regulations were informed, after each team was introduced to their respective educators. The food was ok by any standards, but for the kids who are used to eating good food, it was frightening. No one had a proper dinner, for some it was too oily, for some it was too spicy, for some it was something else.
Lights out at 10, the fun starts from tomorrow.
The fun begins:
The usual day starts at 6:45 in the morning with the chota hajiri (small gathering), a quick exercise for about 15 minutes, breakfast and then the activity begins.
The first week of my stay, I was assigned the rock climbing team. The camp had 4 main major activity groups. Rock climbing, mountain biking, outdoor survival and trekking. Each team had 15 kids with 3 adults. Among the 3 adults, 2 would be certified trainers of the respective activity and 1 would go along as a help for them, basically this guy comes to the camp to teach the kids some minor activity like painting, dying, drama, etc etc, but they must accompany the team for the major activity also. Me and rock climbing? You must be kidding. No they were not. I was in the team and I must go along with the kids and the educators. Damn, I came here to teach t-shirt painting, and they are making me climb rocks. That’s not fair. Whatever, it is going to be fun.
The rock climbing team was a bunch of characters. Each with an attitude, ego and what not, they are 12-13 years old. Going to be tough, I thought. Dharam and Sunil were the certified instructors for rock climbing, Swathi was the course leader and I was the minor activity dude.
For me, it had been about 10 years since I last did a trekking or climbing trip. I was looking forward to it but I knew it was not going to be easy since I was way too heavy and above that there were 15 devils around me.
First day went off smoothly with Dharam and Sunil doing all the talking. Introducing the kids to all the equipments and also making them understand the environment they were in. After lunch, it was my time; I mean it was my time to teach the kids a thing or two about t-shirt painting.
After the minor activity each kid was given a solo time, wherein they must be alone for some time, about 30 minutes and after that there was the reflection session. This was fun, in the session everyone was supposed to share what happened during the day and who was supposed to make them speak? Me. Mua.
Wasn’t that tough to make the devils speak their mind, after that it was fun time, I mean play time, play anything you want, scream, run, break, do whatever. Then dinner is served after which its time to sleep.
This same routine continued for the next 6 days. The final night, there is a talent show, and the kids do all sorts of activity, from singing to dancing, to shouting, to drama and all the stuff. That’s the fun night. Then the batch leaves the camp and the next day another batch of 120 kids comes in. then the same routine again for another week.
My share of fun:
It was more or less of an eye opening for me. I was doing the stuff that I used to do nearly 10 years ago, I was in the middle of rich kids, I was in the middle of nowhere, I was in the middle of a professional crisis, everything was happening with me, yet I came here to seek freedom and a peace of mind. Which, I was able to achieve part of it.
All the fun, activity and learning were really good. But the worse part was smoking. Oh damn, I can’t shit without a smoke, and here I am not supposed to smoke in front of the kids. I had to find a solution for that, what did I find? The smoking zone. Yeah it was meant for the adults to smoke there. Now, what I had to do was, every time I wanted to go, then I had to walk all the way to the staff toilets, that’s the only place where you can shit with a smoke. Cool.
I was thinking all the time, there were far too many questions than answers. The more I thought, the more I was getting lost in the maze. The place is just amazing, right next to the river, good weather, good food, good activities, bunch of amazing kids yet I was thinking. I began to wonder what’s there for the people who run the place. Things were a lot contradicting than what I was told in the training which was given to me before I came here. I was ready to forget the contradiction in the state of affairs there but it was the people who I was not ready to forget. Everybody here is good in their field, some were expert mountaineers, some expert bikers, yet all of them were so bloody conservative and naïve. They have seen the world, have met a lot of people, yet there thinking was so very narrow. Back biting is all they know of doing. All they meant was money; all of them were here for the money and nothing else. Freak I did not even know how much I was getting paid, I did not even speak about it. But for the rest it was the money and all they talk about is how to talk to kids and how to handle them, what is to be done and what is not be done, blah blah blah. On the outset everyone was nice and easy. I saw this and I could not stand it. Nobody was there to share things or teach the kids some valuable life lessons, all they thought was that it was a holiday for them, they also came here to enjoy. Fine if that’s the case, I am out of here; I can’t work with people like them. I ran off my previous company just because of people like them and where do I land? The same old fucking set of people.
If I am given a chance to go back, certainly I will go back but I will stay out of all the people and the freaking politics. Just give me the kids and I will teach them what I am supposed to teach them and I will turn them into a more mature kid by the end of the week. It’s not just the activities that the kids can learn here, its way beyond a human can think. But out here, the main focus is on selling the major activities and earning money from that. The kids come here and it is all up to the educators to make them learn. Now the educators himself/herself are not interested in learning then how can they teach anything to the kids? The technical instructors are fine because for them it is just technical and nothing else, but for the guys who come in as minor activity educators, they need to be selected with extra care. The company which organizes the camp says that "security" is their biggest concern; then I failed to understand why the educators were not medically tested for anything. All they give is a form to fill up, if you fill up that form, they believe you, but what if the form was not filled deliberately? They never double checked the information which was provided in the form.
I was asked to leave the camp because I came out with the information that I have something called herpes which I thought was an STD. but these people failed to understand how an STD spreads. They thought it’s contagious and can spread to the kids. Fair enough, let’s do a test then. I did, and the doctor clarified that the kind of herpes that I have was not an STD and was not contagious, still these people failed to understand. But that’s ok, even if the result was fine and stuff I was never going back to the camp again. I can’t handle people who talk about STD and knows shit about STD. I can’t handle people who talks about being open minded yet they are so feeble. I just can’t stand them. Simple.
Today is 21st November 2006, I am in Bangalore, writing this article after a long time. Yet I have not heard from youreka again. I was told that they would get back to me with the reason for not sending me again to the camp. Still I am waiting for the mail.
But bottom line is I had the best 3 weeks in my life where I was able to learn a lot from the kids and I was able to teach them something apart from t-shirt painting. I feel good about that.
Time of the year: may-June 2006
May 6th 2006, Old Delhi railway station: 9.P.M.
A day before I was informed that I should be there at the station by 9.P.M. I was there at 8:45 and there was no sign of the people I was supposed to meet. Wait.
After a while, a beeline of kids started to appear. Accompanied by their parents there were about 60 kids. They all were participants for the youreka kid’s summer camp in Tirthan Valley, Himachal Pradesh. For some it was the first trip while it was the second time for some. For me, it was the first time dealing with kids.
At 9:20, I got to speak to one of the team member. “When are we starting?” I asked. “In about 10 minutes” he replied back. Nice, I was asked to be here at 9 and these guys turn up at 9:20, great, just great. Perfect Indian timing, I hate it. Big time.
Anyways, a meeting was called for all the educators (that’s what I was known as, educator), everyone was assigned a job, it was simple, check all the kid’s baggage and let them inside the train. Isn’t that simple? Trust me, in old Delhi station it is not. 60 kids, 120 parents add to that brothers and sisters of the kid who is going for the camp, plus the usual maddening crowd of a typical railway station in India. Chaos!
Chaos? Chaos is not the word to describe the scene.
All these kids are from rich family background, damn their parents pay 13K for a week to send them here; phew my dad would pass out if I had asked that much of money. All of them are rich, arrogant and have an “I am the Best” attitude. Everyone pushing one another to get the best seat in the train, the entire boggy was booked, so no worries for seat numbers and stuff. Finally, at 10:30, the train left Delhi station for Anantpur Sahib in Punjab, from where the next leg of journey will start.
Anantpur Sahib to Tirthan:
The train chucked into Anantpur Sahib at about 6 in the morning. It was a 10 minute halt and around 70 people where to get down, above that there were supplies for the camp. So, what was the plan? It was simple, from one side all the kids will get down and from the other, the supplies and all the baggage will be thrown down. It worked.
There were about 8 cars waiting for us at the station, all of them had a number. First stop, breakfast, then a 7 hours journey crisscrossing the hills of Himachal Pradesh. The scene was beautiful, it reminded me of my state Manipur, except the roads were better in Himachal. Next stop, somewhere near Mandi town, everyone was served cold drinks and snacks.
At about 2:30 in the afternoon, we reached camp youreka in Tirthan valley.
The Camp:
The camp is located on the banks of river Tirthan, about 25 tents, one big common hall (affectionately named KPRD, that’s Khana, Peena, Rona, Dhona), everything happens here; a kitchen, staff quarters, store room, good toilets, the ghanta ghar (Clock house), Bodhi tree, a volleyball court. The place is awesome.
Shocker for the kids:
The first day, everybody was asked to assemble at the KPRD. There every kid was assigned tents, the shocking part in this was that the kids thought that they will be sharing the tents with their school friends, but here it was a different story, they were randomly assigned tents. Everybody started yelling, not fair, this and that. Now, the second shocker, no one was allowed to carry anything except for a small 35mm camera and clothing. No walkman, Discman, chocolates, aerated drinks, chips, nothing. All were asked to surrender whatever they had in their bags and boy was that lots? Potato chips, Walkmans, Discmans, Video games and all sorts of items were surrendered. Each of them were packed according to the tent numbers and were to be returned to the kids when they leave the camp after 7 days.
Dinner time, another shocker:
Dinner was served at 7:45 on the first day, after all the rules and regulations were informed, after each team was introduced to their respective educators. The food was ok by any standards, but for the kids who are used to eating good food, it was frightening. No one had a proper dinner, for some it was too oily, for some it was too spicy, for some it was something else.
Lights out at 10, the fun starts from tomorrow.
The fun begins:
The usual day starts at 6:45 in the morning with the chota hajiri (small gathering), a quick exercise for about 15 minutes, breakfast and then the activity begins.
The first week of my stay, I was assigned the rock climbing team. The camp had 4 main major activity groups. Rock climbing, mountain biking, outdoor survival and trekking. Each team had 15 kids with 3 adults. Among the 3 adults, 2 would be certified trainers of the respective activity and 1 would go along as a help for them, basically this guy comes to the camp to teach the kids some minor activity like painting, dying, drama, etc etc, but they must accompany the team for the major activity also. Me and rock climbing? You must be kidding. No they were not. I was in the team and I must go along with the kids and the educators. Damn, I came here to teach t-shirt painting, and they are making me climb rocks. That’s not fair. Whatever, it is going to be fun.
The rock climbing team was a bunch of characters. Each with an attitude, ego and what not, they are 12-13 years old. Going to be tough, I thought. Dharam and Sunil were the certified instructors for rock climbing, Swathi was the course leader and I was the minor activity dude.
For me, it had been about 10 years since I last did a trekking or climbing trip. I was looking forward to it but I knew it was not going to be easy since I was way too heavy and above that there were 15 devils around me.
First day went off smoothly with Dharam and Sunil doing all the talking. Introducing the kids to all the equipments and also making them understand the environment they were in. After lunch, it was my time; I mean it was my time to teach the kids a thing or two about t-shirt painting.
After the minor activity each kid was given a solo time, wherein they must be alone for some time, about 30 minutes and after that there was the reflection session. This was fun, in the session everyone was supposed to share what happened during the day and who was supposed to make them speak? Me. Mua.
Wasn’t that tough to make the devils speak their mind, after that it was fun time, I mean play time, play anything you want, scream, run, break, do whatever. Then dinner is served after which its time to sleep.
This same routine continued for the next 6 days. The final night, there is a talent show, and the kids do all sorts of activity, from singing to dancing, to shouting, to drama and all the stuff. That’s the fun night. Then the batch leaves the camp and the next day another batch of 120 kids comes in. then the same routine again for another week.
My share of fun:
It was more or less of an eye opening for me. I was doing the stuff that I used to do nearly 10 years ago, I was in the middle of rich kids, I was in the middle of nowhere, I was in the middle of a professional crisis, everything was happening with me, yet I came here to seek freedom and a peace of mind. Which, I was able to achieve part of it.
All the fun, activity and learning were really good. But the worse part was smoking. Oh damn, I can’t shit without a smoke, and here I am not supposed to smoke in front of the kids. I had to find a solution for that, what did I find? The smoking zone. Yeah it was meant for the adults to smoke there. Now, what I had to do was, every time I wanted to go, then I had to walk all the way to the staff toilets, that’s the only place where you can shit with a smoke. Cool.
I was thinking all the time, there were far too many questions than answers. The more I thought, the more I was getting lost in the maze. The place is just amazing, right next to the river, good weather, good food, good activities, bunch of amazing kids yet I was thinking. I began to wonder what’s there for the people who run the place. Things were a lot contradicting than what I was told in the training which was given to me before I came here. I was ready to forget the contradiction in the state of affairs there but it was the people who I was not ready to forget. Everybody here is good in their field, some were expert mountaineers, some expert bikers, yet all of them were so bloody conservative and naïve. They have seen the world, have met a lot of people, yet there thinking was so very narrow. Back biting is all they know of doing. All they meant was money; all of them were here for the money and nothing else. Freak I did not even know how much I was getting paid, I did not even speak about it. But for the rest it was the money and all they talk about is how to talk to kids and how to handle them, what is to be done and what is not be done, blah blah blah. On the outset everyone was nice and easy. I saw this and I could not stand it. Nobody was there to share things or teach the kids some valuable life lessons, all they thought was that it was a holiday for them, they also came here to enjoy. Fine if that’s the case, I am out of here; I can’t work with people like them. I ran off my previous company just because of people like them and where do I land? The same old fucking set of people.
If I am given a chance to go back, certainly I will go back but I will stay out of all the people and the freaking politics. Just give me the kids and I will teach them what I am supposed to teach them and I will turn them into a more mature kid by the end of the week. It’s not just the activities that the kids can learn here, its way beyond a human can think. But out here, the main focus is on selling the major activities and earning money from that. The kids come here and it is all up to the educators to make them learn. Now the educators himself/herself are not interested in learning then how can they teach anything to the kids? The technical instructors are fine because for them it is just technical and nothing else, but for the guys who come in as minor activity educators, they need to be selected with extra care. The company which organizes the camp says that "security" is their biggest concern; then I failed to understand why the educators were not medically tested for anything. All they give is a form to fill up, if you fill up that form, they believe you, but what if the form was not filled deliberately? They never double checked the information which was provided in the form.
I was asked to leave the camp because I came out with the information that I have something called herpes which I thought was an STD. but these people failed to understand how an STD spreads. They thought it’s contagious and can spread to the kids. Fair enough, let’s do a test then. I did, and the doctor clarified that the kind of herpes that I have was not an STD and was not contagious, still these people failed to understand. But that’s ok, even if the result was fine and stuff I was never going back to the camp again. I can’t handle people who talk about STD and knows shit about STD. I can’t handle people who talks about being open minded yet they are so feeble. I just can’t stand them. Simple.
Today is 21st November 2006, I am in Bangalore, writing this article after a long time. Yet I have not heard from youreka again. I was told that they would get back to me with the reason for not sending me again to the camp. Still I am waiting for the mail.
But bottom line is I had the best 3 weeks in my life where I was able to learn a lot from the kids and I was able to teach them something apart from t-shirt painting. I feel good about that.
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