ICCR Winter Camp- 2014-15, Madhya Pradesh

I am quite a lazy guy to update my blog regularly and mostly internet of my hostel favors my laziness by not working properly. I wanted to write a blog about this camp that I recently participated. But thought that if I write down immediately I might write it in details and make it a boring read. So I made up my mind that I would write it later  and only about those things that I found important and I missed the most. 

I was selected for a camp which would turn out to be incredible experience in terms of fun, adventure, friendship and exposure. It was Government of India affiliated Indian Center for Culture and Relation(ICCR) organised Winter camp for scholars from different countries across the world currently studying in India under Government of India scholarship.

I along with my classmate Dwaipayan were selected for this week long event. We boarded our train from Vellore station to Bhopal. The next seven days would unravel a fun fulled and thrilling experience to be cherished for a lifetime. 

Moments that I would like to remember:

1) Almost missed the Train to Bhopal

  It was really a long journey and we were almost late for train when we attended the first half of our MBA classes. Another unfortunate event was that we almost missed our train because of lack of any indication in the platform. Thanks to our habit that we keep poking people for information.

 2) Train journey and almost lost phone

It was awesome and tiresome. We had carried enough food to survive with, some books to keep our brain busy and our casual talks ranging from MBA classes to politics in Nepal. Most of all it was fun. Almost same happened when we were about to board train back to Chittoor. The train was late by some four hours  and it made a great test of our patience. A small tamil kid made our journey fun-filled who was teasing my friend by calling him villian in his regional language. 

Another stressful and memorable incident was me losing phone. I had kept it in my pocked while sleeping. I happened to wake up at 4:00 am in the morning and found that my phone was lost. I searched for a while and later woke up Dwaipayan to search it. Unfortunately couldn't find it. I began to think about new phone to buy, but was sad that I would lots of memory and data of  lost phone. But Dwaipayan was not to lose hope. He asked to intensify search and thanks to him that finally after some 15 minutes I found my phone below a rucksack.

3) Searching for Good food in Itarshi ! 

Banks of Narmada river, Hosangabad.

 I don't know how long but we really walked for longer time to get a good food. Because I was with a great gourmet, we always needed good food. :D  Happy part was that in the end we were successful. I do also remember that spicy Panipuri and Cutting chai of Hosangabad, near Narmada river bank. Such a blissful it was. 

4) Bhopal

We finally reached to Bhopal. What awaited in Bhopal was good friends, good foods  and a perfect travel plan. Next seven days would unravel unprecedented fun-filled moments with to-be-friends from different countries. 

5) Travel-Travel and Travel

While a lot happened in between, we were busy travelling most of the time in the camp.  

My favorite of all places during the camp: Bhedagaht. Boating among the rocks was  an amazing experience.

 Bhopal, BhimBetika, Sanchi, Jabalpur, Panna Tiger Reserve, Bhedaghat, Shivpuri, Gwalior etc were the places that we had to visit in the camp. Things like Music, pranks with friend, dance and all added spice to our fun.

6) Anna, Kaif and Adam

I and D waipayan were placed in a room. We were accompanied by a friend, from SriLanka, Mr. Anna(Joy). On first day we also got to meet another fun-loving guy from Afghanistan-Kaif. And rest of seven days would be filled with Anna's jokes, being satirical and lots of mischief. Not to miss to mention was Adam from Nigerrrrrr (as he would pronounce). Inspite of being single from his country, this boy was a serious fun lover and humble human being. What we liked more of this guy was him singing a Hindi song " Kal ho na ho" ! 

7) Chumki, my beloved, everyone's beloved! 

Camp had participants in majority from Afgansthan, Srilanka, and Nepal. Because of fear of unknown all of us were not interacting with each other and staying in almost fixed position in our bus. Me and Dwaipayan planned something that would make camp really great. We started teasing Chumki( friend from Bangladesh) and almost everyone joined us. This started interaction in between/among all of us. In few hours Chumki became celebrity of the camp. Thanks to her fun loving nature. Guess what then? Everyone started expressing their love for Chumki.

8) Birthday of Kesayat ??

We wanted to add more fun to the camp. So  asked if anyone had birthday during camp duration. But none had. So we came up with fake birthday. Of course our dear friend Kaif was ready for the prank. We worked really hard to get a good cake late-night in Khajuraho. Finally our effort paid well. Specially for Kefayat who got a lovely birthday surprise gift !! ;) May be that Cake shop knew that it was a fake birthday, the spelling of his name was wrong. So it was a birthday of Mr. Kesayat, who none of us knew. :D

 

9) Our Nepali dudes !

I feel very comfort to start conversation with foreign nationals in contrast to Nepalese. The same happened in the camp. However after few days we started to talk to everyone and fostered a cordial relationship.  Our Nepali juniors from Delhi univeristy( Alisa, Palpasa and Raj), Pratima and Nesa from Chennai ! 

10)Emotional goodbye

The camp ended in Gwalior after travelling various historical and prominent places of Madhya Pradesh. It was our last day in Gwalior.We had train back to chittoor late night of the last day of camp. So me and Dwaipayan, along with camp officials were only left to bid farewell to everyone. Everyone was sad to bid goodbye to each other. What made difficult was tears of Chumki and Antara. Further more to bid goodbye to everyone was a emotional work. At the end of the day, the hotel premises was silent and I began to feel like I woke up from a long beautiful dream. 

I personally enjoyed Afgani music and dance, Tamil dance, Adams hindi song, Mr. Junge songs, ICCR officer being strict , cracking jokes with  my nepali sisters, doing pranks with Kefayat and Joy, and many more. That was awesome week we spend together. And now I really feel that all those memories are from a long beautiful dreams. 

ICCR Winter camp was a great platform to explore India and to explore- self amongst friends from various part of the world. This indeed was really incredible experience in the heart of Incredible India.