Summer Vacations

Over the years, summer vacations have been the favourite part of the year for me. Eating ice-cream, going to my grandmother's place and enjoying the cool A.C. breeze were some of my favourite tasks during those days. Here are some of my favourite incidents that have happened over the past summers. 

~Delhi Darshan (Tour of Delhi)~

The earliest summer memory that I have is waking up very early in the morning and visiting monuments all over Delhi with my uncle, aunt and cousins. We woke up and went to visit India Gate where my cousins and I ran all around it, laughing and giggling. That summer, we also went to Qutub Minar, where we have pictures sitting near the minar, on huge stones that were placed in a straight line. We visited Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace and were standing in front of it at five in the morning! I loved every bit of that summer.

~Taj Mahal~

A few years ago, in 2014, we went to Taj Mahal in Agra. I remember going there with my mother, grandparents, my mother's friend and her children. It was a dream come true as that was the only time in my life till now that I have seen the Taj Mahal. We booked a cab from Delhi to Agra and came back the same way. I loved the Taj and looking at it from the inside was an amazing experience for me. We clicked photos with the tip of the Taj resting on our hands. We also brought a snow globe with the Taj inside of it. It was a mesmerizing trip for me.

~Uttarakhand~

In the summers of 2015, I went to Uttarakhand with my family, twice. We went to Kasauli, Kasauni, and Nainital. The Nainital trip was through school. 

So, I went to Nainital in 2015, as a part of my school trip. I was 9 years old then and studied in grade 5. I was very excited to go there and packed my bags enthusiastically. My parents brought me a lot of treats, chocolates, chips etc. for the journey.

That evening, when I went into my school, I was feeling queasy. It was my first time away from home, for 4 days!

I boarded the bus and got ready. I cried bitterly when the bus drove off.

Even before my school was out of sight, I got up and went towards the front. I told to the teacher sitting there, “Sir, I am not feeling good.” I was still crying.

He said, “I have a medicine for you. Take it.”

Now, there is one very important thing. I could not take medicines (solid medicines) till I was in 7th grade or so. I just couldn’t think of swallowing them! So, I cried harder and went back to my seat, with my friend, Tarini.

In the bus, at 10:40p.m., I had written in my journal, “I am in the bus. I am sitting with TARINI. She is eating something. I will eat a kitkat. I slept. I woke up to go to the washroom. I slept.”

It was very difficult sleeping in a bus. The seats were so rigid! I put my feet up, kind of like I was squatting, but while sitting on the seat and rested my feet against the seat in front of me. I didn’t bring my own blanket, so I shared Tarini’s. When I woke up and tried to get up (in a moving bus, we hadn’t reached yet), I heard my left knee popping. The sound was loud enough to burst my eardrums!

My journal now says, Day 3 “I woke up”. That’s it!

So, now, instead of relying on my journal, I will rely on my memories. We finally arrived at the camp site. We were divided into groups. Thankfully, I was on the same team with Tarini (she was the only person I knew, as I was a new student at that school).

I guess it rained a lot on the day of our arrival, and at that time I was scared of thunder which was obviously there with the rain, for free.

The next few days, we enjoyed a lot many activities – rappelling, fire fox, the different balancing activities, bonfire, first aid basics, micro photography etc.

I will describe the most dreadful one for me. Rappelling. We had to rappel down about 200 feet (with full equipment). I was all for it, until, it was my turn. I started crying. I had two choices, rappel down, or go back. I decided to rappel (finally!).

By the time I got down, my knees were shaking. I bet if there was a 10 Richter Scale Earthquake, it wouldn’t have shook me as much as rappelling did.

Now, once I had tried this, it was very easy for me to do the fire fox. I did that without any tears. After the fire fox, we had to cross a river, a very shallow one. So, as we were crossing it, the teacher in front of me kind of slipped and fell a bit into the river. I was just behind her, so I also went into the river. The water was barely knee deep. So, I was safe, but my shoes (the only pair of sports shoes that I had packed), were drenched. They didn’t even dry up when we left Nainital.

The next fond memory of this trip that I have is the phone call from home. I talked to my parents and my Dadima (paternal grandmother). I think I talked for a bit too long, because the teacher said something to me related to that only.

Well, now that I think of it, that’s it! These are my memories of Nainital. I did go there the next year too, but with my family this time.

Another thing, when I went back to school, I was handed out some worksheets. These were done in the class while we were gone. So now I had to complete them too!!

This trip was a turning point in my life when I went out of my comfort zone to do a lot of things like rappeling, going on a trip without my parents, do a lot of exciting activities and what not!

I believe this was one of the best summer I had ever had.

That’s all! These are my memories of my first trip away from home. Where did you go for your first trip away from home? Write it in the comments!

I will probably write another story about my other 'happening' summer vacations sometime soon.