William Mott

Year 12

India is a fascinating country.

It’s filled with diversity - not just within its population, but with both the natural and human environments that the nation’s borders encompass.

Last year, two groups of students from Brunswick Secondary College took the plunge and embarked on a most exciting adventure - atop mountains, through crowded cities and across barren deserts. I was fortunate to travel with sixteen students, teachers Ms Gilbert and Mr Roberts, and our World Challenge leader, Pete. The expedition certainly crept up on us. After wading through the quagmire of Year 11 studies, exams and the completion of yet another very busy year, the prospect of travelling to a completely foreign nation certainly scared me to an extent. In other words... I was petrified!

Our trip was to last for three weeks (from November 29 to December 21 2017). My nervous anticipation lingered throughout the long wait at the airport for our flight. I had no idea what to expect. To be honest, the most I had seen and heard of India was just from the cricket I often watched on television! My parents had also told me stories of an incredibly friendly, humble and generous people - memories from their own travels (20 years ago!). At least I could take solace in the fact that whatever may happen, these people would look after me!

Uttarakhand is a north-eastern province of India. On the map above, I have marked the locations which we visited in red, After a 10 hour bus trip through smog-blanketed New Dehli, we headed east to the lakeside city of Nainital. I think we were all too tired for culture-shock, though I did remark how alien I felt in this new place. It was a strange feeling to have eyes always following you - we were a novelty to the locals and I was acutely aware of ths at first.

Nainital was the perfect place to acclimatise to our new surroundings. India seems to run at such a frenetic pace all the time. Its near-incomprehensible traffic is testament to this: if you want to cross a road you just have to bite the bullet and pay attention to the traffic all the time! Nainital, though not the busiest city, was perhaps the most beautiful. Situated around a lake in the mountains, great photo opportunities were never rare!

Physical Challenge

The next phase was the physical challenge: the Rantham Pass. I was most looking forward to this massive trek which was to take us 4000m above sea level and through the Himalayan foothills. The last night spent in a bed before our trek was bliss - but I realised in hindsight of course! The luxury of running water, lights, couches, chairs - I had no idea I would miss these things so much!

We travelled by jeep to our starting point. The winding roads of the 10 hour ride proved too much for some people’s stomachs. Imagine driving up the Dandenong Ranges for ten hours straight while listening to the same hour-long Hindi song... the same song that seemed so unbelievably soothing at the beginning of the ride. Ah I loved it!

The trek took us to beautiful places, expansive vistas and in the shadow of colossal peaks, including the Nanda Devi, a towering 7.5km tall mountain and one of the tallest on Earth. Some of the cliff-edges along which we walked made my stomach turn, the dwindling oxygen made me light-headed and my heart pounded - just like after one of those dreaded P.E beep tests. I know, it was like that. Being a relatively active person, to feel myself working so hard to do something as simple as walking was certainly an odd feeling, and I wasn’t alone. The trek which was truly a bonding experience for the entire group. Approaching Rantham Pass, we had we had to trek near to a 1.5km ascent, travelling over 8km in length. The sense of achievement that we all felt when reaching the peak of the Rantham Pass, was indescribable. This peak is 4000m above sea level. To put this in perspective, Mount Kosciusko (the highest point in Australia) is just 2200m above sea level. We were nearly double that height! Mindboggling stuff.

That trek lasted six days, including the two 10 hour jeep rides that bookended it. At the end, filled with the satisfaction of having literally climbed a mountain, we returned to the luxury of Mount Quail Camp. Incidentally, it was Nelson’s 18th birthday that day, so the girls organised an impromptu cake and celebratory hat from Nainital - so that day was filled with warm and pleasant emotion.

Community Engagement

The community engagement phase was truly the most gratifying thing I think any of us had experienced - and we had just climbed a mountain! After a single day in Jaipur, during which we visited the Amber Fort, we headed north-east to a tiny village called Surethi. This village is in the desert of Rajasthan, and was more like a conglomeration of farms. Here we worked to help construct new classrooms so that the local school could retain students beyond Grade 6. Plastering, brick-layering and helping in classrooms occupied the four days we stayed there, beneath that hot, Rajasthani sun.

This is what struck me about the Indian people whom I had met: there was a humility and gratitude with which they approached life that was striking. Despite the conditions in which they found themselves, there was an uncynical happiness and humility displayed in how they behaved toward us. They are devoid of the excesses and vanity of our society and the in thier company we felt warm and alive all the time. The community of Surethi was such an engaging environment and we all felt so proud that we could make even the tiniest contribution to the betterment of their education facilities and daily lives.

Rest & Relaxation

Rest and Relaxation took us to the Taj Mahal in Agra, to the “Yoga Capital of the World” in Rishikesh, to the Pink City in Jaipur and to the Elephant Rescue Centre.

As I said, India is fast-paced and an assault on the senses. My tastebuds were not prepared for the heat that came with every meal - often I called for the yoghurt side dish to extinguish the fire in my mouth. New smells, new sights, new sounds, new words, new climates... everything was such a blur. We had lost ourselves in the culture to such an extent that the final day crept up on us, much like the trip had itself. And what a way to finish - on the marble steps of Taj Mahal . It was so…India!

The whole team is so grateful for having been given this experience, the culmination of the work of so many people. The people whom we met, like Gurav, Chandan, U.P Singh, Max, Sandeep, Monika, Deepak and all the children have all helped to open our eyes to a new humanity. We are so grateful for the hospitality they showed towards us and the memories that they have given us.

We also take this chance to thank Hilary, Tayler and Pete, World Challenge and Brunswick Secondary College for supporting us through this invaluable experience.

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