With Raindrops Came the Memories!

It rained some days back in Delhi, few days back in Kolkata, and yesterday in Mumbai. And when I was on phone with one of my friends today, I was informed it was raining in Indore. When will my hometown 'Dewas' have its share of monsoon? The answer came few minutes away with the first shower, and the weather? It’s a total change. Perhaps, that was one of the reasons why I had a good, productive day today. The peculiar smell of this first rain brought back the memories of three great outings we had last year during the same season.

The first trip was a trip to Ralamandal Sanctuary, a hillock situated just a few kilometers from our college campus. Its altitude varies from 294.51 m. to 782.62 m. above MSL. It was the very first day of our new session when we entered the III year. The weather lured us to bunk the class and go for an outing. We couldn't say no, and decided for Ralamandal. By the time we were there, it started raining. In minutes it started to rain heavily, with clouds roaring. While we were at the some small security post and were paying the entrance fee, another noise with lightening shocked us. By this time we were all bedraggled by rain. And then came a part when the girls said, "we quit" and went back home. We still decided we'll move on. It was fun climbing up the hill, it can't be called a trekking experience, it was fun though. The sad part was we couldn't take snaps that day, no one had a camera because no one knew the weather's going to lure us to bunk the classes. That day started a series of outings for the 5th semester.

The next trip was to ‘Kajligarh’ that came the very next day to when we went to Ralamandal. Kajligarh is a small village near Indore (about 25-30 Km. from our college campus. I wasn't so excited about the trip, but when we were near to the destination we were heading for we saw an astonishing site. The land we were on was a mountain, and just to the right about 20-30 feet away was a trench, a ditch (you may call it) that was about 200-250 meters in depth (I can't recall the height). The area looked like there were more mountains ahead. We stayed there for a while, once everyone had his strange look down the ditch. Then, we moved on. Minutes later we were midst a range of mountains. Imagine about 4-5 hills around the circumference of a circle, all sloping to the centre of the circle, and we being on top of one hill. It was such a nice site, like those you see in webshots natural wallpapers. Some of us then decided that they'll go down the hill, trekking to the area that looked all green, jungle. By this time it started to rain again and everyone doubted if going down was a risk. You could meet some strange fauna - perhaps, snakes, crabs, scorpions, or some new poisonous breed? What not? And if they choose you as a victim when you're down about a kilometer away from the others, who's going to help? And if you decide to come back in such a situation, god forbid, things could get worse. Its was a big risk, down was the jungle.

But some of us (including me), lured by the way the green jungle looked decided to take the risk. The rest decided to stay up on the hill and wait for us till we come back. Only the first few steps were intimidating, when we had to walk over this around one and a half feet narrow stones that looked like it connected two mountains about a meter apart. We were all afraid to cross it by walking on it, the sight was really frightening. We decided to sit and move step by step sitting on this small connection between two big hills. It started raining heavily now as we went down, down and down. When we came down the hill and the slope kind of changed to a flat land. To our surprise, we saw two-three villagers there. We asked them what's coming next. We were tired of walking about a kilometer now. As it started to rain even heavier and the soil was too wet, many of us started to stumble, what we had in our feet was unable to make a firm grip on this wet soil. The villagers told us there's a river coming next. But out of we guys who decided to come down, and leave rest to the top, some of us (including me) decided its time to go back to the top before the soil's too wet and that narrow area of 1 meter faces soil erosion. It was raining heavily, and the stones we came walking by now looked loose. The water was like coming down the hill to fill that river. I can still remember trekking back to top where the rest of the group was waiting, and that awesome scene when the clouds covered the hill, like just few meters away. We were worried about others who still went ahead for further exploration, the river that villagers told us about. We managed to get on top and were glad to see others still standing there waiting for us to come back. It was some 2 and a half or 3 hours of going down the hill and coming up, and this area had no connectivity for our cell phones so that we could inform each other.

The other group that decided to go further and explore the river came back few minutes later. And we asked them how far did they go? They told, just 10-20 feet more till they saw the river, and then it was some other hill that was in front of them, opposite to the one we arrived at. They, then decided to come back to where everyone was. It was such a nice experience. Everyone was safe. And yes! We saw no strange breed of animals except yes a couple of lizards and a crab (We had debate on the same, was it a crab or a scorpion?) It was fun, my first ever adventure. The sad part again was no one had a camera because this trip was again unplanned, I'd rather say unofficial. Sad, we couldn't film the adventure. :(

The third trip was the trip to Choral river. It was predestined, that we were going to bunk the class for the same. We hired a bus, and played 'Antakchari' on the way. We spent about 4-5 hours there playing with water. It was fun! The Choral pictures below speak the same. It again rained heavily on this day adding more to the fun. We were bedraggled, badly. Lucky us, we had a camera thistime.

All these outings had one thing in common, the rain, and us, getting wet to the extreme! To our surpise, it rained heavily on all three occasions. We're lucky we have such places just few kilometers away from our college campus. Its 27th, or some near by day when the new session for the final year begins. We need to decide the next place to have as outing on this very day. If we don't use these final year days for fun, there will be no reason left for why we would later say, "Oh, I miss my college days!". I'll make sure I take care of that study part with the fun part, its all about management, isn't it? And that's what I'm appearing for. :)

So where are we heading on to thistime, guys?

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. ~Roger Miller

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Word of the day:

stygian

Pronunciation: (stij'ē-un)

—adj.

1. of or pertaining to the river Styx or to Hades.
2. dark or gloomy.
3. infernal; hellish.

Synonyms: Stygian, infernal (vs. supernal)

Usage: hellish; "Hence loathed Melancholy.../In Stygian cave forlorn"- Milton