CLASS TRIP - 8 B&C

A Trip to Remember

Who would’ve thought that eleven hours on a bus would lead to three of the most interesting days of your life? We arrived at school at around five thirty in the morning, which was quite early by our standards, but our spirit and excitement definitely kept us awake and full of life. In the bus, music blared through speakers and rang out from numerous voices. Nearly all of us were playing games, shouting out names of movies while playing charades, crying out in disbelief as we lost a game of cards. Being quite the gregarious bunch, we dared each other to do stupid things, we laughed, we cheered, we ate… it was a road trip at its finest.



Ajanta & Ellora – the names have magic within themselves. And this magic appeals to the tourists from every country in the world, to visit these once in a lifetime. So, this year our class trip was to Aurangabad, a place where astonishing architecture and mind blowing history is a common sight.




We reached our hotel in the evening, almost half a day from the beginning of our journey. But, either way, our tiredness slowly turned to energy and hope, alacrity buzzing in our exhausted bodies, lighting up our skin.

 

The next morning, after a night full of sleepless teens, we went to visit the caves of Ajanta. It was beautiful, even after three hours worth of travel. We visited the most important of the caves, and we learnt plenty about Buddhism, feasting our eyes on the beautiful Buddhist paintings that littered the walls. The paintings in said caves, were stunning. They had withered slightly with age and mistreatment by some, but they were the cynosure of the entire area. We were entranced by the magnanimity and colour, surprisingly still fresh to this day.

We visited the Himroo and Paithani Shawl Factory after, a more mellow setting, but fascinating nonetheless. It inspired most of us – these people spent their entire life, years on end, making clothes for us. That took talent, and most importantly, a boatload of dedication.

When we got back to the hotel, we were greeted with a disco, complete with loud music and flashing lights, and all of us in our pyjamas. To say it was fun would be an understatement.



The next day, we visited Daulatabad Fort. We captured the fort that was impregnable as cameras flashed all around us. Next in line for us to conquer, was Ellora. In my opinion, this was one of the highlights of the trip. It was absolutely awesome, and definitely sparked an interest in the most of us. The was complete stories were depicted on one wall, it was entirely shaped like Shiva’s chariot, and how it was completely monolithic… it was utterly amazing, to say the least. The rocks were chipping in places, but the view was resplendent.

After that, we visited a tomb- the Bibi Ka Maqbara. It looked quite like a miniature version of the Taj Mahal, which it was known for. But to be honest, it was brilliant in its own right.



The trip made us experience that despite staying away from home and homely comforts, all of us have an ubiquitous and endless spirit that helps us overcome the anxiety of being on our own. We laughed and smiled and had a very enjoyable time. The last day was upon us, before we knew it. The excitement that previously dominated the atmosphere slowly dissipated as our bus crawled closer and closer to our destination – the school. The trip back was filled with reminiscence of our wonderful time, with all our friends. We were almost home from a trip we didn’t want, to end, which was probably the only thing to put a damper on our mood.

I have to say, it was unique. It was interesting. And most of all, it was a trip to remember.