My India Adventure.


Want to see the pictures FIRST!? Dont forget to come back afterwards

In November 2005 I had a call from my County International Advisor telling me the news that I had been chosen to represent Shropshire on the Midland Region Sangam Visit of 2006. The following months were filled with fundraising the £1400 and having get-togethers with the group of ten other girls and the three leaders who were going to join me. On the three training weekends we spend our time getting to know each other, planning our trip and fundraising for our uniforms. This fundraising was done by bag packing in Worcester and a quiz.

July 2006


The day had come, vaccinations were complete, with no side effects, and my bags were packed. I left my home at 7am on 26th July and travelled to Leominster where I met Ruth to travel on to Worcester to join the mini bus. We were the first to get on and then we travelled around the Midland Region picking up all the others.
We left Heathrow that evening and caught the Virgin flight to Mumbai, which took us eight hours.

Mumbai


Here we landed and I text home to say I was in India. We then caught a bus to travel to the City of Pune. This journey took us many hours. I think we had all lost all awareness of time and just wanted to arrive and unpack. At last we did arrive at Sangam. We had a nice greeting and shown to our rooms, a had a meal and then slept.

My ten days at Sangam



27th July-
Today was the first day in Sangam. We first gathered in the main hall for an introduction to Sangam, the people who work there, and the traditions it practices.
We had a flag ceremony that was lead by the Sangam staff. There is a flag of each nationality that has visited Sangam since 1966.
After breakfast we learnt about how Sangam is run and what our duties would be.
After lunch we then where taken around the local village.
In the village we visited a Sikh temple where they were having a ceremony and we were allowed to watch this. The local children were very interested in us and our digital cameras. They would pose for a picture.
We also visited an Indian house hold and were accepted by having aarti preformed on us. This was a welcome ceremony.
We were officially welcomed into Sangam at the end of the day by having aarti preformed on us again and we were presented with garlands.
28th July-
Today we were taken into town to do some shopping!!
We divided into four groups and each in turn was taken to buy saris, Punjabi suits, bangles and bindies.
We were taken to "bangle alley" in which was an amazing site of many stalls filled with all colours of bangles pilled high.
The saris shopping took place in a three story building. On the top where the most expensive saris – middle floor for cheaper saris and the bottom floor for Punjabi suits.
We spent lunch time at the cinema; we had the options of Chinese, pizza or Indian.
The film we went to see was called Krrish. The film was about a man with super human powers.
We had to call rickshaws (Indian taxis) to take us back to Sangam.


29th July-
Today was the Pune challenge. We all were split into groups of four and each group had a place in Pune to visit. We had to get there using rickshaws. When we got there we where given another place to go and we would set off again. Some of us went to Gandhi's grave while others went to temples. This activity took us al day. At the end we returned to Sangam.


30th July-
Sangam started early for some. In the morning there were optional trips to the local churches at 7 am. However most of us chose to stay in bed, and enjoy a late breakfast.
After breakfast we jumped back into rickshaws to the cinema to watch the new release Omkara, an Indian interpretation of Shakespeare's Othello.
After we went straight back to Sangam and the shop opened, and we spent a long time writing postcards.
Local craft woman came in and showed us either the art of warli art or traditional Indian embroidery.
We then had one last practice for our international evening, which we then preformed in front of all the staff and local Bharat Scouts.
Each travel group performed an entertainment for the other groups.
We then swapped badges.

31st July-
After breakfast we went to MG road where we explored a large variety of shops. On arriving back at Sangam the tailors had arrived with out saris and Punjabi suits. We also had mahindi or henna done on our hands and feet. This was applied by teenagers from the local orphanage who learned the art as a trade.


1st August-
We got ready for our visit to a local household. A group of three or four of us went to a home of a friend of Sangam. We would discus each others cultures and families. We also sat down for a meal and exchanged gifts.
Back at Sangam we sat down and talked about the visits to our families and discussed things we noticed about the homes.


2nd August-
Today we went to the television institute. Unfortunately one rickshaw chose to visit the food institute instead so some people had to join the group later then the others.
Filming for the next Bollywood movie was cancelled due to rain so we were allowed to try out our acting skills in front of the cameras while some of the other groups could watch from another room.
That afternoon we tried out rangoli. The art of decoration using coloured sands. The patterns the demonstrator made were amazing however ours were just trial and error. We then decorated where we were going to sit that night for a traditional meal in our saris.
It was a lovely meal followed by a candle camp fire indoors.


3rd August-
Today was my 17th Birthday. The people of Sangam made it one to remember. I had gifts and cards and an email from home. The staff decorated my place at the dinning table and made me a banana cake!
Today we were taken by a bus to see a charity organisation our group went to an organisation called Maher. This group provided a safe place for woman and children of abusive husbands. Here they had a safe home to bring up there children. The children had a school there and we visited the playgroup where the Indian toddlers wandered through the group holding our hands and kissing us on our cheeks.


4th August-
Today we spent the whole day rehearsing a play. This play would be performed to an audience of the Indian Sangam staff and the families we went to for a meal. The play was our representation of a famous Indian story called "Ramas Story". It was great to perform. A lot of fun and it ended our days at Sangam on a good high.

The next part of our adventure
5th August-
Today we left Sangam, and many new friends behind. We travelled with the staff to the train station but after waving goodbye from the train. We were put into the hands of a travel company.
We stayed on the train for 24 hours.


6th August-
When the train finally stopped we got off and our tour guide picked us up and took us on a rather long bus journey to our hotel where we spent the rest of our afternoon in our rooms sleeping, going shopping or enjoying the hotel pool.


7th August-
At 5 am we had a wake up call from the hotel and we got ready to see the Taj Mahal.
We had to get up so early because less people would be around and it would be less hot.
We spent all morning learning about the history of the Taj and how there was going to be a second but the king was locked away by his son. His son had thought he was mad to spend so much money.
It was a beautiful site, we got to walk inside however we had to cover our feet so not to mark the marble flooring. After a long time at the Taj we got on the bus for a 5 mile journey to Agra fort.
This was the prison the king was locked away in. it was made of sandstone and marble. The walls originally were decorated with expensive jewels and stones. However over the years each stone has been stolen.


8th August-
Today was the day of the elephant ride a day we had all been looking forward to.
The elephants took us from the bottom of a hill to the top where there was a palace. Here we learned of how a rich princess had a 20kg sari and she would have to be wheeled around in a wheel chair as it was so heavy. For this reason there were no steps in the palace only long sloping corridors for her to be wheeled down.
Each queen had her own room and the size of the room depended on her religion.
We then had to walk back down the hill we rode up on the elephants. We didn't have a return ticket!
This was rather scary as we were walking alongside the elephants

9th August-
Today we went on a nature walk. However once there we realised we would be pushed into rickshaws and not walking. The rickshaws were not motorised like the ones in Pune, they were driven by a man on a bicycle with us attached at the back. The trail took about 1 hour to go around and we stopped to look at birds, fish, turtles and other animals.
After the "walk" we where taken back into the town to look at the worlds largest sundial. Alongside this wonder, there were many other dials telling the exact time down to 20 seconds. We could also find one dial for each of our star signs. These dials would be used to plan weddings.


10th August-
Today was our last full day in India. We got up early to travel back to Mumbai. Once there we found our hotel. We then caught a bus to the coast and with our tour guide we caught a boat to Elephant Island. There were no elephants but there were statues and ancient cave temples.
To get to the temples we sat on chairs that where hoisted above four men's shoulders. They carried us up the hills slippery slopes to the top, not the most comfortable experience!. Inside the temple there were statues that would explain old stories about gods. Some of these stories had morals behind them.
After the tour around the temples we could chose to go back down on the chairs or walk, I chose to walk. And we caught the boat back to the mainland. However the sea was very choppy and we all had to sit down and hold on very tight!


11th August-
On our way to the airport we stopped off for some last minute shopping, however not many of use money had left after all the shopping we had done previously.
On the news that morning, it had said about a bomb attempt at an airport so we where all a little concerned about the plane ride home. Luckily we all cleared customs in good time with the bag weight restrictions lifted.
So we settled into our seats for an eight hour flight back home. This was time to reflect on our whole experience.