Snow Clad Khandala ...!!!

Ever wondered how our favourite haunts would look like when hell frezes over???

Here Take a Gander...


The Snow Clad Sayahadris!

The Dukes Nose


The Grotto

The Garden of Eden


Kune

Merry Christmas one & All ... And a Happy New Year!

Cheers!
-Mel

Crazy pics from Khandala

Some Pictures from Khandala:
Sunset at Kune

Grotto
Golf!
Camp-Out
Helpers on the Bench
Khandala Sunset from Nuns Hill
Street Kids!
Air Khandala

St. Marys Lake

The Girls of Summer!



Roadkill - Thats what you get for 250 bucks a day!!!


View from the Ledge.

Head to Toes


Faces: Happy Sad Silly Mad...

Let the good times roll...

Peeping into the Left Nostril

The Helpers Cut!

Fr.Robin having a long hair day...

All in A Days Work!

Babe in the woods

Just a little bit...!!!

The Grand Wedding Skit at St.Marys Villa

Catchin up with the campers

...Camp hasn't happened in a while... Fr. Robin was invited over to the St. Stanislaus Camp at Lonavala this summer of 2009 (May). in any case that hasn't kept most of those with Khandala in their blood out of Khandala. The young helpers I know have been in & out of them Mountains as often as I once used to be!! I almost made it up to Khandala last week- well... Almost!

I met up with some of the helpers a couple of weeks ago. We sat drinking beer in a friends garden off Turner Road then grabbed a bite at a snack shack across from the BoatClub before heading to Temptations for another beer. 3 of us first met up, then we were 5 at the snack shack, finally it was Ryan & me at Temptations... hes the first helper i worked with from this new bunch.

i remember the time when the only time helpers ever came in contact with each other was at camp or at the getogethers - house visits were rare... casual meetings even rarer! No offence to the internet & other social networking tools available I still prefer the more primitive style of intercourse (communicative not sexual).

All the drinks exchanged across facebook & orkut put together simply can't beat the cold wetness of real beer shared among a few good friends reliving the memories of camps gone by...

Cheers!

-Mel

Rise of the Helplesses!

A 'helpless' is what we helpers used to call a female helper. Female helpers were just a few beginning with my sister, Sarita who stormed the male bastion that ruled the roost at Fr. Robins camps. After her came others like Evonne, Lilian, Valerie, Sarita Drego, Tricia Lynn Pereira, Marion, Karen, Nishtha, Ruth, Rachel.

Earlier reduced to menial chores like baby sitting the young ones while their parents played volleyball, hockey and other games, making conversation with the camp people while the boys showed off & wooed the girls at camp with their stories and dare devil stunts all of a sudden the female of the species rose like the Sphinx from the ashes to claim their heritage.

The lady helpers over the past years and today do as much if not more than any of the boys I've worked with have ever done at the camps... And I've worked with a lot of em! Right from setting up camp, to organizing the games, treasure hunts, camp fires, these Femme fatales know their way around the treks & trails ( I've known some boys who got lost on the way to DEAR Falls and the Sausages & I still cant tell the way up the Dukes Nose!)They may need to fall back on the brawn of their male counterparts when it comes to moving cots, logs, etc but a smile from anyone of these lovely ladies sends the gentlemen at camp running to prove they're men and bringing back chairs & stacking em up neatly after the sessions over. Heck I even know one lady helper who beat the living daylights out of her big brother in a no holds barred free for all at the Look out one time!!!

Most of us boys have grown up now and stopped doing the stuff we used to do at camp or in some cases our wives won't let us anyymore! for the younger lot although they're still around they've found other pursuits and camp has been sort of neglected. The women have taken the lead once more, standing tall besides the towering legend Fr. Robin while his male helpers seem to fall like Dominoes.

And as I raise my hat & my glass to these wonderful women I've known I cant help but think...
Thats just the way the cookie crumbles...