And Boy! did we have some fun...!
Taking a line out of John Travoltas famous song in Grease this past May in Khandala I experienced a camp like no other I've been to in very many years. And for me to be saying that its quite a lot! Growing up at the camps I was bred on good people, the kind you don't often get to meet in the normal ruthless hustle bustle of the city. As I then grew older, work and other pursuits eroded away time until my camp time diminished to just a flicker. Unable to commit... (more time to the camps I mean he he he;-) I sometimes went AWOL as a helper much to the ire of an older even crankier fr. Robin!
The trouble being I barely managed to steal away time to make a quick run up once college was done and I trudged through the ruts in the Rat Race we all haplessly endure, so I'd try and bum some "alone time" to get lost in the misty woods of Khandala. And I'd do it just when I happened to be needed to do something at camp, like lead a trek, fix something, guard someone etc. So much so that I was in the year 2004 even awarded a Certificate from the Academy of Pakau Paul that read: The MOST WANTED Member Award ...for finding urgent things to do (ELSEWHERE) whenever the team needed him the most! or something very much akin to that and ironically I wasn't around when my name was called to receive it and so a gal I call Tresh had to collect it on my behalf!
But yes that was more so the case and so I resigned from active service as a helper and just showed up at the camp when ever I could which was mostly in the wee hours or late after the entire camp slept and most likely would have to head back to work the next day early morning before the entire camp would even wake up to a beautiful Khandala morning. So after a long night of drinking in Khandala (often alone) I'd go back after smiling and nodding my way through half a dozen sleepy faces at coffee and come away not really getting to know anyone. No treks, No walks, No games! Didnt feel like camp. 2008 -2011 were like the drought... then this sudden flash of brilliance in 2012!
Fr. tried to woo me to attend an earlier batch at St. Stanislaus because it had a more youthful bunch, I had already planned a day away from work to lead the next batch on a long trek which I was hoping would be Eden. When I finally did arrive at the Camp late after dinner I was overwhelmed and engulfed by the overfriendly and hospitable persona of a man named Troy. Tired and hungry I had resigned myself to leftover cold camp mess which I asked fr. to stash for my sustenance. What a surprise as I was about to knock on his door I see a bag hitched on the handle full of awesome leftovers from Kamats... Chicken Tikka, Rotis, Dal Tadka that smelt so un-camp and tasted a whole lot better tha t I completely forgot to wake up fr. Robin to inform him of my safe arrival. He woke up soon enough though and lambasted me for not doing so and then proceed to ply me with the meal he'd saved for me. By then I'd had a couple of discourses with The Old Monk, my tummy full and spirits up I had by then gotten quite friendly with Troy, his missus and two boys, as we tried to talk over the ever rising sound of music which must have woken up Fr. Robin in the first place!
Later on into the night I snuggled into my sleeping bag atop the roof of dear old Maxx our pickup truck, again an Idea pushed into my head by my newest acquaintance and rum runner Troy. I was awakened the next morn not by chirping birds but the smell of fresh coffee brewing and then the sound of flashbulbs as a couple of trigger happy campers (Troy and Robin) tried to capture my craziness on camera! DAY 2 had arrived at camp and I had to swing into action! We made our way up the road to the rear of the sausages (a trail I'd never taken before) and I led a bunch of 20 campers including a few small kids through some pretty unexplored patch of jungle in our search for the trail t the top of the Sayhadris. I took a wrong turn (I still say maybe!) and we cut through the middle instead of further up, aligning ourselves to the points we had to eventually reach I urged the very sporting group through some dense unused trails of dried forest. After a few hours of adventurous advance into foreign territory we'd gone past about 4 sausages and although still a long way from our destination the Saddle, I once again aimed the bunch of campers now friends (we bonded along the way) toward the Road down below! This trip had all the makings of some crazy expedition into the unknown as we crawled, slid and "actually discovered" trails we could use to finally reach the long winding road that took us to Khandala Station and across to St. Marys for a quick dip in a Piscina before hitting the sunny road back to Stanislaus for some much deserved beer and lunch!
The rest of the afternoon disappeared rather quickly, then evening games of Throwball, Volleyball and Hockey on the court and at the Table Tennis Table against Giles, by the end of Day 2 it felt as if I'd known all the people for more than a week and I was already planning how to come back! Everyone crashed early as a result of the days exertion and I went through the motions of detachment as I prepared to head back the next morning... >>>FAST FORWARD>>> I was back in Bombay! My bunch of helpers went up to camp that weekend to take the people to Eden on Sunday... I kept pumping them up about the camp and its people one of em actually thought I was at camp that weekend. What id did though was to rewire my week off earlier in the week so I got to go back to Khandala one day before the last day of camp. Two hours into Monday morning found me at mass followed by breakfast with the Campers again hahaha! After that we drove down in a caravan of cars to the other side of the Saddle, made a slight trek up the slopes and to the top, plucking "karwandas" or cherries along the way, It was simply fun and on our way back we bought about 2 dozen golas from the "Gola wallah" or ice candy seller as we entered camp around lunch time.
Another plus for me apart from being reunited with the people I became close to so soon was a reunion with a few helpers from across timezones or eras at camp Captain Tesclin the renegade, Kiru the roughneck and Carlos the Smart Alec... we got into a frenzy over beer, with music and tales from yesteryears Then after lunch we drifted off for a bit before catching up for games again in the evening.
During that while I took a small detail to the NAB Lions Home for the Aging Blind (a charity foundation that is a masterpiece in Blind enterprise and craftmanship!) and met some people working there for over 15 years who could barely recognize me through the layers of flab I'd grown but they remembered the kid I was leading groups to nab once every week of camp way back then. The home is a shelter to blind inmates who skillfully work power looms and spinning jenny among other tools to create some fantastic bed & bath linen fabric, embroidery works, candle, chalks, bags and knitted tops all sold through an open house walk about counter that allows you to interact with the blind workmen as you contribute to their cause. A must visit place as you run through Khandala!
The people of this camp were sweet enough to draw me back, the new people I mean. This camp had a few regulars I often bump into on such occasions (The Sayyeds, Rex, Anil, Tesclin), a family from my village in Bombay, then amongst the newbies were Troy, Pam & Joelle, Robert and Mitchelle, Sylvia and Maria, Nikita, Dr. Fiona the TT Ace, Kenneth and his Family, a little girl named Claris who cried on our first trek and went home early, Dr. Savio the Ghost Story Teller, some of Fr. Alwyn Fernandes' kin I knew as a kid, A research Scientist who was part of a team expedition to the North Pole and who gave me some grief for leading a bunch of first-timers through unchartered territory. All pretty interesting people who hovered around the campfire a bit and then slowly dwindled into the night as the flames died. By then we boys had done some pretty serious drinking and I faded out before an early start back to the concrete jungle the next day.
Taking a line out of John Travoltas famous song in Grease this past May in Khandala I experienced a camp like no other I've been to in very many years. And for me to be saying that its quite a lot! Growing up at the camps I was bred on good people, the kind you don't often get to meet in the normal ruthless hustle bustle of the city. As I then grew older, work and other pursuits eroded away time until my camp time diminished to just a flicker. Unable to commit... (more time to the camps I mean he he he;-) I sometimes went AWOL as a helper much to the ire of an older even crankier fr. Robin!
The trouble being I barely managed to steal away time to make a quick run up once college was done and I trudged through the ruts in the Rat Race we all haplessly endure, so I'd try and bum some "alone time" to get lost in the misty woods of Khandala. And I'd do it just when I happened to be needed to do something at camp, like lead a trek, fix something, guard someone etc. So much so that I was in the year 2004 even awarded a Certificate from the Academy of Pakau Paul that read: The MOST WANTED Member Award ...for finding urgent things to do (ELSEWHERE) whenever the team needed him the most! or something very much akin to that and ironically I wasn't around when my name was called to receive it and so a gal I call Tresh had to collect it on my behalf!
But yes that was more so the case and so I resigned from active service as a helper and just showed up at the camp when ever I could which was mostly in the wee hours or late after the entire camp slept and most likely would have to head back to work the next day early morning before the entire camp would even wake up to a beautiful Khandala morning. So after a long night of drinking in Khandala (often alone) I'd go back after smiling and nodding my way through half a dozen sleepy faces at coffee and come away not really getting to know anyone. No treks, No walks, No games! Didnt feel like camp. 2008 -2011 were like the drought... then this sudden flash of brilliance in 2012!
Fr. tried to woo me to attend an earlier batch at St. Stanislaus because it had a more youthful bunch, I had already planned a day away from work to lead the next batch on a long trek which I was hoping would be Eden. When I finally did arrive at the Camp late after dinner I was overwhelmed and engulfed by the overfriendly and hospitable persona of a man named Troy. Tired and hungry I had resigned myself to leftover cold camp mess which I asked fr. to stash for my sustenance. What a surprise as I was about to knock on his door I see a bag hitched on the handle full of awesome leftovers from Kamats... Chicken Tikka, Rotis, Dal Tadka that smelt so un-camp and tasted a whole lot better tha t I completely forgot to wake up fr. Robin to inform him of my safe arrival. He woke up soon enough though and lambasted me for not doing so and then proceed to ply me with the meal he'd saved for me. By then I'd had a couple of discourses with The Old Monk, my tummy full and spirits up I had by then gotten quite friendly with Troy, his missus and two boys, as we tried to talk over the ever rising sound of music which must have woken up Fr. Robin in the first place!
Later on into the night I snuggled into my sleeping bag atop the roof of dear old Maxx our pickup truck, again an Idea pushed into my head by my newest acquaintance and rum runner Troy. I was awakened the next morn not by chirping birds but the smell of fresh coffee brewing and then the sound of flashbulbs as a couple of trigger happy campers (Troy and Robin) tried to capture my craziness on camera! DAY 2 had arrived at camp and I had to swing into action! We made our way up the road to the rear of the sausages (a trail I'd never taken before) and I led a bunch of 20 campers including a few small kids through some pretty unexplored patch of jungle in our search for the trail t the top of the Sayhadris. I took a wrong turn (I still say maybe!) and we cut through the middle instead of further up, aligning ourselves to the points we had to eventually reach I urged the very sporting group through some dense unused trails of dried forest. After a few hours of adventurous advance into foreign territory we'd gone past about 4 sausages and although still a long way from our destination the Saddle, I once again aimed the bunch of campers now friends (we bonded along the way) toward the Road down below! This trip had all the makings of some crazy expedition into the unknown as we crawled, slid and "actually discovered" trails we could use to finally reach the long winding road that took us to Khandala Station and across to St. Marys for a quick dip in a Piscina before hitting the sunny road back to Stanislaus for some much deserved beer and lunch!
The rest of the afternoon disappeared rather quickly, then evening games of Throwball, Volleyball and Hockey on the court and at the Table Tennis Table against Giles, by the end of Day 2 it felt as if I'd known all the people for more than a week and I was already planning how to come back! Everyone crashed early as a result of the days exertion and I went through the motions of detachment as I prepared to head back the next morning... >>>FAST FORWARD>>> I was back in Bombay! My bunch of helpers went up to camp that weekend to take the people to Eden on Sunday... I kept pumping them up about the camp and its people one of em actually thought I was at camp that weekend. What id did though was to rewire my week off earlier in the week so I got to go back to Khandala one day before the last day of camp. Two hours into Monday morning found me at mass followed by breakfast with the Campers again hahaha! After that we drove down in a caravan of cars to the other side of the Saddle, made a slight trek up the slopes and to the top, plucking "karwandas" or cherries along the way, It was simply fun and on our way back we bought about 2 dozen golas from the "Gola wallah" or ice candy seller as we entered camp around lunch time.
Another plus for me apart from being reunited with the people I became close to so soon was a reunion with a few helpers from across timezones or eras at camp Captain Tesclin the renegade, Kiru the roughneck and Carlos the Smart Alec... we got into a frenzy over beer, with music and tales from yesteryears Then after lunch we drifted off for a bit before catching up for games again in the evening.
During that while I took a small detail to the NAB Lions Home for the Aging Blind (a charity foundation that is a masterpiece in Blind enterprise and craftmanship!) and met some people working there for over 15 years who could barely recognize me through the layers of flab I'd grown but they remembered the kid I was leading groups to nab once every week of camp way back then. The home is a shelter to blind inmates who skillfully work power looms and spinning jenny among other tools to create some fantastic bed & bath linen fabric, embroidery works, candle, chalks, bags and knitted tops all sold through an open house walk about counter that allows you to interact with the blind workmen as you contribute to their cause. A must visit place as you run through Khandala!
The people of this camp were sweet enough to draw me back, the new people I mean. This camp had a few regulars I often bump into on such occasions (The Sayyeds, Rex, Anil, Tesclin), a family from my village in Bombay, then amongst the newbies were Troy, Pam & Joelle, Robert and Mitchelle, Sylvia and Maria, Nikita, Dr. Fiona the TT Ace, Kenneth and his Family, a little girl named Claris who cried on our first trek and went home early, Dr. Savio the Ghost Story Teller, some of Fr. Alwyn Fernandes' kin I knew as a kid, A research Scientist who was part of a team expedition to the North Pole and who gave me some grief for leading a bunch of first-timers through unchartered territory. All pretty interesting people who hovered around the campfire a bit and then slowly dwindled into the night as the flames died. By then we boys had done some pretty serious drinking and I faded out before an early start back to the concrete jungle the next day.
