Interaction with the village folks

It was a beautiful day, we trekked for many kilometers. Enjoyed songs on way, observing new things and plants in jungles of Manali. Pleasant weather, cool breeze and friend along singing song, I can't forget that. We reached there in 1hr 30 min. I along with my team reached a house. We started with our introduction and asked many questions. We discussed about many things including weather, problems, facilities, area, people, tradition etc. She told us many things like her family has 20 acres of apple farm, she also do cloth work and much more. She was not calling this as a problem but I felt it because due to snow fall they are unable to go market for 6 months. They have access to technologies like mobile, TVs, geezer etc. It was new and interesting task which helped me to evolve my listening, speaking and friendly skills. I was facing little difficulty in understanding her accent but she was very happy as that was clearly visible in her eyes and tone of her voice. She asked me "Would you like to live here?" I said yes but truly speaking "I don't want to because for 6 months they cannot go any out easily". We also got chance to work on machine, by which clothes like shawls are produced. My mates and I felt very good because the lady was so gentle and she was very good. Then I took permission from her and took 1 shawl to wrap myself. She told us about the beauty of Manali and hills, which was really impressive.

Rafiting for 14 kms a wonderful experience

It was a totally new experience for me. It took duration of 1 hr 30 min for approx 14 kms. It was totally new challenge for me because I was doing it for the first time and it was really adventurous. We were 12 boys in 1 raft and we kept on exchanging our places. It was important part because everyone was getting tired very soon. Biggest problem was the time when we were changing our places. We rowed it with great passion and power. I, Jerry and Mukul did it for the longest duration of 9 km. This was possible for me because my background is athletics. During this activity I focused mostly on my stamina. It was tiring but I gave full of mine to it. It was an awesome experience for me of struggling in water waves. Due, to lack in co-ordination between us it was becoming difficult when big waves were striking against raft. This experience will be very beneficial to me as well as to others in many ways, as in a condition of emergency to save someone's life and also in many unfavorable conditions in which survival is though. Our guide allowed us 2 times to jump in the river. When we jumped in the river, I didn't know that the water was so chilled. When we jumped 2nd time, a boy's life jacket opened and he was struggling in water to come up. I quickly jumped into river and started push me upward. Then, I was helped by other boys by pulling him in the raft. I learnt techniques of rafting and most important increased my skills of co-ordination.

Rappelling

The feeling I experienced during rappelling was priceless. As it was a bit challenging when I started, but when I reached the edge of the rock. It was 30ft down. Wow! it was amazing feeling collabration with fear. After 2-3 sec it became very easy. This will be very beneficial for me and society, as in the case of emergency I can safe myself and others too. Take a case of a biulding on fire and i m in it, the lessons I learnt from this activity will surly help me to help others in evacuating from the biulding. It made me physically and mentally confident than before. I learnt many lessons including rope knotting, rope holding, necessary gadgets required and many more. It was fun and I did it with full confidence and the important lesson I learnt "it's not your less affort which brings us down but it's the fear, and it should be under our control".

Learning to plot the tent

Sometimes life carries us to way apart from world where we ourselves become world of our. I agree to it because life unpredictable where each and every second we live is new, each and every thing we see and feel is first time because time changes. In modern world parents want their children to be the best and also want that they should be ready to tackle every problem in their life.

When we heard about this activity, I got very excited and my excitement doubled when I was chosen as the leader of the group. It was new because I never did it before. It is very important to listen first because one may miss important points. Teacher’s each and every instruction is very important. He was explaining the procedure and techniques of plotting the tent. We started it, we placed the tent and started as fast as we can. We completed it in 15-20 min. I was the in charge of my team and distributed works. I was so happy because all were working very well. I improved my leader quality. This will be beneficial in any condition or an emergency and in the end proper packing of tent. This all is very important for a human to learn because it can be useful in any part of life, not only for me but useful for many other people. As, in any case shelter I can help and support other people. I can use this knowledge to teach or guide slum people or people those who don't have any knowledge about it.

Field cooking

I realy love to cook or I should say help my mother in cooking. But I never dreamt of cooking in field. It was a real and new task for me. We came across many difficulties because we were only provided by 2 potatos, 1 tomato, 2 onions, salt, sugar, meida powder, and 2 carrot. We were not familier with buring grass or sticks, which cost us as waste of time during the crutial time of cooking. It was realy though to cook without any utensils. We used stons and tin can to cook and made a number of dishes. We helped each other and tried very hard to make it delicius and tasty. We had our individual jobs, where I was cooking and was also bringing sticks to burn. I ran 10 times or more to bring it. I learnt that its not easy to cook and also that its very difficult to survive out in alone. This training helped me to encourge me to learn more about it.

Rock climbing

We went for rock climbing just after rappelling. It was realy difficult to climb a 20ft rock because while climbing the biggest problem I faced was slipping because my shoes. As they were not taking correct grip on rocks. I tried many technics but every time I failed. Then i gave the last try and I was successful I climbed up but after it my finger started paining and I realised that I broke 1 of my nail during slipping. My friends and teachers had a great hand in encouraging me to do it so well. I had the support of my friends continuously ecouraging me which made my task much more easier. I learnt from my mistake that nails should not be used to move forward but gapes and grips are required. This activity will be realy helpfull in situations like rescue any person or animal hanging or sitting in any dangerous situation or hight.

Trekking

We went for trekking 3 times. First day, we went for 7km then for 13 and lastly 14 km. This helped me to increase my stamina and other skills like finding new ways in jungle and helping others. It gave me new boost to become more active and I proved myself. When I realise that people were tiered and I was not feeling any tiredness. So, I decided to help others and I gave my 100% to do that. We were trekking with singing songs and entertaining ourselves. I helped many of my mates by caring their bags, providing water, and encouraging them.

Cleaning of tent area

As a service component we did cleaning of the areas allotted to us including toilet area. We started with collection of wrappers and I realised that littering is the fore most thing we should stop. I learnt that more litter, more we are harming our self. We cleaned the camp fire site with the help of broom. We also cleaned the toilet area. It was totally new and weired experience because I was doing it first time. we talked with the officially allotted person for toilet cleaning he guided us. I have learnt many things which will be beneficial to me and society in future. This knowledge and experience will help in any case or situation.

Planing of Manali trip and the activities to be done there

While, discussing about CAS activities an idea came "we should plan something which includes many activities and adventure". We planed for Manali trip and placed a proposal in front of our CAS co-ordinate. We made a list of activities to be done or the activities those are new to us. He signed it and accepted it. We contacted trip management authority and explained our plan and needs to fulfill CAS requirement. They helped us and gave us the information about the future camps. Then we dicided that CAC - ALLROUNDER HIMALAYAN CAMP was a collection of many activities and was the camp we wanted.