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Summer Camp by Ds (Divya and Deepti) (From the Edition of Newsletter published in June 2004)
Hi everybody!
Ds here!
We have wielded the pen to write about our summer camp. It all began in the first week of April when our mom told us that she has registered us for a summer camp being organised by Chinmaya Mission. Both of us were really annoyed with her for trying to impose her ideas on us as we did not want to waste our precious holidays singing bhajans and kirtans!! Hearing the name Chinmaya Mission itself conjured ideas of prayers, meditation, etc., in short everything we never want to do except when we are forced to! It was with this frame of mind that we started our journey on 1st May.
At the bus-stop, we met many of our friends/acquaintances and were happy that we would at least have good company while singing bhajans! But to our surprise, we started enjoying ourselves from the outset itself and left our prejudices far behind.
Our bus picked us up from Thane and dropped us at Kalyan Station from where we boarded the train to Kolhapur in order to reach our destination Planet Harmony which is Chinmaya Mission’s Ashram  around 10 k.ms from Kolhapur. The train journey was one great fun experience with all of us singing in the loudest of voices, playing dumb charades and munching snacks throughout. We reached K.Pur on 2nd May at around 6.30 a.m. We again took a bus to reach the Ashram and were there by around 7.30 a.m.
We were all mesmerised by the natural beauty of the Ashram. The star attraction of the Ashram is an 86 feet high Ganesha statue, the foot of which has been converted to a meditation hall. The mouse at the feet of the Statue is taller than us! The ashram made us forget the sweltering heat of Mumbai as it was so cool because of the trees around. We did not need to use the fans there (Anyway there was no current too! However thanks to the generator which was switched on during the nights, we could sleep without mosquito bites!) Our rooms were comfortable with four of us accomodated in a room. We could choose our room partners and all of us were happy to have the company of our close friends. But for all the other activities we were grouped in to six groups of 10 children each. This was done by our tour organisers. We had one volunteer (Sevika) taking care of 5 children. The volunteers were so cheerful, friendly, loving and caring, we did not miss home at all!!
Our daily routine was a sea change from our life in Mumbai. It was “Rise and Shine” at 5.30 a.m. everyday (Our sun rises only in the afternoon at Mumbai during hols!!) After having our bath in ice cold water (Our parents were stunned to hear this!) we had to assemble at the meditation hall for chanting Bhagvat Gita Chapter 4 upto 8.30 a.m. By this time, all of us used to feel so hungry, we could eat anything served to us without fussing!
After our breakfast, it was creative times with fabric painting, skits (In which we were taught the moral of not eating junk food, not watching too much t.v. etc). The focus of creative activities was HARMONY. We were asked to coin slogans based on pictures. I (Divya) was given the pic. Of an elephant. I coined the slogan”Haathi, prakriti kay saathi” Deepti got the picture of water and coined the slogan “Every drop of water is life, save water save life”
The next round of activities was aerobics followed by a session of juice break. We used to continue our workshop after the juice break. Time was just not enough for painting, making jigsaw puzzles and singing patriotic songs. Before we realized it was lunch time!! We could take quick nap during lunch time as we had two hours time. We also used to clean up our rooms in this big break. Our volunteers used to come on surprise inspections and this motivated us to keep our rooms spic and span.
After lunch, we used to look forward to the session of group games. Treasure Hunt was never such fun before as our Ashram was so big and we had to search so much. We used to play group games which were very novel and educative too. After such strenuous activities, we were rewarded with hot snacks!! This was followed by a break in which we could go to our rooms and refresh ourselves before assembling in the prayer hall for satsang. It was a genuinely wonderful experience, singing aarathis and bhajans in a group. By the time we finished exercising our vocal chords, it was Khana Khazana time.
After dinner, we had cultural hour (9.00 P.m. to 10.00 p.m.). We were given chits with certain situations as clues(eg. Money crisis, parents promised the kids a computer) Each group had to enact the situation as well as the solution to the problem in front of the audience who would guess. There was a fashion show also in which each of us had to wear a traditional dress and do a cat-walk.
Exactly at 10.00 p.m. after our night thanks giving prayers, it was SWITCH OFF.
It was with a heavy heart that we wound up the summer camp on 6th May. Each of us was literally in tears! We vowed to return to Planet Harmony every year!!
Ds (Divya and Deepti)
June 2004
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