It is difficult to tell the students at SUMPOORNA about some trekking experiences without being caught! So when inadvertently I mentioned SAVANDURGA there was virtually a clamour `WHEN ARE YOU TAKING US THERE'?
At 56, I am not what I was at 35 - we used to wander all over the hillocks and valleys of places around Bangalore. If I name them I will be in trouble again - so let us just stick to Savandurga. I must be selective and careful in making programmes - but how can I deny my students the same `joys' that I provided children two decades ago. So be it! The lure of the Kari Betta and Bili Betta will haunt these children and inspire in them a sense of joy that has endured in me even after having climbed it more than hundred times. I have climbed it with my wife and younger son - I have climbed it with more than fifty students at a time.
The discipline this hill demands - children climb on it the way a small baby tries to climb on the chest of its mother - I have to use this analogy because I have a grandson of five months who already climbs on to my chest probably practicing for its climb on Savandurga.
I have climbed Savandurga as a father - now I am going to climb it as a grandfather - WILL I CLIMB IT as a great grand father? As I write this piece - tears of joyful
memories flow down my cheeks - where are they - all those thousands of children with whom I climbed these hills. DO THEY STILL CLIMB OTHER HILLS - I don't know; yet I have a feeling that whenever they see a hill, they would remember me as the person who helped them climb their FIRST HILL at Savandurga.
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1 comment:
Hello, indeed a very interesting post.
I used to frequent Savandurga and met a person and learnt that he was in 50s. I've spent two nights on Savandurga with my father on two different occassions. He was in his 50s and yet he enjoyed both outings. Somehow I used to admire elderly people who are adventerous. Of course I still do admire elderly people who want to be active... proactive.
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