ALC Ranchi 2012: Experiences

The past month has flown by in a whirlwind of activities. No sooner did October arrive, I escaped from Dibrugarh to attend a camp in Ranchi (NCC cadet remember?!!) I went there, stayed there for half a month and returned back just the day before Maha Shashti (18^th October)… only to fall sick! It was as if my body’s immune system had given up a long fight by the end of these 15 days and has finally shouted, “I’ve had enough!”

The past 15 days, I had been deprived of fish – a legally punishable offence of culinary depravity, especially if the offended is a Bong! I had full well planned to avenge this act of depravity by consuming fish to the fullest. But my failing immune system had taken all my plans of being the ultimate consumer along with it down the drains! But still, I managed to have one fried fish despite being sick to the bone! I recovered back thankfully, before the actual puja began. (I guess it was the fervor attached to this festive mood that helped me recuperate) By Maha Ashtami, my puja began… and so did my fish – fiesta! Coming home after a period of 15 days can really be a thrilling experience. That’s not because I get to see my home again, but because of the attention that I receive from everyone! And the output of this attention is the super delicious dishes made by my mom! This fish fiesta which began fortnight ago is still going on in full swing. After all, I have to compensate for the fifteen fish-less days!

As the name suggests, Patna Junction

Ranchi Junction

Ranchi: from the window of our bus

The streets of Ranchi

M S Dhoni's residence

Dhyan Mandir at Yogada Satsang

Entering the zoo

Sundari - the lioness, famously adopted by Priyanka Chopra for a year!

Bird's eye view of athletic course in the Birsa Munda stadium

Ganpat Rai stadium

Back to my camp, I was one of the 20 lucky few from my directorate (NER) to go to an Advanced Leadership Camp in Ranchi. I had attended camps earlier but this was my first national level camp and I was excited as hell to attend it. I left Dibrugarh on 1st October and after 2 days of easy journey, reached Patna junction on the 3rd. (I’d rather not go into the details of my experiences in Patna junction ‘cause if I do, probably this blog would never end!) Our group boarded another train from Patna junction and finally, after a harassing journey, reached Ranchi at 4:45 am. After the irksome experiences with flies in Patna junction, Ranchi junction caught me by surprise. It was clean and systematic.

There were plenty of women sitting on the station and all of them had piles of small sticks before them. Later I did come to realize that they were hawkers selling those sticks. Only when I came across the common wash basin in the station, then I unraveled the mystery of the sticks! They were branches of mango or neem tree used for datun and to my great surprise, near the wash basin, there was just one man brushing his teeth with a toothbrush; rest all of them were using those branches! Of course, we didn’t miss to notice many people carrying their lotas to do their waste disposal early morning. This lota tradition is so embedded in their culture that they even ingrained it in our camp. There was a huge water tank where water from the supply would get stored and we had to carry our personalized lota(bucket) to do almost absolutely everything! And that’s not where the fun ends. After our directorate came Andhra Pradesh directorate. Imagine the horror when I realize that most of the girls of AP don’t know to speak even English, forget about Hindi. The only thing that I could figure out from their conversation was illa meaning nothing! They were well equipped with buckets and mugs and we were in dire need of buckets. But asking them was also futile because they didn’t understand anything. And finally, when we conveyed our message through sign language, they refused to share. Talk of phooti kismet!!! We somehow cleaned up and by then, breakfast was already served. We had the first official meal in our camp which according to me wasn’t disappointing. Camps aren’t well known for providing excellent food! Slowly, other directorates began coming and settling down. The most interesting thing that I noticed was that most of the girls didn’t even bother to keep their luggage down that they came to inspect the state of the bathrooms! Those fortunate ones like us, who saw it before they were used, saw them clean. As the number of directorates increased, the state of the bathrooms deteriorated. So those who came later couldn’t stop complaining!

 The first and the second day were given to rest as all the directorates didn’t arrive yet. The staying arrangement was also fair enough. Four rooms were given to eight random directorates, and nine directorates which had larger number of cadets were given one separate room for each. This random selection of directorates had resulted in the most unique combinations - Punjab and Haryana paired with Tamil Nadu, NER paired with Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir paired with Delhi, Kerala paired with Karnataka and Goa. Talk of cultural diversity!

From the third day onwards, lots of activities began. We attended a number of guest lectures, followed by ANO lectures, and by the time our legs would get cramped, we would be ushered to the dining hall for lunch. It doesn’t sound bad enough, and it wouldn’t have been bad enough, had we been provided comfortable sofas to sit on rather than the solid ground and that too in perfectly aligned lines, without any space nearby. After lunch, would be an hour’s rest and after that, a tea break. Following the tea break would be the games session where I would quietly sit down in one corner of the field and watch everyone run around! After the games period, we would have the evening fall in the ground and we had to sing the NCC anthem. After the fall in, we would get another hour break which would be followed by dinner at 8 and by 9:30, lights out.

Twelve days passed by in a flurry of activities – lectures in the day and cultural competitions in the evening. Obviously my directorate didn’t win a single prize ‘cause I believe it’s the second best who win the prizes, the best let the others get a chance! ;) But it was fun participating. I made a lot of new friends, from my own directorate and from different other states as well. Among the many competitions that took place, the only competition was disappointed all of NER was the drill competition. We were pretty much confident of winning a prize and we even practiced hard for it. But luck didn’t favor us. We came 3^rd and the ones who do come 3^rd aren’t given any certificate of merit. I was upset about it, but being busy with the MC practices, it slipped out of my head. When I went in my barrack, I found everyone crying, and no one had their dinner. But all was forgotten the next morning as we got busy with other activities.

The last two days of the camp, before the closing ceremony were reserved for excursion. We were divided into two groups and the 2 groups were taken to 2 different routes – one went to visit Dhoni’s house (saw only the gate of his house!), Yogada Satsang and Khel Gaon, while the other were taken to the zoo. The best experience of all was visiting Khel Gaon which hosted the National Games this year. We first entered the Birsa Munda Athletics stadium and I could not help but stare at awe. It reminded me of that typical Chak De India scene, feeling as if I was a player playing for my country. Next we were ushered to the Ganpat Rai indoor stadium. Compared to the previous stadium, this one was dark, but man, it was big. And there were a whole bunch of gymnastics equipments around, reminding me of the Olympics! The girls went crazy there and started jumping on the trapeze, while some even tried swinging at the other bars. We saw the badminton and the tennis court next and there was the swimming pool on the way of the courts. But to our great dismay, the swimming pool was closed and we just had to acknowledge it from the outside. The food served during those two days was also great: chicken biryani one day and chola bhatura on the next! All in all, the trip was great, a good relief from the tedious schedule of the camp. But every good thing comes with a price and that price was the inability to rest after coming back. I was selected as the MC for the closing ceremony’s cultural event along with four other girls and we were made to practice relentlessly till it was perfect.

The final day came, and so did the chief guest - the ADG of Bihar and Jharkhand, and so did our program preside. Thankfully all went well and it was the final moment of campfire. We shouted a lot, danced a lot and sang our lungs out! The next day, I could see all the cadets leaving with their bags packed, ready to leave home. Watching them go increased my anticipation to reach home as soon as possible, but my directorate was to depart at night. FINALLY our time to leave had come and we were so ecstatic to go back home, the whole way to the station was accompanied with bihu songs sung at the top of the voices and teasing the guys on the street in Assamese! But the return journey was just the opposite of the way we arrived. Our train to Patna was 6 hours late for which we missed our connecting train to Dibrugarh and the result was a grand tour of Patna junction, meeting and communicating with the “best” of the people there. It was a wonder how I still managed to retain my calm after talking to the gonad scratching station masters and police staff. The final solution to our problem was that we were to travel by another train in the General compartment which would be evacuated by the MCOs and journey till Kamakhya in that train. So we waited for the train to arrive and all 21 (ANO included) of us literally booked one of the General bogeys, closing all the windows and doors of the compartment, and spending sleepless nights to avoid other passengers from entering our compartment! We reached NJP the next afternoon; lunch (chicken biryani) was provided by my dear kaku (uncle) and the journey was pretty much comfortable after that. We reached Kamakhya station the same night at 10:30 pm and thankfully boarded the last train to Guwahati at the nick of time. We spent another sleepless night at Guwahati junction, waiting the whole night at the station for the earliest train to Dibrugarh. Finally, after three days of harassment and three train changes, I reached home safe and sound.

The past month has flown by in a whirlwind of activities. No sooner did October arrive, I escaped from Dibrugarh to attend a camp in Ranchi (NCC cadet remember?!!) I went there, stayed there for half a month and returned back just the day before Maha Shashti (18^th October)… only to fall sick! It was as if my body’s immune system had given up a long fight by the end of these 15 days and has finally shouted, “I’ve had enough!”

The past 15 days, I had been deprived of fish – a legally punishable offence of culinary depravity, especially if the offended is a Bong! I had full well planned to avenge this act of depravity by consuming fish to the fullest. But my failing immune system had taken all my plans of being the ultimate consumer along with it down the drains! But still, I managed to have one fried fish despite being sick to the bone! I recovered back thankfully, before the actual puja began. (I guess it was the fervor attached to this festive mood that helped me recuperate) By Maha Ashtami, my puja began… and so did my fish – fiesta! Coming home after a period of 15 days can really be a thrilling experience. That’s not because I get to see my home again, but because of the attention that I receive from everyone! And the output of this attention is the super delicious dishes made by my mom! This fish fiesta which began fortnight ago is still going on in full swing. After all, I have to compensate for the fifteen fish-less days!

Back to my camp, I was one of the 20 lucky few from my directorate (NER) to go to an Advanced Leadership Camp in Ranchi. I had attended camps earlier but this was my first national level camp and I was excited as hell to attend it. I left Dibrugarh on 1st October and after 2 days of easy journey, reached Patna junction on the 3rd. (I’d rather not go into the details of my experiences in Patna junction ‘cause if I do, probably this blog would never end!) Our group boarded another train from Patna junction and finally, after a harassing journey, reached Ranchi at 4:45 am. After the irksome experiences with flies in Patna junction, Ranchi junction caught me by surprise. It was clean and systematic.

There were plenty of women sitting on the station and all of them had piles of small sticks before them. Later I did come to realize that they were hawkers selling those sticks. Only when I came across the common wash basin in the station, then I unraveled the mystery of the sticks! They were branches of mango or neem tree used for datun and to my great surprise, near the wash basin, there was just one man brushing his teeth with a toothbrush; rest all of them were using those branches! Of course, we didn’t miss to notice many people carrying their lotas to do their waste disposal early morning. This lota tradition is so embedded in their culture that they even ingrained it in our camp. There was a huge water tank where water from the supply would get stored and we had to carry our personalized lota(bucket) to do almost absolutely everything! And that’s not where the fun ends. After our directorate came Andhra Pradesh directorate. Imagine the horror when I realize that most of the girls of AP don’t know to speak even English, forget about Hindi. The only thing that I could figure out from their conversation was illa meaning nothing! They were well equipped with buckets and mugs and we were in dire need of buckets. But asking them was also futile because they didn’t understand anything. And finally, when we conveyed our message through sign language, they refused to share. Talk of phooti kismet!!! We somehow cleaned up and by then, breakfast was already served. We had the first official meal in our camp which according to me wasn’t disappointing. Camps aren’t well known for providing excellent food! Slowly, other directorates began coming and settling down. The most interesting thing that I noticed was that most of the girls didn’t even bother to keep their luggage down that they came to inspect the state of the bathrooms! Those fortunate ones like us, who saw it before they were used, saw them clean. As the number of directorates increased, the state of the bathrooms deteriorated. So those who came later couldn’t stop complaining!

 The first and the second day were given to rest as all the directorates didn’t arrive yet. The staying arrangement was also fair enough. Four rooms were given to eight random directorates, and nine directorates which had larger number of cadets were given one separate room for each. This random selection of directorates had resulted in the most unique combinations - Punjab and Haryana paired with Tamil Nadu, NER paired with Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir paired with Delhi, Kerala paired with Karnataka and Goa. Talk of cultural diversity!

From the third day onwards, lots of activities began. We attended a number of guest lectures, followed by ANO lectures, and by the time our legs would get cramped, we would be ushered to the dining hall for lunch. It doesn’t sound bad enough, and it wouldn’t have been bad enough, had we been provided comfortable sofas to sit on rather than the solid ground and that too in perfectly aligned lines, without any space nearby. After lunch, would be an hour’s rest and after that, a tea break. Following the tea break would be the games session where I would quietly sit down in one corner of the field and watch everyone run around! After the games period, we would have the evening fall in the ground and we had to sing the NCC anthem. After the fall in, we would get another hour break which would be followed by dinner at 8 and by 9:30, lights out.

Twelve days passed by in a flurry of activities – lectures in the day and cultural competitions in the evening. Obviously my directorate didn’t win a single prize ‘cause I believe it’s the second best who win the prizes, the best let the others get a chance! ;) But it was fun participating. I made a lot of new friends, from my own directorate and from different other states as well. Among the many competitions that took place, the only competition was disappointed all of NER was the drill competition. We were pretty much confident of winning a prize and we even practiced hard for it. But luck didn’t favor us. We came 3^rd and the ones who do come 3^rd aren’t given any certificate of merit. I was upset about it, but being busy with the MC practices, it slipped out of my head. When I went in my barrack, I found everyone crying, and no one had their dinner. But all was forgotten the next morning as we got busy with other activities.

The last two days of the camp, before the closing ceremony were reserved for excursion. We were divided into two groups and the 2 groups were taken to 2 different routes – one went to visit Dhoni’s house (saw only the gate of his house!), Yogada Satsang and Khel Gaon, while the other were taken to the zoo. The best experience of all was visiting Khel Gaon which hosted the National Games this year. We first entered the Birsa Munda Athletics stadium and I could not help but stare at awe. It reminded me of that typical Chak De India scene, feeling as if I was a player playing for my country. Next we were ushered to the Ganpat Rai indoor stadium. Compared to the previous stadium, this one was dark, but man, it was big. And there were a whole bunch of gymnastics equipments around, reminding me of the Olympics! The girls went crazy there and started jumping on the trapeze, while some even tried swinging at the other bars. We saw the badminton and the tennis court next and there was the swimming pool on the way of the courts. But to our great dismay, the swimming pool was closed and we just had to acknowledge it from the outside. The food served during those two days was also great: chicken biryani one day and chola bhatura on the next! All in all, the trip was great, a good relief from the tedious schedule of the camp. But every good thing comes with a price and that price was the inability to rest after coming back. I was selected as the MC for the closing ceremony’s cultural event along with four other girls and we were made to practice relentlessly till it was perfect.

The final day came, and so did the chief guest - the ADG of Bihar and Jharkhand, and so did our program preside. Thankfully all went well and it was the final moment of campfire. We shouted a lot, danced a lot and sang our lungs out! The next day, I could see all the cadets leaving with their bags packed, ready to leave home. Watching them go increased my anticipation to reach home as soon as possible, but my directorate was to depart at night. FINALLY our time to leave had come and we were so ecstatic to go back home, the whole way to the station was accompanied with bihu songs sung at the top of the voices and teasing the guys on the street in Assamese! But the return journey was just the opposite of the way we arrived. Our train to Patna was 6 hours late for which we missed our connecting train to Dibrugarh and the result was a grand tour of Patna junction, meeting and communicating with the “best” of the people there. It was a wonder how I still managed to retain my calm after talking to the gonad scratching station masters and police staff. The final solution to our problem was that we were to travel by another train in the General compartment which would be evacuated by the MCOs and journey till Kamakhya in that train. So we waited for the train to arrive and all 21 (ANO included) of us literally booked one of the General bogeys, closing all the windows and doors of the compartment, and spending sleepless nights to avoid other passengers from entering our compartment! We reached NJP the next afternoon; lunch (chicken biryani) was provided by my dear kaku (uncle) and the journey was pretty much comfortable after that. We reached Kamakhya station the same night at 10:30 pm and thankfully boarded the last train to Guwahati at the nick of time. We spent another sleepless night at Guwahati junction, waiting the whole night at the station for the earliest train to Dibrugarh. Finally, after three days of harassment and three train changes, I reached home safe and sound.