A day in my Life: Nature walk and fun amidst nature and kids

Hey all, Welcome to my new blog! How have you all been from my last blog to this one? I hope you all are doing good:)

It's time for one more 'a day in my life' blog where I write about my day in a little extra detail as today was a special day as I and my dear friend Pannagasri had gone to a school to experience the nature camp there. We both volunteer for an NGO called WCG(Wildlife Conservation Group) who were conducting a nature camp for kids and through them, we were invited there as there was a trekking activity today for those kids in the school who were attending 'nature camp'/summer camp which eventually got postponed but still, we went there just to enjoy nature and learn new things from our mentor who had invited us. 

Our journey started when we both were picked up by the school bus. As we entered the bus, we both were greeted by the students as ' ma'am' and when another teacher got into the bus, they all screamed in a tone(as we all used to do in our school days)- "Goooooodd mooorning maaam! "

It felt like we are going back in time to our school days and it definitely felt like a school trip with all those kids surrounding us. Some were sleeping, some were over-enthusiastic, Some boys were solving Rubik's cube and telling us the stories of past days of their nature camp at school. They instantly became friends with us and were so comfortable talking to us like we all knew each other over years. That's why children are said to be innocent. Three boys caught my attention. They were: Aakash, the naughtiest, camera shy, witty kid; Anand, a well-behaved enthusiastic fellow; Partha, a clever, silent yet naughty kid. They made me happy with their stories and funny jokes. When we reached the destination, the first thing we did was to go to the prayer hall and pay our respects to the gurus and obtain blessings from Swamiji who gracefully run the esteemed and humble institution.

After that, we ate breakfast provided there by taking and washing our plates ourselves before they could serve. I just loved that concept where we are not leaving behind our work for someone else to do. In the meantime, my bestie had made a new bestie for herself. Ha ha, it was a dog and she showed love towards him and he gave her the exact same thing back which was evident with that high speed tail wagging. She named him 'Sphatika' and they looked lovely in one frame! Don't they?

By that time our mentor arrived and we went on a nature walk. It was the best 1 hour I spent this week. We were introduced to many flora and fauna. Since it was summer we were able to see and identify some species of birds too. Some among them were White bellied drongo(A migratory visitor), Kingfisher, Robin and many more. I can remember only these now and we were not able to take pictures of them as they are very hard to identify clearly because of their tendency to camouflage and the swiftness in their flying.

There was lush greenery everywhere with rich biodiversity and if you stand still for a moment and listen, all you can hear is some bird's songs, screeching sounds of insects and a complete silence of nature that's not scary but peaceful. We even heard some great stories about Grey billed Hornbill that was too exiting. My favorite author, Mr. K.P.Poornachandra Tejaswi was dragged into our conversation many times since he was a photographer and nature lover himself and our mentor asked us to read more of his books. We also found a pill millipede( I hope I am right) on our way back which was very cute. I and pannaga were just in awe with it's beautiful shell patterns. I have shared that picture here below with some other beautiful images that she and I captured.

It was time for us to head back and as we did, my photographer friend pannaga could capture many species on her camera. We then went inside the class as our mentor had to take class for those kids and maybe it was the first time I volunteered myself to sit in last bench. Very unlikely of me as I am always a first bench student. All the kids were just curious and were asking our names constantly. They wanted to know if we are their teachers, what we would teach, are we both siblings, where do we stay and the list goes on. It seems that they were taken inside the forest yesterday or so and they got to see the tiger pug mark and a boy was so ready and overjoyous to share that news with us. With respect to that, today they were showed a documentary on the hard lives of the forest guards who spend their lives away from their family enduring everything to save the forest. We both watched that documentary with the kids. I will leave that link here if you wish to watch it too!

Unsung Hero Kannada Documentary

After they had watched it came the fun part. Our mentor was explaining about forest fires and he told that there are times when birds can nearly save themselves and will get no chance to take away the eggs with them and the eggs will be left behind in those forest fires. He then questioned the kids as to what might happen to those eggs and one boy told "Eggss omelette agatthe saar"!!(Eggs will become omelette) The whole class burst into laughter and I never imagined such a thing. Kids brains are really creative and they think out of the box. Another incident made me have a good laugh. In a chart where the students had to enter the data of the weight of the plastic they picked from the school campus according to the date( A part of clean campus program; #swatcchbharath #aathmanirbharabharath), they had started from 1 and after 5 they had written 7 and when they were asked the reason behind it, they said "Saar, madhyadalli Sunday banthu adikke"(There was a sunday holiday in between). I still could not process what they meant and when my mentor told, "Sunday raja andre serial number ige raja baralla, adu continuous agiratthe kanro"(Though it's sunday the serial number should be continuous). That moment was LOL!!

I had a chance to talk with a few kids and when I asked about their routine I was kinda astonished because they were all given some responsibilities in school, like sweeping the floor, cleaning toilets, keeping the campus clean, and serving food during lunch, and whatnot. The school is surely making them learn life skills! I was highly inspired by that idea and those kids with beautiful heart. We had great lunch where Rasam was the winner of the meal. 

We both came back with lots of memories, friendships, love and learnings from the nature and kids. It was indeed an amazing day with the kids and nature. Forever grateful to WCG and happy to volunteer for a noble cause. I leave you all here with my experience.

When was the last time you went to any place with rich flora and fauna? Did I make your school memories come back? Did you like this blog? 

Do share it in the comments below.
Check out my friend Pannaga's Photography page @aloka.lekhyam for her upcoming posts about nature as she is a big nature geek!! 

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Bye:)