Glorious Glimpses of the Gwalior Tour of MPVM
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Boundless excitement marked the evening of 20th November as the 12th standard 142 students of MPVM collected on Platform No. 9 at Allahabad Railway Station, for a short educational tour to Gwalior. Students, parents and teachers were all on an enthusiastic high and the din and clamour of voices only softened at the arrival of the train, 2 hrs. late from its scheduled time, at 11.40 p.m. and the students forming lines behind their respective teachers made it to the Bundelkhand Express where again the host of MPVian students along with their teachers asserted their presence with shouts of joy and happiness.
Setting down was a difficult affair, the energy and vigour of the students refused to calm down and games and antakshari and snacks and riddles continued upto 2.00 am in the morning. After about a short two hour nap, the students were again up and about with their youthful spirit and energy that made the excursion a pleasurable experience. Abundance of snacks that circulated in the morning both by the students and the teachers ranged from Puri to Poha, Idli to upma, Thekuya to Khejur, Bread to Kachori and variation of namkeen, mathri and sweets.
The students unboarded at Gwalior around 11 am. Three Volvo buses and two cars were waiting to take the students and the teachers to the hotels. The girls were lodged at Sunbeam Hotel accompanied by teachers Mrs. Padmavati Pandey, Mrs. Meena Mishra, Mrs Nirmala Tomar, Mr. A.K. Pathak, Mr. Sanjeev Agarwal and Mr. Praveen Gune. The boys checked-in at the adjacent Royal Hotel Inn accompanied by the Principal and the teachers Mrs. Geetika Joshi, Mrs. M.N. Arya, Mrs. Gopa Bhattacharyya, Mrs. Rama Sharma, Mr. A.K. Singh and Mr. Vishnu Kumar. Moving with a troop of 63 girls and 79 boys was no easy affair for the teachers but no difficult either. Barred of too many restrictions, the students tasted ice – lollies, chana-jor-garam, posed with their teachers for snaps, tried to be playfully mischievous, spoke in Hindi, picked up some of the local dialects, shouted slogans and overlooked gentle scolding from the teachers. The students were a conspicuous presence in Gwalior in their MPVM Jackets and attracted the attention of the localities as well as the media. The two days were spent in hectic touring with hopping stops for delicious and elaborate lunch and dinner and not to be missed DJ night.
Places of sight – seeing included the Jai Vilas Palace, the Light & Sound Show at Gwalior Fort, the majestic Gwalior Fort, the Birla Sun Temple and Sahasra Bahu Mandir. The shopping stop at Maharaja Bada is also worth mentioning with teachers and students alike trying to strike the best bargain for sarees, suit materials, bed-sheets, purses, bags and what not. Some of the boys did not go beyond a box of Gajak and confused in their first experience of independent shopping most of them went no further than spending ten ruppes on the indigenous horn the ‘Bhonpu’ which can be often found in the Indian fairs or mela with their unnerving blare. As the students assembled together at a point in the market place and then walked a half-kilometre distance to the place where the buses were parked to take everyone back to the railway station, the place decibeled with the continuous blare of the ‘Bhonpu’ as if to say “please bear with us, we are still children kind of innocence”. With teachers giving in indulgently to their occasional way ward behavior and yet keeping a strict vigil on them, the excursion to Gwalior was a mighty success. The sweet memories would never fade away.
Pls check gallery for images.
