Y I Loved IAYP

IAYP (The International Award For Young People) is a program started in the UK to encourage youngsters (14-25) to take up various activities. The levels (or prizes) are bronze, silver, and gold. There are slightly different requirements for each of them. For the bronze award, for instance, we 9th graders have to do social service, play a sport, and practice a skill for a set number of weeks under a teacher. One of the other elements of IAYP is adventure. To complete this part, our school took us (with Woody Adventure) to Ramanagar (yes, where Sholay was filmed) for 2 days and 1 night. We did many adventure activities, and pretty much had one heck of a time.

These were my thoughts on it...

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The Suicide Point. A light blue sky streaked with fierce strokes of gold. Fanta. Chocolate. A dog named Gabbar. A lamb who was often chased by Gabbar. More chocolate. Muthu. Papanna. Rocks, boulders, stones, and trees. Shrubs. Tent. Bonfire. A village. Clapping, gupshup. Bus. Friends. Smiles...

And chocolate.

This is what the IAYP trip meant to me. Two days that I will remember forever. The 7^th and 8^th of October in Ramanagara belonged primarily to my class, 9F.

We had activities of all sorts – an 8 km trek, rappelling, ziplining, cooking chitranna (during which a bunch of us sat doing absolutely nothing and enjoyed that fact), a village interaction, all sorts of games…

The activities were challenging, taking their toll on us, both physically and mentally. While the trek left us sweaty and drained, the village interaction left us feeling sorry, a bit broken, for having discovered the pitiable plight of the poor in India. And most of them smiled through nearly every obstacle.

Those 36-odd hours affected most of us personally too. We felt an intimate connection with nature, fear, happiness, freedom, calmness, peace.

Besides tiring us out completely, the trip helped us bond. It brought us together in a way nothing else could. And for that, I'd like to thank IAYP for coming up with the idea of an adventure trip.

What I will always remember is the way we laughed, the way my friends helped me up every single time I fell (which was the norm), the way our secrets came tumbling out, the way we were all aware of the growing closeness between our classmates.

We were a family for those two days: Our classmates, our guide Shalini ma'am, our other instructors, Muthu and Papanna, Gabbar. Even the lamb. 

I'll end this article by recalling one of the many memorable moments of the trip. It was an hour or so before we left. I was sitting on a large rock, overlooking the dorm, with my friends. We watched the boys play cricket. The sun shone, the breeze was soft, and there was a bitter-sweet feeling in the air. I remember, at that very instant, feeling happy for no particular reason. Life seemed perfect, though it was so clearly not. I felt happy, despite all odds, and that's the best kind of happiness there is.

Thanks IAYP.