TirthanWelcome to all the Yourekampers off for their Yourekamp to Tirthan at Green River Valley Campus today. Hope you enjoy your stay there. You can blog/tweet or email us for any queries doubts or postings.
Thank you
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Welcome to all the new Tirthan Yourekampers
TirthanWelcome to all the Yourekampers off for their Yourekamp to Tirthan at Green River Valley Campus today. Hope you enjoy your stay there. You can blog/tweet or email us for any queries doubts or postings.
Thank you
Friday, May 29, 2009
Posting to the Youreka Blog
You can post directly on the blog by emailing your posts to the editor/webmaster directly at nilanjan.gupta@youreka.in
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Educational Cartoon of the Day!
Educational Cartoon of the Day - Kids can you comment on it and figure out and tell us what it means???!!!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Navneeth's Notes!
Navneeth's Lengthy notes and quotes on the Youreka Camp 2009!:
My mom signed me up for the youreka yercaud y2 program for the
group, from the 18th of April to the 26th.i knew it would be awesome
fun over there because I had heard too many awesome things about
that place. I had to go to the railway station at 6 in the morning
and the platform was very cold and very stinky. They were about
a 115 kids waiting in front of the train, when the instructors showed
up they gave us our name tags on which they had put the
seat and compartment number. None of us liked our places,
so the instructors said we could change our places once
the train started moving. After the train started to move everyone
changed places and I sat with people of my age and younger
who seemed to be very nice, friendly and someone who you
can talk to. It was a 5 hour journey, so along the way we were
talking about music, movies and about ourselves. In the train
it self I made 6 new friends. The moment we reached yercaud
all of us started to sweat, it was probably 40 degrees.
We all picked our luggage and got into 14 sumo vans.
Luckily my van had a/c and there were less people.
It was 1 hour journey from Salem to yercaud; I dozed of in
the van to catch my breath. After reaching yercaud we all
saw the y1 program kids were wearing youreka t-shirts
and waiting for the sumos to return so they could go back to
Bangalore. We all chucked our luggage into a huge truck and
we had to trek to our camp. I was thinking we would have to build
our own tents but when I entered the camp I was shocked to see
that the tents were built on metal poles. After that all of us had to
assemble in a huge circle and one of the instructors named
panna sang a song called ‘ajja gujja’! It was an interesting
song which was filled with actions. Then the instructor divided
us into groups of 18 approx. I was in the wilderness backpacking
group, then he told us who sleeps in which tent.
(In each tent 9 people could sleep).I liked all the people who
slept in my tent, but their were few people in my tent who didn’t
want to stay so they changed to another tent. Our tent number
was ‘9’. After that we all ha to go up a small hill and into a hut
called the ‘kprd’! (Khana pina rona????) It was a place where
we ate, drank, chatted and partied. We had lunch there and
went into our groups; our group went to a place called the sunset
point. We had a name game to recognize each of our names
and we named our group the ‘wild spirits’! After that we had soup
and squash. We all got something called the cool book; with it
we got a cool pen and a cool bag. It was something like a diary
with lots of activities. After that we had to do it. I don’t really want
to explain it though. We had an hour time of Y.O.T (your own time)
after that we have to remain silent and do our cool books.
After that I met one of the students who had graduated in my school
when I was in the 4th grade. Her name was archana. She was
an extremely nice person! We all had dinner by 8:30 sang and
danced a bit! After that we all went into our tents and many
people wanted to sleep in our tent because we were
chatting interesting things. We invited a few people and chatted till 11.
The next day the wild spirits assembled near a place called the l
apa lapa (Mexican word for hut.)And we did a small bit of exercising
called the ‘chota hazri’. After that we had breakfast and again we
assembled in front of the lapa lapa, our group got a rucksack for
each person we put our sleeping bags and we went for a short
trek with our bags. We played few games when we reached our
destination like Acid River and arms and legs. While coming back
we had to find our own way back to the camp without the instructors
help. We came back in time for lunch after that it was the regular
program, Y.O.T and then did our cool books. Then had dinner and
partied! This I did every day. (Y.O.T till party) next day we were told
we will also be having some minor activities and few instructors
would do some tent inspection while we are doing our minor
activities. We again went for a small trek to a place called ‘raj pond’!
over there 15 people didn’t know how to pitch a tent so the other
3 were given a challenge, the challenge was 15 people were blind
folded and three people had to instruct the blinded to build a
tent without touching them. The 3 were 2 of my friends and me!
It took us 45 minutes to do that challenge. After that we were all
given another challenge, we had to be divided into groups of
2 and 1 needed to be blind folded. The challenge was to guide
your blinded partner through a rough pathway and both get a
chance to be blind folded. By then we reached another pond.
(I don’t remember the name of that pond) we sang a song and
played a game over there, the song’s name was ‘rump sum sum’
and the games name I don’t remember. We came back in time for l
unch and we had a minor activity, it was making a news paper
and I had to review the campus doctor. It was fun, and the day
ended with the usual routine. Next day we went for a 6 km trek to
a place called great view, we made coffee over their with a butane
burner and we had to make a map with the help of a compass.
(I am not telling how.) till lunch and then we had a minor activity,
‘bracelet making’. I had never seen that kind of method of making
a bracelet. You had to hold one end with your mouth and do a
weird way of tying it. I made two of them. After that same routine
till dinner, it started to rain heavily and we were very scared
of what might happen to our bags. After it stopped raining we
went to check on our bags and came back up to party.
Then we slept at 11………. Next day same thing but we were
getting ready to go for a 2 day 2 night trek to a place
called ‘singlathpadiam’ or something like that…. Just before
we left we did a minor activity called the tartan swing, where
we had to swing on a rope and had to land on different circles
(each circle had a different number of points) first three were 500,
second row was 1000 and third row was 5000! After that
we started on our trek, this time we had to find our way their
with the help of a ready made map and a compass. I had to
decide who to give the map and who to give the 2 compasses.
After that we started the trek we made few mistakes making the
directions but we finished half of the trek by 5:30 or so, we
pitched our tents and made some palouv like stuff for dinner.
And sang a bit and slept late.
Early morning we had to pack our tents and make breakfast, i
t was coffee, biscuits and bread butter, cheese and jam. After
that we refilled our bottles and started on the second half of the trek.
The map and the two compasses were given to different people
now. We saw a dead rat snake on the way. We reached our
destination by 3:30 made maggi for lunch. One of the instructors
made lemon tea for us, it was so tasty. Then we enjoyed the
view for an hour. Came back made our tents and played a game
called ‘where is my monkey?’ after that I made more knew friends,
about 3 of them! Then we went to bed.
Next day we packed our stuff got into 3 jeeps sang all the way
back to camp and we were all surprised to see that no one
was at camp, it took us some time to realize to see that they
had gone for their major activities….
Till lunch we were unpacking the tents cleaning the rucksacks
and getting contacts in our cool books. Then the instructors
told us we were going to do T.T. at first we thought its table
tennis, but it actually was something called ‘tera tera’. We had
to go down hill and we saw all the other groups’ river crossing.
Then the instructors told us that tera tera means river crossing
in México. We all did it; I was the fastest person to cross the stream,
I did it in less than 30 seconds. Then we went back to camp had
our minor activity, tie and dye, it was awesome fun and very easy,
so I finished mine fast and I went to see what the other groups were
doing. One of them was doing bracelet making so I joined them
and made another bracelet. We were told that they were selling
some things at the large tent behind the KPRD, so I went there
and bought a t-shirt. Then after that we had our usual routine till
dinner. They conducted something called the talent night. In
that people showed off their new talents they learnt in youreka.
It went on till 10:30, I didn’t like it that much I liked the other
night where we partied much more. After the talent show we
danced till 11:00. Then two of my group instructors performed
some awesome fire tricks and fire staffs…I was seriously
speechless by looking at them. After that we partied a bit
mare and cheered the instructors who performed for us,
till 12:00. Then we had 3 extra people sleeping in our
tent because it was the best tent out of all the 30 tents…the
next day we had a special breakfast and most of us were
crying because we had to leave….
We took some more contacts and got few hugs.
After that we dumped our luggage into a truck, the truck
took the luggage to the railway station. We did something
called the bead ceremony and then we got some
chocolates from the instructors and got our certificates….we
all left crying…I also lost a friend because someone had
something bad to him and he thought I said it….then we
waited for the sumo vans to come. When they came we
saw the y3 program kids were in it. We all said some
crappy stuff to them and we got on the vans and we were
ready to go to Salem. I dozed off again in the van but I
made another friend over their…when we reached the
railway station I made 7 more friends, we all sat together
in the train and we chatted about ourselves, music,
funny things and about ourselves till we reached
Bangalore…but we all still keep in touch through
cell phones and facebook….
group, from the 18th of April to the 26th.i knew it would be awesome
fun over there because I had heard too many awesome things about
that place. I had to go to the railway station at 6 in the morning
and the platform was very cold and very stinky. They were about
a 115 kids waiting in front of the train, when the instructors showed
up they gave us our name tags on which they had put the
seat and compartment number. None of us liked our places,
so the instructors said we could change our places once
the train started moving. After the train started to move everyone
changed places and I sat with people of my age and younger
who seemed to be very nice, friendly and someone who you
can talk to. It was a 5 hour journey, so along the way we were
talking about music, movies and about ourselves. In the train
it self I made 6 new friends. The moment we reached yercaud
all of us started to sweat, it was probably 40 degrees.
We all picked our luggage and got into 14 sumo vans.
Luckily my van had a/c and there were less people.
It was 1 hour journey from Salem to yercaud; I dozed of in
the van to catch my breath. After reaching yercaud we all
saw the y1 program kids were wearing youreka t-shirts
and waiting for the sumos to return so they could go back to
Bangalore. We all chucked our luggage into a huge truck and
we had to trek to our camp. I was thinking we would have to build
our own tents but when I entered the camp I was shocked to see
that the tents were built on metal poles. After that all of us had to
assemble in a huge circle and one of the instructors named
panna sang a song called ‘ajja gujja’! It was an interesting
song which was filled with actions. Then the instructor divided
us into groups of 18 approx. I was in the wilderness backpacking
group, then he told us who sleeps in which tent.
(In each tent 9 people could sleep).I liked all the people who
slept in my tent, but their were few people in my tent who didn’t
want to stay so they changed to another tent. Our tent number
was ‘9’. After that we all ha to go up a small hill and into a hut
called the ‘kprd’! (Khana pina rona????) It was a place where
we ate, drank, chatted and partied. We had lunch there and
went into our groups; our group went to a place called the sunset
point. We had a name game to recognize each of our names
and we named our group the ‘wild spirits’! After that we had soup
and squash. We all got something called the cool book; with it
we got a cool pen and a cool bag. It was something like a diary
with lots of activities. After that we had to do it. I don’t really want
to explain it though. We had an hour time of Y.O.T (your own time)
after that we have to remain silent and do our cool books.
After that I met one of the students who had graduated in my school
when I was in the 4th grade. Her name was archana. She was
an extremely nice person! We all had dinner by 8:30 sang and
danced a bit! After that we all went into our tents and many
people wanted to sleep in our tent because we were
chatting interesting things. We invited a few people and chatted till 11.
The next day the wild spirits assembled near a place called the l
apa lapa (Mexican word for hut.)And we did a small bit of exercising
called the ‘chota hazri’. After that we had breakfast and again we
assembled in front of the lapa lapa, our group got a rucksack for
each person we put our sleeping bags and we went for a short
trek with our bags. We played few games when we reached our
destination like Acid River and arms and legs. While coming back
we had to find our own way back to the camp without the instructors
help. We came back in time for lunch after that it was the regular
program, Y.O.T and then did our cool books. Then had dinner and
partied! This I did every day. (Y.O.T till party) next day we were told
we will also be having some minor activities and few instructors
would do some tent inspection while we are doing our minor
activities. We again went for a small trek to a place called ‘raj pond’!
over there 15 people didn’t know how to pitch a tent so the other
3 were given a challenge, the challenge was 15 people were blind
folded and three people had to instruct the blinded to build a
tent without touching them. The 3 were 2 of my friends and me!
It took us 45 minutes to do that challenge. After that we were all
given another challenge, we had to be divided into groups of
2 and 1 needed to be blind folded. The challenge was to guide
your blinded partner through a rough pathway and both get a
chance to be blind folded. By then we reached another pond.
(I don’t remember the name of that pond) we sang a song and
played a game over there, the song’s name was ‘rump sum sum’
and the games name I don’t remember. We came back in time for l
unch and we had a minor activity, it was making a news paper
and I had to review the campus doctor. It was fun, and the day
ended with the usual routine. Next day we went for a 6 km trek to
a place called great view, we made coffee over their with a butane
burner and we had to make a map with the help of a compass.
(I am not telling how.) till lunch and then we had a minor activity,
‘bracelet making’. I had never seen that kind of method of making
a bracelet. You had to hold one end with your mouth and do a
weird way of tying it. I made two of them. After that same routine
till dinner, it started to rain heavily and we were very scared
of what might happen to our bags. After it stopped raining we
went to check on our bags and came back up to party.
Then we slept at 11………. Next day same thing but we were
getting ready to go for a 2 day 2 night trek to a place
called ‘singlathpadiam’ or something like that…. Just before
we left we did a minor activity called the tartan swing, where
we had to swing on a rope and had to land on different circles
(each circle had a different number of points) first three were 500,
second row was 1000 and third row was 5000! After that
we started on our trek, this time we had to find our way their
with the help of a ready made map and a compass. I had to
decide who to give the map and who to give the 2 compasses.
After that we started the trek we made few mistakes making the
directions but we finished half of the trek by 5:30 or so, we
pitched our tents and made some palouv like stuff for dinner.
And sang a bit and slept late.
Early morning we had to pack our tents and make breakfast, i
t was coffee, biscuits and bread butter, cheese and jam. After
that we refilled our bottles and started on the second half of the trek.
The map and the two compasses were given to different people
now. We saw a dead rat snake on the way. We reached our
destination by 3:30 made maggi for lunch. One of the instructors
made lemon tea for us, it was so tasty. Then we enjoyed the
view for an hour. Came back made our tents and played a game
called ‘where is my monkey?’ after that I made more knew friends,
about 3 of them! Then we went to bed.
Next day we packed our stuff got into 3 jeeps sang all the way
back to camp and we were all surprised to see that no one
was at camp, it took us some time to realize to see that they
had gone for their major activities….
Till lunch we were unpacking the tents cleaning the rucksacks
and getting contacts in our cool books. Then the instructors
told us we were going to do T.T. at first we thought its table
tennis, but it actually was something called ‘tera tera’. We had
to go down hill and we saw all the other groups’ river crossing.
Then the instructors told us that tera tera means river crossing
in México. We all did it; I was the fastest person to cross the stream,
I did it in less than 30 seconds. Then we went back to camp had
our minor activity, tie and dye, it was awesome fun and very easy,
so I finished mine fast and I went to see what the other groups were
doing. One of them was doing bracelet making so I joined them
and made another bracelet. We were told that they were selling
some things at the large tent behind the KPRD, so I went there
and bought a t-shirt. Then after that we had our usual routine till
dinner. They conducted something called the talent night. In
that people showed off their new talents they learnt in youreka.
It went on till 10:30, I didn’t like it that much I liked the other
night where we partied much more. After the talent show we
danced till 11:00. Then two of my group instructors performed
some awesome fire tricks and fire staffs…I was seriously
speechless by looking at them. After that we partied a bit
mare and cheered the instructors who performed for us,
till 12:00. Then we had 3 extra people sleeping in our
tent because it was the best tent out of all the 30 tents…the
next day we had a special breakfast and most of us were
crying because we had to leave….
We took some more contacts and got few hugs.
After that we dumped our luggage into a truck, the truck
took the luggage to the railway station. We did something
called the bead ceremony and then we got some
chocolates from the instructors and got our certificates….we
all left crying…I also lost a friend because someone had
something bad to him and he thought I said it….then we
waited for the sumo vans to come. When they came we
saw the y3 program kids were in it. We all said some
crappy stuff to them and we got on the vans and we were
ready to go to Salem. I dozed off again in the van but I
made another friend over their…when we reached the
railway station I made 7 more friends, we all sat together
in the train and we chatted about ourselves, music,
funny things and about ourselves till we reached
Bangalore…but we all still keep in touch through
cell phones and facebook….
Monday, May 18, 2009
Starstruck Beneath The Twilight Sky
A beautiful poem written by Prasenna Rajendran on the Youreka Camp 2009 on his blog http://prassu170.blogspot.com/:
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Starstruck Beneath The Twilight Sky
Riding on a wave for now ;Is this our chance for one last bow?
Bears & pigs are not so far,
Are we clowns in a forest? - Yes, we are!!!!!!!
Without a paddle, we're way away ;
Sharks & fishes might fall in our fray.
To do is to be, to be is to do ;
Stargazing above without a clue.........
To kick a horse's ass, takes loads of stuff!
And if we swear'd we did ; you could call it a bluff!
Minds so strong, going on a rage ;
Being headstrong, might just blow the gauge!
Showoffs & lies, now the crazy people cry ;
Now they're running off their pants - now that they've looked into the wolves' eyes!
Knowing each other, trying to get together,
Doing something stupid, to make them laugh forever.
Forgetting ourselves, going on a ride ;
Playing some pranks & getting ready to hide!
Wishing that all this could be never ending ;
Smiling away our fears - now that's mind bending!
Red eyes - one hell of an irritation,
Trying to walk on a beam - now that's innovation.
Splitting in groups, building up trust,
Jumping all around - we could never rust!
Acting all cracked up, losing all our nuts,
Doing push-ups & crunches & showing off our guts!
Is this the stairway to infinity that we've been searching for?
Spreading joy, wearing smiles - right till the strike of the midnight hour.
Days ago, we were strangers alike ;
Until this second - now that we've become campers beneath the twilight sky!
This ink, that I use, is not enough to suffice this poem.
My thoughts make words, that bleed to fight ;
It's hard to imagine, that it all ends tonight.
People - they filled the place with color & light ;
Now they fade away slowly......away from sight.
Spells of thanks from side to side ;
Tears that shower - they're tough to abide.
Going on & on like a roller coaster ride ;
Getting friends for life - they'd never hide.
When hearts get close & flirts give a pose ;
This camp fires out, like a leaking hose.
It's sad that we're gonna miss our fags & fools ;
Tough to think, that there aren't any broken rules!
When the sun sets below the silver lining of the world ;
The eyes close - blinding the dream that had whirled.
- Prasenna
Written in memory of the Youreka! Camp 2009.
{ !DEVIL ROCKS! }
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