Summer Camp

Summer Camp

Friday, January 28, 2011

It was the summer of 2009 when I was first introduced to Kirtana’s farm. The holidays were nearly over with just a week to spare. My mom had signed me up for this three-day camp, without even asking me. To be truthful, I wasn’t really enthusiastic at all. I thought it was just a waste of my last few days of the holidays. The thought of getting up early the next morning and sitting in a 1 ½ bus ride to a place that I hadn’t even heard about bored me to death. But eventually nothing turned out the way I expected it to be. The bus ride surprisingly didn't feel long and Aditya and I built up a rapport with another by Ansaar. He was in 8th grade then, two years older than us, and studied in Vidya Niketan School (same class as one of my cousins). Once we reached, we were lead to our dorms. Ansaar, Aditya and I were in one. We were then left alone with our Kalaripayattu teacher, Mothi. Throughout the class he was stern and harsh (which showed me the respect he had towards the martial art), but otherwise he was a complete clown. That’s how every morning began, with 2 serious hours of Kalaripayattu, followed by Shakespeare. This was where most of my knowledge about Shakespeare came from. The first session we did a brain dump on everything we knew about the playwright. We proceeded by knowing bit about the plays he wrote, his family and where he lived, England at that time and so on. After we got our basics right we worked on the play Julius Cesar by acting out the main, popular, vital scenes of the play. There were also music sessions for whoever was interested with Konarak Uncle. We would spend every evening playing a game our multiple numbers of games of soccer along with Mothi and Vinit, and every night before dinner we had to perform anything that we had learned throughout the day or anything that you were willing to share, be it Kalaripayattu, be it a scene from Julius Cesar, be it a song that you liked. We’d then eat dinner and sleep at whatever time we pleased. The next morning we would get up early and go for a walk/hike. I enjoyed this trip to such an extent that I came back the next year. The memories of these trips will always be cherished.

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