School Picnic - Singapore Gardens, Pune

          I hope you know what is a picnic. A picnic is a leisure trip in which food is eaten outdoors. On 30 September 2014, the school took the students of the ninth grade to Singapore Gardens. I remembered by experience of Kapila Resort. The school had taken us there on a picnic once. Though a good place, it was quite small. Really small for 500 children. Crowded and all, my experience wasn’t nice.

          I hoped that this time, the picnic spot was a better place. We all guys sat in the bus. The bus was a Volvo, or a luxury bus, with a functional TV. At least the school didn’t cut the costs on that. I sat with my friends, Amit and Deepak. The bus started. Within 5 minutes, Amit said that he was feeling hungry. We opened some snacks and had a sort of breakfast. I’d brought my Rubik’s cube along with me. I tried to teach Amit the cube. That took a lot of time. Deepak also brought a cube, which was different from normal ones as it was a mirror cube. All the cubies were of different sizes. A movie was being screened on the TV. I didn’t understand much of it, as I was busy teaching Amit. Guys in the bus started dancing to the tune of songs in the movie. Then we reached a hilly area, called the Western Ghat region.

          The landscape was fantastic. We were travelling on a long hill. On both sides there was a green valley with a clean river flowing on the left side. We reached a tunnel. It was a long, dark one. Everyone in my bus started woohooing and yahooing. In formal language-yelling, screaming and hooting. Back in light, the noise died down. We approached the destination. Singapore Gardens, my friends were already making fun of it. “How does it feel in Singapore?” Amit asked me. The bus stopped and we walked down to the gardens.

          The first thing I saw was a 3 metre by 3 metre garden. “There it is! Singapore Gardens! Couldn’t be any better!” Deepak said. The actual thing’s gate was on the right. We entered and came face to face with a green elephant. Made up of a green carpet, or a curtain. The second thing we saw was a monster. A dragon. A sculpture with water flowing out of its mouth. A breakfast was organised, a nice one according to me. In a plate, the staff of the place served poha-a snack made from crushed rice, and a sort of halwa-a sweet dish made of flour. Amit, for some reason, didn’t like the breakfast. We kept our bags at a safe place and explored the area a bit, and I got back to my Cube classes. I told Amit frankly that we were here to enjoy, not to stress out our brains.

          I know I said the word ‘enjoy’. I am not much of a fun-loving person. The DJ started his songs in the dance room. All guys totally shook it. They seemed like they were enjoying a lot. I don’t know how one could enjoy by dancing. I am not made for dancing. I believe that playing the guitar is the best way to enjoy. Still, I envied those guys in the dance hall.

          Then an announcement was made. “All students proceed to the auditorium”. It was a big room. The weird thing about it was that 3 rows of robots were arranged beneath a big screen. I thought it was just a design and they would show us a movie on robots. Firstly, they showed us a video clip of robots dancing. Next, the robots right in front of us started dancing. Cool. Then, they showed a clip of a robot exercising. The same robot was brought in. It started doing push-ups on one hand with one feet in the air. Awesome. Another robot was brought, which responded to the commands of a person. The next thing was a fish. Two air filled fishes were brought which literally ‘swam’ in the air. The two swam unimaginably gracefully. Now, why should birds be left behind? A robotic bird was brought in, which flew through the air. It swooped over us. I had to duck in order to save myself from getting hit by the bird. Finally, the bird’s flight ended in a crash into a person of my class. This quad copter was brought in next. Didn’t seem too great, but it produced a lot of wind. That was the end of the robotic show.

          Lunch was served. Satisfactory food. Sweet dish-not available. No, actually it was available at a cost. For Rs. 20, Choco bar was provided. This awkward incident then happened. Right in front of my eyes, a student took 10 or 15 bars from a box and gave it to his friends. Someone noticed, but it was too late.

          Again an announcement was made. “Students proceed to the open ground”. The robotic show was restarted. The quad copter was flown right into the sky. Up into the sky. Really high. Next, a UFO was flown into the air. The UFO was made up of thermocol, with a hex copter attached to it. It didn’t fly high, and it met with the same fate of the robotic bird. It crashed into a guy, who didn’t seem hurt, and broke into two pieces. Poor UFO.

          Once again, an announcement was made. “Students go for 3D show”.  I went for the show. It was the opposite of incredible. Ouch. Seen much better things than that. Then the coordinator called for children who were willing to become social workers. I and Deepak went to volunteer. But we backed up as soon as we heard the task. The social workers had to clean up the garden. There were very few volunteers. The garden was very badly polluted with wrappers and other stuff. I and Deepak felt that it was our duty. We picked up some of the trash and put it in the dustbin. It felt nice. Then the coordinator called us and asked our names. I felt great pride in telling my name. Overall, the social service was a good experience.

          This time our school had arranged an educational trip also. To Mahananda Milk Plant. We came back to the bus and set off for the plant. The bus left us on a road. We trekked down the road to the plant. It was smaller than I had thought. It took a while before we entered the plant. From inside, it was amazing. We were able to see the packets being made, the milk being filled into the packets, and being sent off to different places in boxes. There was a huge cylinder to store milk. It was about 3 storeys tall. Well, the visit was not too educational.

          We boarded the bus back to our school. This time, instead of movies, songs were played. Boring for me. I asked Amit to stop bugging me and that I would teach him the cube afterwards. The tunnel, this time, seemed smaller. Time seemed to flow. Some guys were taking selfies on our teacher’s tablet. All seemed tired as well as happy.

          We reached school. End of picnic. We said our bye-byes to each other. I boarded the school bus back to my home. At home, I narrated all the incidents that took place to my parents, grandparents and brother. The overall experience was nice. Especially the robotic show. Nice day.

-         Manas Trivedi