Hello Lovelies :-)
Long time no see!!
Although my intentions were good, I couldn't update my blog for a long time because of lack of time. But now that I am here, I will try my best to do a "Good Job"!
Some of you must be wondering as to why am I writing in such a weird manner. Well, it's just that I went on an outbound training from office recently, and I still seem to have the Mukteshwar Hangover!!
More than a training it was sort of an adventure camp with several physically challenging activities, such as trekking, rock climbing and rappelling. Also, we stayed in tents with no electricity, and no modern luxuries like refrigerators, geysers, internet etc. Overall it was an exhilarating experience and an immensely enjoyable trip. But, this is not a post where I recount all the tasks which did in Mukteshwar. Here, I just want to share with you all my experience about one particular task, which was completely different from all the other physically exhausting and adrenaline pumping activities. This was the very last task of our training program, and it was the one which exposed me to a world which was completely in contrast to the one I have known and lived in for the last 23 years of my life.
Well, the activity was pretty straightforward. We were divided into teams of three members each and taken to a small village near Mukteshwar, called Dhoopgarh. There we had to approach the local villagers and offer our services in return for lunch. Basically, we had to work for them and earn our lunch for the day. It was quite a tricky task as we had no idea whether the villagers would welcome us, or what kind of work would we be expected to do, or would they trust us enough to give us entry into their homes. With all these questions in mind, along with just one objective, some how to get food, we set out towards the village.
It was a long walk of about one or one and a half hours through a very rocky terrain. The sun was out in full force, and by the time we reached our destination we were all burned, tanned and filled with sweat. As we spotted a few houses we increased our pace and went searching for the villagers. I was a little ahead of the other two members of my team, and as soon as I spotted a house with a lady working courtyard which had not been approached by any other team till now, I went there to introduce myself. I told her that I worked in a company in New Delhi, had come here for the company's training program, and was staying in a camp in Mukteshwar. As a part of the training, we had been given the task to visit a village and spend a few hours at a house in the village to observe the rural lifestyle, and help the household members in their daily chores. I did not mention that we needed food in return. By that time my two other team members had also arrived and we made the introductions. As expected, the lady was a little apprehensive and was thinking about what to do next, when suddenly her mother-in-law, an old lady of around 70 years of age, emerged from the kitchen. She was very excited to see us and immediately told her daughter-in-law to open the first floor drawing room and make us sit there. After that we were treated like royal guests at their place.
They first served us a sweet drink, a sharbat, which was a welcome relief after walking so for so long. Then, the lady got peaches and plums, freshly plucked from the family's own plantations, and fed us the fruits. In the mean time a male member of the family had joined us and we started speaking with him about his family, his work, the general state of affairs in the village, and other general things. At that time the old lady also walked in and told us, rather ordered us, that we could not leave without having lunch! Internally, we all breathed a sigh of relief :-) A little while later their children also came in we started asking them questions about their education and school. When the kids were called downstairs by their mom, I also accompanied them into the kitchen. Once there, I tried to help the lady with her work, but she would not hear of it and made me sit on the floor and started chatting with me. After finishing her work, she also sat besides me and we spent a good 30-45 minutes discussing the difference between village and city life. She also inquired about my family and background. Then we were told that the lunch was ready. All three of us tried very hard to let us do some work, as we felt that we did not deserve the food we were eating. But, they wouldn't even hear of it. But when we became adamant, just to placate us, they offered to let us help them after we had eaten the food. Lunch was quite a lavish affair, and we ate rice, pulses, potato subzi, salad, mango pickle and tomato chutney. It was all very delicious and our stomachs were completely full by the time we finished.
We still had one more hour to spend with them. So, when I told this to the old lady and asked her what we could do to help, her reply was, " We will place the cots in the courtyard, and why don't you people take a nap for an hour?" :-D :-D However tempting the offer was, we declined and again started pestering them to let us do some work at least. At last, they told us to go with the children and gather some fruits from the trees located a short distance away from their house. We are quite happy to finally get something to do, and went to pluck fruits. We were very amazed to see the wide variety of fruits hanging from trees. There were peaches, plums, khurmanis, pears, apples, and many more other fruits. We plucked peaches and plums, as rest of the fruits were not yet ripe, and went back to the house. As we gave them the bag of fruits, they refused and asked us to take accept it as a gist from their side. Again we were dumbstruck and could not say anything to them. Soon it was time to leave and as we said our goodbyes, they all told us to come and visit them again. We started on our journey back. After we had covered some distance, we heard some noise behind us, and turned out. We were shocked to see the old lady carrying lots of plums in her hands and running after us. We stopped and when she reached us, she forcefully put the plums in our bag and told us that these were for the rest of our group.
All the way back I could not help but wonder about the generosity and hospitality of these simple village folk, and compare it with the totally opposite attitude of those living in cities. Theses people trusted complete strangers, allowed them into their house, and treated them with utmost respect. Simply unbelievable! While in the cities, people do not treat even their very close relatives this way. It was an eye opener for me and I felt so overwhelmed and humbled by their genuine affection and love. This activity was, no doubt, the best out of all, and was a lesson in life to me. I wish I could go back and spend some more time with these wonderful and caring people.
Here are some pictures I took of them.
The old lady with her dog
Me with the kiddos.
The lady of the house
Still more to come, but for now.
Signing Out,
Still Mukteshwar Hungover!
Long time no see!!
Although my intentions were good, I couldn't update my blog for a long time because of lack of time. But now that I am here, I will try my best to do a "Good Job"!
Some of you must be wondering as to why am I writing in such a weird manner. Well, it's just that I went on an outbound training from office recently, and I still seem to have the Mukteshwar Hangover!!
More than a training it was sort of an adventure camp with several physically challenging activities, such as trekking, rock climbing and rappelling. Also, we stayed in tents with no electricity, and no modern luxuries like refrigerators, geysers, internet etc. Overall it was an exhilarating experience and an immensely enjoyable trip. But, this is not a post where I recount all the tasks which did in Mukteshwar. Here, I just want to share with you all my experience about one particular task, which was completely different from all the other physically exhausting and adrenaline pumping activities. This was the very last task of our training program, and it was the one which exposed me to a world which was completely in contrast to the one I have known and lived in for the last 23 years of my life.
Well, the activity was pretty straightforward. We were divided into teams of three members each and taken to a small village near Mukteshwar, called Dhoopgarh. There we had to approach the local villagers and offer our services in return for lunch. Basically, we had to work for them and earn our lunch for the day. It was quite a tricky task as we had no idea whether the villagers would welcome us, or what kind of work would we be expected to do, or would they trust us enough to give us entry into their homes. With all these questions in mind, along with just one objective, some how to get food, we set out towards the village.
It was a long walk of about one or one and a half hours through a very rocky terrain. The sun was out in full force, and by the time we reached our destination we were all burned, tanned and filled with sweat. As we spotted a few houses we increased our pace and went searching for the villagers. I was a little ahead of the other two members of my team, and as soon as I spotted a house with a lady working courtyard which had not been approached by any other team till now, I went there to introduce myself. I told her that I worked in a company in New Delhi, had come here for the company's training program, and was staying in a camp in Mukteshwar. As a part of the training, we had been given the task to visit a village and spend a few hours at a house in the village to observe the rural lifestyle, and help the household members in their daily chores. I did not mention that we needed food in return. By that time my two other team members had also arrived and we made the introductions. As expected, the lady was a little apprehensive and was thinking about what to do next, when suddenly her mother-in-law, an old lady of around 70 years of age, emerged from the kitchen. She was very excited to see us and immediately told her daughter-in-law to open the first floor drawing room and make us sit there. After that we were treated like royal guests at their place.
They first served us a sweet drink, a sharbat, which was a welcome relief after walking so for so long. Then, the lady got peaches and plums, freshly plucked from the family's own plantations, and fed us the fruits. In the mean time a male member of the family had joined us and we started speaking with him about his family, his work, the general state of affairs in the village, and other general things. At that time the old lady also walked in and told us, rather ordered us, that we could not leave without having lunch! Internally, we all breathed a sigh of relief :-) A little while later their children also came in we started asking them questions about their education and school. When the kids were called downstairs by their mom, I also accompanied them into the kitchen. Once there, I tried to help the lady with her work, but she would not hear of it and made me sit on the floor and started chatting with me. After finishing her work, she also sat besides me and we spent a good 30-45 minutes discussing the difference between village and city life. She also inquired about my family and background. Then we were told that the lunch was ready. All three of us tried very hard to let us do some work, as we felt that we did not deserve the food we were eating. But, they wouldn't even hear of it. But when we became adamant, just to placate us, they offered to let us help them after we had eaten the food. Lunch was quite a lavish affair, and we ate rice, pulses, potato subzi, salad, mango pickle and tomato chutney. It was all very delicious and our stomachs were completely full by the time we finished.
We still had one more hour to spend with them. So, when I told this to the old lady and asked her what we could do to help, her reply was, " We will place the cots in the courtyard, and why don't you people take a nap for an hour?" :-D :-D However tempting the offer was, we declined and again started pestering them to let us do some work at least. At last, they told us to go with the children and gather some fruits from the trees located a short distance away from their house. We are quite happy to finally get something to do, and went to pluck fruits. We were very amazed to see the wide variety of fruits hanging from trees. There were peaches, plums, khurmanis, pears, apples, and many more other fruits. We plucked peaches and plums, as rest of the fruits were not yet ripe, and went back to the house. As we gave them the bag of fruits, they refused and asked us to take accept it as a gist from their side. Again we were dumbstruck and could not say anything to them. Soon it was time to leave and as we said our goodbyes, they all told us to come and visit them again. We started on our journey back. After we had covered some distance, we heard some noise behind us, and turned out. We were shocked to see the old lady carrying lots of plums in her hands and running after us. We stopped and when she reached us, she forcefully put the plums in our bag and told us that these were for the rest of our group.
All the way back I could not help but wonder about the generosity and hospitality of these simple village folk, and compare it with the totally opposite attitude of those living in cities. Theses people trusted complete strangers, allowed them into their house, and treated them with utmost respect. Simply unbelievable! While in the cities, people do not treat even their very close relatives this way. It was an eye opener for me and I felt so overwhelmed and humbled by their genuine affection and love. This activity was, no doubt, the best out of all, and was a lesson in life to me. I wish I could go back and spend some more time with these wonderful and caring people.
Here are some pictures I took of them.
Still more to come, but for now.
Signing Out,
Still Mukteshwar Hungover!
