Memorable School Trip – Kashmir

If you are like me, you enjoyed school trips growing up. This is how I caught the travel bug in the first place. In the summer of 1982, I took a school trip to Kashmir. I must give a disclaimer to this story before I go on. I was 14 years old at the time. A 14-year-old boy has practically no interest in sightseeing. His main goal is to have fun with his friends. So, this story is more about the memories we made on this trip and a lot of other things beyond the sightseeing.

First, a little lesson in geography. I grew up in a small town called Modasa in the state of Gujarat, India. At the time, Modasa had a population of just around 50,000 people. Kashmir is in the northernmost state of India. The distance between Modasa and Srinagar (iconic Kashmiri City) is about 1,600 km. The actual distance we traveled was almost 5,000 km due to sightseeing stops.

In 1982, India’s roads were horrendous. There could be an accident on the national highway that would get you stuck on the road for 4 to 8 hours—a daily occurrence in those days. On average, a car or a bus would be able to travel 25 kmph on a highway. So, we are talking about a tall order for small-town young children to go all the way to Kashmir.

Although this was a school trip, it was not officially sanctioned by the school. Let me explain. There were two entrepreneurial-minded college professors. We will call them Mr. Chud and Mr. Cho to protect their identity. Why do you need to protect the identity of these professors Raju, you ask? Well, you will know once you finish this story! They came up with the idea of taking high school students on a school trip and planned the entire trip. There was a capacity of approx. 40 students for this trip.

A number of my friends and I decided that we wanted to join this trip. There were about 8 or 9 of us who wanted to go together. I decided to go meet Prof. Chud. After some pleasantries, I told him that 9 of us were interested in joining his trip. He got into a deep-thinking mode. After about five minutes or so, he came out of this deep thought and told me, “Shah, I am fine with these other eight people. But you I am not sure of. Your reputation precedes you.” I had a reputation of being a troublemaker—rightly so I am afraid! You will most likely agree by the time you are done reading this post.

Leverage

I grew up learning from my dad about business and life in general. My dad instilled many skills in me that are useful to this date. I used one of the skills I had learned from my dad. I told Prof. Chud, I understood his point of view, but these other eight people were only interested in joining the trip if I was going with them. He went into deep thought again. You see, you have leverage when you represent 20% or more of someone’s revenue. Turning away 9 people in a 40 capacity bus means the difference between making a profit and losing money. When he came out of his deep thought process, Prof. Chud said “Okay, you are in, but one condition. You must promise to behave.” I agreed to not make trouble.

So, we were all excited about the trip coming up. We had never been 1,600 km away from our homes before. It was an exciting time preparing for the trip. Finally, the day of the trip came. We had all packed lightly and jumped into our bus. We could tell the parents were a little apprehensive, but all of the kids were just thrilled. Off we went!

Our bus had a 2×2 configuration and the first few rows were reserved for teachers and some kids who wanted to stay close to teachers. After that, it was free for all. We took over the back of the bus. Our first stop was a beautiful City called Udaipur. It is known as the City of Lakes. With 350 years of history, Udaipur is a vibrant city. There is even a five-star hotel in the lake; yes, in the lake. The Lake Palace Hotel was built as a Palace some 200 plus years ago. Of course, we were staying in dorms and hostels. Our typical overnight stay was in these large dorm rooms where all the boys would be in one room, all the girls in a separate room, and teachers would each have their own rooms. However, because we were covering so much distance and had many sightseeing destinations packed in a 25-day trip, we ended up driving for half of the nights. That way, we preserved some daytime for sightseeing.

Gross Insight

When we were driving at night, the bus driver would not stop for any reason. He did not want to stop for the restroom for 40 people at 40 different times. He had a strict no-stopping policy. There were no bathrooms on the bus. So, in the middle of the night, if you had to use the restroom, you were out of luck. My friends and I came up with an innovative solution. We would go in the last row of the bus, open the window just a little bit, and do our thing! Ewww…

We continued with our trip and visited Jaipur—the Pink City. It is so known because all the palaces in Jaipur are made out of pink stones. Another historical city with almost 400 years of history! Kings in those days built these amazing showstopper palaces. Jaipur probably has a dozen or so majestic palaces. Jaipur is also known for its arts and crafts. Native artists still carry ancient traditions in Jaipur.

Next, we went to New Delhi, the capital of India. Delhi is an amazing place. It has a rich history as well as a modern twist. There is so much to see in Delhi; one could stay a week and it wouldn’t be enough. However, we only had a couple of days to spend.

We continued our journey to Haridwar and Rishikesh. Both Haridwar and Rishikesh are religious cities. They are located on the banks of the Ganges River. There are temples to visit, as well as traditional ceremonies (Aarti) on the banks of Ganges (Ghaat).

Best Daal (Lentil Soup)

I am sure I had better daal in my life, but to my memory, the best daal I ever had was on this trip in Rishikesh. We were at a roadside Dhaba (In India, on highways, you would find roadside restaurants known as Dhabas where truckers eat) and the taste was just right—tangy, not sweet, not spicy.

Speaking of food, for the most part, our professors were feeding us roadside food that would cost them Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 per meal. The reason I bring this up is that they had promised our parents that they had a Rs. 10 daily meal budget and they were spending Rs. 5 or Rs. 6 per day on our meals. More about this later.

As we continued along our journey through this majestic area, something happened one night. The brother of one of our friends (he was 11 years old) was sitting next to a teacher—we will call him Mr. Pal—on an overnight bus ride. The next morning, he came to us and said he wanted to tell us something. Without getting into details, let’s just say Mr. Pal went home that evening.

Our journey continued and finally, we reached Srinagar. What a beautiful place. This was before terrorism destroyed Kashmir. It was truly a paradise on earth. People were friendly, surroundings were heavenly (the Rocky Mountains where I live currently remind me of Kashmir), and overall, we were in awe. We went to Dal Lake—houseboats on Dal Lake are a must-have experience. We took what is known as a Shikara Ride where you would go on a boat excursion on the lake. They even had a floating market on the lake!

We were staying in Srinagar for a couple of days.  When we were all sitting in our dorm on the first evening, someone said we haven’t had a decent meal since we left home. That was true. We were eating this roadside Dhaba food every day. So, we decided to ask the professors for decent meals. I went to see Prof. Chud and said I would like to talk to him. He could see I was bringing trouble. He asked me to carry on. I said, “professor, all the kids are fed up with the food they are eating.” He said I was insane. He was giving us the best meals possible. I reminded him that he was spending Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 per meal and he had promised our parents Rs. 10 per day in meals. I said kids were talking about writing to their parents about the horrible food they were eating and whatnot. That spooked him! I said, “Prof. Chud, kids want to eat at a three-star restaurant tomorrow and nothing less” (I was so stupid, I didn’t even think of asking for a five-star restaurant). He went, “Shah, do you know what a three-star restaurant costs?” In all honesty, we came from a small town with only two sit-down restaurants at the time. So, we had no clue.  He said it cost Rs. 35 per meal. I just kept saying, “professor, these kids feel like they have not eaten a decent meal in 10 days.” Finally, he relented and told me to make sure the kids wore nice clothes the next evening. I could not believe it. We were going to a three-star restaurant!!! We were all screaming in excitement.

Three-Star Restaurant

When we went for a nice meal the next evening, nice clothes for us meant a shirt without a stain! They had round tables and about 8 seats per table. Waiters serving us food dressed better than us. We had never seen waiters in suits and ties. I don’t think any of us ate much. We were full just from the experience if you will.

After a few nice days in Srinagar, we turned around. On our way back we visited Golden Temple in Amritsar. At the temple, they feed whoever shows up without any questions. Thousands of people eat meals every day at the temple. They don’t care about your religious affiliation, socioeconomic status, or anything like that. Everyone gets the same meal at the same table at no cost. It was an inspiring experience for me and led to the development of a sense of giving later in life.

Kurukshetra

After Amritsar, we stopped at a place called Kurukshetra for snacks or something. This was in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing around there. Kurukshetra is the place where the epic Mahabharat war was fought. Knowing that, I was underwhelmed and thinking it didn’t look like a place where thousands of people fought. Looking back, it makes sense, I guess. For thousands of people to fight, it had to be an open place in the middle-of-nowhere.

After a few more stops on the way, and 25 days later, we finally reached home. What a journey. 39 years later, I still relish the time we had on that trip. What was your most memorable school trip? Please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section.