VidYouth

Most of the students have had nightmares of boredom after being done with the JNTU examinations. A few of them were happy for various reasons. Since, the last exam marks an end of one shuddering semester. A few of them could take a break from college and go to their home town, while the others could just while away time. The end of this semester marks something else too, for the mechanical engineering students of JBIET; The very much awaited, ‘INDUSTRIAL TOUR’! These two words created lot of enthusiasm when the news reached the students. Everyone was charged and forgot all about the horrifying exams they wrote. All started gossiping and discussing about what all to carry to the trip, where to shop, what all places to see, et al. Happiness was in the air! When the destination places were revealed, the students were all the more elated. Delhi, Agra, Shimla, Kulu, Manali and Amritsar.

The exams ended on 3rd December and the tour was scheduled from 8th December to 16th December. “It wasn’t planned very well in advance, but we managed to gather 58 students, who were ready to go for the tour”, said the management. Everyone managed to keep the luggage as minimal as possible because they knew they would shop a lot. After all, the places they were heading to, demanded a lot of attention and shopping. The train had started at 6.25am. “This is going to be so much fun. We are no ways going to sleep”, said Divya, a student who was a part of the very exciting tour. The train traveled all the way from the ‘Nampally station’ to Agra. Students played dumb charades all night and when they were bored of it, they played ‘UNO’(cards).

They reached Agra at 5.30 AM and directed their luggage to hotel Tara Palace. (Phone number – 0562-3258359). One of the spots they first visited was the Agra Fort. Next on the list was one of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal. It was a remarkable time spent for the students, who did not get to see the beautiful Taj until that day. They saw the Fatehpur Sikhri too. There was a halt in Agra for that night after a tiring but a wonderful day.

Wah Taj! Credit: Aura Unleashed

Breathtaking view. Credit: Aura Unleashed

@ Kulu. Credit: Aura Unleashed

The next day mechites of JBIET drove to Mathura to visit the temples around. After checking the temple out, they drove for 6 hours to reach Delhi to visit the Akshardham temple and the lotus temples, which were so enticing. They shifted their luggage to hotel Vishesh Continental. (Phone number – 011-25154083).

Mathura’s atmosphere was ideal. The food, weather and the warm people there promised a very pleasant stay to these campers. On the 11th of December, they covered the local places in Delhi, like the parliament house, India Gate, the Birla mandir etc. The Birla Mandir was beautiful with a lot of intricate sculptures on it. Then came the best part of Delhi, the shopping! There is so much of price disparity between the shops in Delhi and those in Hyderabad. Delhi has been a boon for girls and for boys, who have girlfriends. “We get superb stuff. There is a place called ‘Palika bazar’, where once a person goes in with loaded pockets he is sure to empty them by the time he leaves the place”, said Priyanka.

After Delhi, according to the itinerary was Shimla. Students had to take an eight hour drive to the chilly place. The temperature was around zero degrees! On the 12th morning they reached Shimla. They played with few very cute rabbits on their way. There they stayed in Hotel Quality Inn. (Phone number – 0177 2633209).

Cute rabbits, which grabbed the attention. Credit: Aura Unleashed

The place was extremely cold. Few of the students could not take such low temperature and they even fell sick. They were taken to the local hospital and they were helped with few medicines. “We visited the Kurfi and the mall road. We bought trolleys there to fit in the extra stuff that we bought as the place was not sufficient in our baggages. We got shawls for ourselves, parents, cousins and neighbours too. There were awesome sweaters there. We bought few of them too”, said Kiravani, who seemed to be a shopaholic!

“On the 13th of December, we drove to Manali, via Kulu. We drove for approximately 13 hours! Oh my god we were freezing to death! The temperature was almost minus four degrees. It was getting hard for us to breathe because there was insufficient oxygen as we were going up. Taking turns, few of our other friends too suffered from cold and headache. There we had snow fights! It was incredible, we were doing this for the first time and absolutely enjoyed every moment of it”, exclaims Divya.

In Manali, students stayed at Hotel Angels Inn (Phone number – 01902-251269). On 14th December, they proceeded to Hidimba temple, which is very exquisite. The Rohtang pass, which connects the Kulu valley with the Lahul Valleys of Himachal Pradesh was a spine tingling experience to the students. They visited Vasishth kund next and then drove to a hotel at Amritsar, Hotel Randhawa International (Phone number – 0183-50002571).

“We were supposed to visit two industries on this day but could not, because few of our friends could not recover completely  and were suffering from body pains and mild fever. The whole day just passed by and we had no other choice but to take care of our friends, who were not susceptible to the extreme temperatures. As we could not visit the industries on time, it was at bit problematic for us to get the permission from the industries for the next day. So this visit had to be called off”, said Prashanth. The students were a little deplored but were more concerned about their friends so everything was smooth.

After checking out these places, which were very cool they drove to Amritsar. “One of the tourist attraction there is the golden temple and we got to see it! Wow, I suddenly got reminded of the scene in the movie ‘Rang de basanti’ and the song “In onkaar” was running in my mind as long as I was there. We got many ‘kadas’ from there, which are considered sacred by the Punjabi community. The sanctity, ambiance of that place was totally mesmerizing”, said Divya.

After a lovely time at all these places, they got back to square one! They landed in Delhi again and the ‘Dakshin express’ started back to Hyderabad at 10.50pm. All of them were awfully tired. The next morning when all the students woke up to find themselves in the train, they did realize that all those surpassing moments spent, were nothing but a dream come true!