To begin with, we are extremely grateful to the institute for creating such a unique opportunity for the students to go out and explore and rediscover themselves. And we were fortunate enough to have such an experience. We travelled extensively across the country through length and breadth for 42 days and what we have gained is priceless. Interacting with people from varied socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, experiencing new tastes of different parts of India, learning new languages to deal with the local people and confronting end number of problems are some of the few highlights worth mentioning.
It was exciting as well as challenging for both of us to undertake this journey. By the virtue of being women, we were rendered vulnerable in many situations. The most exuberating part was to overcome such hurdles and move forward with the journey. The best part of this entire endeavour was that it introduced us to the real world and made us competent enough to fight the odds. Nevertheless, the trip brought small packages of surprises along with it. Everywhere we went, we came across many local people who turned out to be really helpful and also fellow travellers from other parts of the world with whom we bonded quite well.
The UNESCO World Heritage sites that we visited made us realise that there are many parts of the country which are yet to be explored. For instance, the ruins of Hampi, the magnificent temple complex of Thanjavur, North-Eastern part, the Capitol Complex of Chandigarh, Bhimbetka rock shelters, etc which have been robbed off their rightful attention. Most strikingly, these places receive maximum number of footfall from foreign tourists and not from Indians who supposedly are not aware of their rich heritage. Thus, the trip has enriched our knowledge about our country and its glory and we witnessed the diversity that it is famous for.
