Everyone loves travelling to places. It is always fun to travel to different places. It does not matter whether we are travelling with friends, family, colleagues or strangers, travelling is always exciting.
Sometimes even solo travelling is fun and thrilling.
Sometimes academic travelling is also important. These academic travelling can be field trips or field study, excursions etc.
These field trips are very important for the students whether it is at school or in college. They learn more than what they are taught within the four walls of the classroom.
Their boundaries are not limited with these field trips. They learn and understand more than their books.
The knowledge beyond the books is important as well as necessary because books do not teach us everything. We learn more by putting the knowledge of books into reality and understanding what is in and around us.
The best memory of the field trip I have gone was in the month of November 2013 when I was studying in twelfth standard.
We had gone for a field trip to Rohini because it was a part of our Geography practical. There were around eighty-five of us and three of our teachers for help and guidance.
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About Rohini
Rohini is a very beautiful place near Siliguri which comes under the Darjeeling district. It is popular for tea gardens and picnic spots. Before, Rohini was not developed.
It was like an inaccessible place. But now the government has made necessary changes for the place to develop.
Earlier there was a problem in the transport system.
Now things have become a little better for the local people of Rohini.
They get ration and the household things are available there but for schools, any medical treatment they still have to travel a lot.
Earlier Rohini was famous only for its tea gardens but with the initiative of the government and the development, it is also known as a picnic place.
The roads have been repaired and it is so smooth at present that people will love travelling from the roads of Rohini.
They are very clean and the scenery is extremely beautiful. The view in the hills will make anyone stop their vehicle and capture the beautiful scenery visible in front of them.
But one should be careful while driving on these roads as they are curved. It is safe only to drive in the normal speed because when there is a turn you cannot see if any vehicle is coming from the opposite side.
It is better to avoid risks otherwise there are chances for accidents to take place in the hilly areas. One must have experience of driving on the roads of the hilly areas.
Some of them are so experienced of driving there that even drive during night, they know exactly where there is a turn.
There are parks, lake, temple and guesthouses as well in Rohini. People can enjoy boating too in the lake. They can also see monkeys, elephants and other animals there.
Some of the local people in Rohini have their own land for farming. They grow different staple foods, vegetables for themselves.
They even sell them if they have enough of them so that they can earn a small amount of money. They are very hard working as they have to face a lot of problems to earn for a living and survive.
Journey to Rohini
All the students who were supposed to go for the field trip reached very early to school. The teacher then took count of all of us and asked everyone if the necessary things were present with all of us.
If we did not have then we had to manage soon. After half an hour we went and sat in our school bus. There were three teachers with us and they again took a head count.
After the counting was done, our journey to Rohini started. It would take one hour to two hours to reach to our destination depending on the traffic.
Everyone was excited for the field trip. The excitement could be seen on everyone’s face.
Some enjoyed watching outside the window of the bus. While some were busy talking, singing and munching small food items.
We did not know when time flew and we reached Rohini. It was amazing to travel among the serenity of nature.
Anyone would love to keep travelling in such a beautiful place. We got down from the bus and gave our attendance.
After the attendance was over, our teacher gave instructions about the questions to be asked to the people and what information all the students need to get from the trip.
Eighty-five of us were from two sections. Some belonged to 12 A1 and other belonged to 12 A2.
According to our sections we were asked to form our own groups and each group would have both boys and girls.
Each group divided themselves who will go where with whom. After this everyone walked up the hill with their groups.
Each group went to different houses and asked questions to the members of the house. Everyone asked questions like: How many members are there in the family?
How many children are there? Where do they study? What do the members do for their living? Do they have access to schools, hospitals, market etc.?
What are the facilities they get? What are the changes that have been done in the place from the time of their stay in Rohini? These were the common questions asked to the local people.
After all the students came back at the meeting point. Each group spoke about the information they got. After each group finished talking, our Geography teacher summed up all the information.
We came to know a lot of things about the people. They speak in Hindi and Nepali. Very few of them were educated to speak English.
They have to struggle to earn for their living. Some of them have their own farming lands where they work, sell whatever they grow and earn from it.
The children who do not have a good financial background, they help their family in the fields. They get ration but that is also a very small amount.
The local people have to travel far either to Siliguri or Darjeeling for any medical treatment, legal matters or if they have any other problem.
Even the students have to walk a lot to go school. Earlier there were no schools. Only later school was constructed. But it cannot fit all the children.
So that is the reason they have to travel to study in a good school. They do not get proper water and electricity facilities as well.
All these facilities have a fixed timing. The people have to walk kilometers to bring water for their family.
Other necessary household items, food items which come to the place are of high price because they come from far away. So, till they reach Rohini the price is increased by the sellers.
Despite these problems the people out there always had cheerful face. Until we asked them we did not know about their problems.
In between all these we also interacted with the people, had some fun time with and tried helping them in their work.
They were very happy because of our presence there. Most of them asked us to visit them again. No one wanted to leave the beautiful place.
It was like wish we could stay in this amazing place forever. But that was not possible, we had to leave.
Before leaving the place, we thanked the local people for their precious time, for taking good care of us and to let us know about them.
The teacher took a counting after bidding goodbye to the people. We left from Rohini before it become dark.
We all left with good experience from this field trip. It was good interacting with the local people of Rohini and learnt a lot of things from this trip.
The trip helped us to know about the problems the people of Rohini have to face. Otherwise we would just cross their houses, praise the serenity there and travel somewhere else.
Then, we would not know what these people go through.
Thus, this trip not only helped us with our subject but also taught us about the life of these people. This shows that knowledge beyond the classroom is also important.
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