JY 2017

Jagriti Yatra 2017 – Day 13 – Jan 5: President of India and Goonj

8 Mins read

Woke up at 6:30 AM and went to take quick bath. It was empty except for couple of people who braved to take bath in that Cold weather. Took bath and started with blogging till 8 AM, when the Breakfast was ready and served in the Platform of Delhi Safdarjung station. Yes, we reached on time today 🙂

The Delhi winter

I just wore my regular Chennai clothes and the wollen cap to cover my ears. Then went out to have Breakfast and realized it’s colder than Nalanda, but better than Deoria. After breakfast, went to my Boggie again and did 2 sets of Pushups. Then myself and Arush started with our Morning brisk walk across the Platform, visiting the Train engine and playing with some dogs in the Platform.

Very much excited about Delhi. My mind is fully loaded with AAP, Arvind Kejriwal. Atlast, I am in the National capital where a National Anti-corruption revolution IAC started, where AAP took Political power, the land where Kejriwal rules. I used to be a big AAP Proponent years back, even joined AAP Tamilnadu team for IT Support. But the move of kicking out Prashanth Bushan, Yogendra Yadav made a Skeptic out of me.

Vivek, Shashank, Me, Arush – My Cohort, 19B

Rashtrapathi Bhavan

We took the bus and reached Rashtrapathi bhavan. Wow. Mixed feelings. The feeling of seeing that Building in real, after seeing it for almost 2 decades in TV and the Grandness of it. Since we were told not to take Mobile phones with us for Security reasons, we couldnt take Pictures there. But the few people from ERC team had their Mobiles and were able to capture certain moments.

We had a Security check followed with visit to the main hall of Rashtrapathi bhavan. The grandness inside is so awesome. A big chair in the stage with so many chairs placed in the hall. 2 big Paintings on the wall

  1. One is of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, First President of India and
  2. The other is of the Father of the Nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Not exactly, but could related to the Grandness of this hall to the Throne room of Game of Thrones. From there we are taken to some other Place in bus to meet the President. But we had to wait couple of hours to meet him.

Met Anush, A CA Student from Karnataka there and obviously had a talk on Cryptos. Then roamed around.

The Majestic!

Small Aim is a Crime

Then we were all asked to form Queue to go into the hall to meet Mr. Ram Nath Govind, President of India. After rigorous checks, we all went in. Again the grandness of this hall. couldn’t be explained in words. Huge portraits of all Presidents were attached to the wall of that Grand hall. Walked around and looked at each Portrait in close up.

  1. Saw Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1977-82),
  2. Prathibha Patil (2007-12),
  3. Zakir Hussain (1967-69),
  4. Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1987-92)
  5. and stunned when I seen this specific Portrait. APJ Abdul Kalam (2002-07).

Some 2 years back, his book Vision 2020 seeded the Idea of Entrepreneurship in the mind of a dumb Volunteer in southern most part of India. And that Volunteer is standing here, in the grand hall where this legend was a President just a decade back. Thanks for the words,

Small Aim is a Crime

I evolved my aims from a City wide impacting ideas to Global ideas. It’s a very big struggle now, but we know that’s how the beginning will be. Right now, We are a seed sprouting under the dirt. Eventually we will grow above the Ground and become a Big tree, giving shadow to many.

President speech

In a while, we all were seated, The President, Mr. Ramnath Kovind, arrived and an hour passed with various things, including the President speech. But in Hindi! Oh Damn!!! The Epic moment is, we did `Yaaro Chaloo` to the President himself 🙂

Yaaron Chaloo

I am shocked how I didn’t write about Yaaro Chaloo all these days. It’s a Song composed by Jagriti Yatra team with amazing Choreograpy. We were taught the dance on Day 1 in Mumbai. Where ever we go, we thank our Role Model/Host with Yaaron Chaloo dance.

On Day 1, I found it super weird. Obviously, I dont understand a word. It’s fully in Hindi. But on Kendra Vidhyalaya, Kanyakumari, when we did Yaaron Chaloo, I felt it soul Inspiring. I was doing it will full enthu, though I didn’t understood a word of it. We were doing it daily, but never thought that we will do Yaaro Chaloo to the President. But we did it. Hell yeah 🙂

More about Yatri Geet.

Reached my tipping point

The President meet was over around 6 PM and we all moved out. The moment I stepped out the comfy of the building, I could feel the Chillness freezing my body. Holy shit. Didn’t expect this. I left my wollen head cover in the bus. Damn me. Had a very intense experience!

I started running towards the bus which is like 200m away. It’s like taking someone from Warmth of King’s Landing and dropping them North of the wall, in an instant. The memories of People warning me against my clothing style running in the mind during the run. Venkat telling me before Yatra to take Jackets to resist the cold; Arush, Shashank telling I am going to suffer; Few other facilitators giving commanding statements with the hope of saving me from the Cold. All running like a short film.

Finally got into the bus, took the head cover and wore it. Felt little better. Started shivering. Took some deep breaths and focused the mind inside. Could sense the body temperature messing up. None in the bus. So took some 5 pushups. It’s very hard to do it in that narrow space. In a little while, People started coming in and I stopped shivering. People joined in a while and we moved to Goonj.

Skipped Goonj

Time was 8:30 PM and I seriously thought we wont spend much time @ Goonj as it’s already too late. I was very keen on visiting Goonj. But given my situation of messed up body temperature and the late time, I decided to skip it and stay safe inside the bus. After everyone got down, I slept good in the Bus seat. After a while People are back and Hitesh woke me up. Time is 12:30 AM and they seemed to have a great session at Goonj. Damn me. Very bad that I missed it!

Back to Train

Took both my Blankets and covered myself to sleep. What a day!

For other day experiences, visit the Summary page.

Woke up at 6:30 AM and went to take quick bath. It was empty except for couple of people who braved to take bath in that Cold weather. Took bath and started with blogging till 8 AM, when the Breakfast was ready and served in the Platform of Delhi Safdarjung station. Yes, we reached on time today 🙂

The Delhi winter

I just wore my regular Chennai clothes and the wollen cap to cover my ears. Then went out to have Breakfast and realized it’s colder than Nalanda, but better than Deoria. After breakfast, went to my Boggie again and did 2 sets of Pushups. Then myself and Arush started with our Morning brisk walk across the Platform, visiting the Train engine and playing with some dogs in the Platform.

Very much excited about Delhi. My mind is fully loaded with AAP, Arvind Kejriwal. Atlast, I am in the National capital where a National Anti-corruption revolution IAC started, where AAP took Political power, the land where Kejriwal rules. I used to be a big AAP Proponent years back, even joined AAP Tamilnadu team for IT Support. But the move of kicking out Prashanth Bushan, Yogendra Yadav made a Skeptic out of me.

Vivek, Shashank, Me, Arush – My Cohort, 19B

Rashtrapathi Bhavan

We took the bus and reached Rashtrapathi bhavan. Wow. Mixed feelings. The feeling of seeing that Building in real, after seeing it for almost 2 decades in TV and the Grandness of it. Since we were told not to take Mobile phones with us for Security reasons, we couldnt take Pictures there. But the few people from ERC team had their Mobiles and were able to capture certain moments.

We had a Security check followed with visit to the main hall of Rashtrapathi bhavan. The grandness inside is so awesome. A big chair in the stage with so many chairs placed in the hall. 2 big Paintings on the wall

  1. One is of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, First President of India and
  2. The other is of the Father of the Nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

Not exactly, but could related to the Grandness of this hall to the Throne room of Game of Thrones. From there we are taken to some other Place in bus to meet the President. But we had to wait couple of hours to meet him.

Met Anush, A CA Student from Karnataka there and obviously had a talk on Cryptos. Then roamed around.

 
The Majestic!

Small Aim is a Crime

Then we were all asked to form Queue to go into the hall to meet Mr. Ram Nath Govind, President of India. After rigorous checks, we all went in. Again the grandness of this hall. couldn’t be explained in words. Huge portraits of all Presidents were attached to the wall of that Grand hall. Walked around and looked at each Portrait in close up.

  1. Saw Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1977-82),
  2. Prathibha Patil (2007-12),
  3. Zakir Hussain (1967-69),
  4. Ramaswamy Venkataraman (1987-92)
  5. and stunned when I seen this specific Portrait. APJ Abdul Kalam (2002-07).

Some 2 years back, his book Vision 2020 seeded the Idea of Entrepreneurship in the mind of a dumb Volunteer in southern most part of India. And that Volunteer is standing here, in the grand hall where this legend was a President just a decade back. Thanks for the words,

Small Aim is a Crime

I evolved my aims from a City wide impacting ideas to Global ideas. It’s a very big struggle now, but we know that’s how the beginning will be. Right now, We are a seed sprouting under the dirt. Eventually we will grow above the Ground and become a Big tree, giving shadow to many.

President speech

In a while, we all were seated, The President, Mr. Ramnath Kovind, arrived and an hour passed with various things, including the President speech. But in Hindi! Oh Damn!!! The Epic moment is, we did `Yaaro Chaloo` to the President himself 🙂

Yaaron Chaloo

I am shocked how I didn’t write about Yaaro Chaloo all these days. It’s a Song composed by Jagriti Yatra team with amazing Choreograpy. We were taught the dance on Day 1 in Mumbai. Where ever we go, we thank our Role Model/Host with Yaaron Chaloo dance.

On Day 1, I found it super weird. Obviously, I dont understand a word. It’s fully in Hindi. But on Kendra Vidhyalaya, Kanyakumari, when we did Yaaron Chaloo, I felt it soul Inspiring. I was doing it will full enthu, though I didn’t understood a word of it. We were doing it daily, but never thought that we will do Yaaro Chaloo to the President. But we did it. Hell yeah 🙂

More about Yatri Geet.

Reached my tipping point

The President meet was over around 6 PM and we all moved out. The moment I stepped out the comfy of the building, I could feel the Chillness freezing my body. Holy shit. Didn’t expect this. I left my wollen head cover in the bus. Damn me. Had a very intense experience!

I started running towards the bus which is like 200m away. It’s like taking someone from Warmth of King’s Landing and dropping them North of the wall, in an instant. The memories of People warning me against my clothing style running in the mind during the run. Venkat telling me before Yatra to take Jackets to resist the cold; Arush, Shashank telling I am going to suffer; Few other facilitators giving commanding statements with the hope of saving me from the Cold. All running like a short film.

Finally got into the bus, took the head cover and wore it. Felt little better. Started shivering. Took some deep breaths and focused the mind inside. Could sense the body temperature messing up. None in the bus. So took some 5 pushups. It’s very hard to do it in that narrow space. In a little while, People started coming in and I stopped shivering. People joined in a while and we moved to Goonj.

Skipped Goonj

Time was 8:30 PM and I seriously thought we wont spend much time @ Goonj as it’s already too late. I was very keen on visiting Goonj. But given my situation of messed up body temperature and the late time, I decided to skip it and stay safe inside the bus. After everyone got down, I slept good in the Bus seat. After a while People are back and Hitesh woke me up. Time is 12:30 AM and they seemed to have a great session at Goonj. Damn me. Very bad that I missed it!

Back to Train

Took both my Blankets and covered myself to sleep. What a day!

For other day experiences, visit the Summary page.

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