A New Experience and a New 'Bonnya'

Bonnya Soren, a Gold Award participant from Sri Sarada Math, Baladbandh, got an opportunity to explore the world outside her village for the first time during her Adventurous Journey. Here, she shares her astonishing experience with us.

I belong to a remote village in Hooghly District, West Bengal. I have never travelled anywhere outside my village before. When I came to know that I was chosen to be a part of Tumling trek as a Gold Award Participant, I was overjoyed. It was a great day for me. I was waiting for 8th June to come. Seventeen Award participants from Sri Sarada Math-Rasik Bhita and two from Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata, participated in the trek to Tumling, which was held from 8th June to 14h June 2016.

Sitting on the Dibrugarh Express, I was very excited as this was my first opportunity to see the Himalayan Ranges from close proximity. Getting down at New Jalpaigudi was a new experience altogether. We could feel the presence of the Himalayas around us. From there, we went by bus to Manebhanjan, which is a small mountain township on the border of India and Nepal, at an altitude of 7,054 ft.

At Manebhanjan our real adventure started. We had to trek a distance of approx 11 km. to reach to Tumling, a small hamlet in Nepal from where we could see the beautiful Kanchenjunga ranges. After reaching Tumling, we had our lunch and in the afternoon went walking to Tunglu Top to get acclimatized to the high altitude. That day we stayed at Tumling and the next day we started our journey towards Jaubari. We also visited Singhalila National Park on the way to Jaubari, a long village with open meadows and houses lined on either side. There we also observed mother nature so closely and faced challenges that we had never imagined and experienced before. We got ample opportunity to interact with the local village people and got to know about their cultural heritage along with the study of flora and fauna of the region for our Exploration Journey.

We reached back on 14th June early morning by Uttarbanga Express. All I can say is: a new ‘Bonnya’ came back from this trek, one who is much closer to nature and much closer to herself and her people. Click here for pictures...