The journey from Bengaluru to Vizag seemed eternal with the still not pacified andhra summer heat wave draining our body. Gulping in bottles (of what :P) one after the other, we reached Visakhapatnam just after two in the afternoon. With the contact Mr. Ravi gave us at Samata, we called up Mr.Krishna, who had to take care of our accomodation for that day. A short drive in a hired rickshaw, led to the NGO’s office in the city. The office had enough people to create a feeling that something’s ‘happening’ there. I had a shared room and my other team mates luckily got one for them.

We were given some free time to freshen ourselves, after which a teacher at Samata’s ‘Bala Mitra’ would be coming to explain us about the school. Though the interaction happened half an hour late, it was one real learning experience we guys had in quite some time.

The program Bala Mitra, as far as our knowledge is concerned is one of its kind in the whole of India where children learn not from the traditional mundane textbooks but from nature. The way these kids’ program was designed made all of us envy the environment the kids were a part of at school. The school teaches them to study rather than learn. About 40 students are currently in the school in 3 classes. Some of the first generation educated youth from the tribes are teaching at the school currently. Students from Germany, who are out on a one year social service outside their motherland are also here to teach the students at Bala Mitra’s school in the city. As not many students were at the school then, Susheela ma’am suggested us to postpone our proposed visit to the school. It was then rescheduled to the next day, which gave us the whole evening to explore Visakhapatnam.

The beach was very close and it was just a two minute walk from the place. 50 steps from the place we stayed, the Bay of Bengal running towards us was clear… I fell in love with the scenic beauty of the place instantly. Second time in the last three days, I thanked Gr for planning out this road trip. We sat along the concrete banking near the sea which looked like one proper place to tweet from :). Some random walks along the beach roads looking for some med stores and a place to eat killed the next half an hour. It was during this time, we came across the Ramakrishna Mission’s serene building near the beach road. We went in and sat inside quietly for the next ten minutes.

‘What a place it was?’

It was peaceful in its own way and the added beauty of the evening sea breeze made it just memorable.

Left the place, found a place to eat and then finally found the way back to our place while almost randomly traversing the near isolated roads of Vizag.

more to come…