Trip to Ajanta-Ellora

On 24th of November, the students of IBDP visited Ajanta and Ellora in Maharashtra. We all gathered at Secunderabad station at 5 o’clock and travelled almost 13 hours in the train, playing cards, talking to each other and even shivering while sleeping.

Next morning, we reached Aurangabad station. After breakfast at the resort, we headed towards a village called Ginar Thanda where most of the people had isolated and traditional style of life. After trekking around the beautiful water lake, we visited the Zilla Parishad government school where they encourage all the children of village people to be educated for a better life. We all had spent time with them, singing together and playing games. However, it was sad to know that this school is facing a lot of challenges from absenteeism and lack of fund. With the promise of return, we visited a Farm house, where we could taste the typical Maharashtra  meal. Since all the ingredients used for the meal were cultivated in natural way, it tasted amazing. After healthy lunch, we visited the school for destitute children, however, it was unfortunate that all the students were left for their holidays and didn’t return to school. The last activity of the first day was Dance party that teachers prepared for us as a surprise. We all enjoyed dancing together.

On the second day, with an excited mind of exploring, we headed towards Ajanta where magnificent caves that were hidden for 1000 years were waiting for us. Although the travel in the bus was quite long, however, when we reached the caves, we were breathless not only because of the steps that we had to climb but also because of the great shape and historical gist of the Ajanta caves. Whenever we entered into different caves, we learned and explored a lot of things about ancient Buddhist culture and ancient art forms that told us a lot of stories in 1500 years ago. When we found the handwriting of John Smith who discovered these caves on the wall, we could feel the history of these caves. Next, we visited BiBi Ka Macbara, which is the replica of Taj Mahal and which Aurangzeb’s son built for his mother. Although it was not the real Taj Mahal, however, we could learn more about Aurangzeb as a person and his stories. After we came back to our resort, since it was Min and Akshat’s birthday, we had a surprise birthday party.

On the last day, we checked out from the resort and headed towards Ellora which is known as one of the most historical cities in India along with Ajanta. First we visited Daulathabad fort, which showed us how the defensive system worked in past. The way the people in that era thought of their defensive system was truly intelligent and shocking. Next, we visited the Shiva temple - personally, it was a good experience for me to understand the Hindu culture and their rituals. Then, we went to Hiranya resort where we had lunch and enjoyed river crossing and paintball that we had always longed for.For the dinner, we arrived at Manor hotel. The dinner at this hotel was yummy: especially the pineapple lassi that everyone liked.After one hour of waiting due to the delay, we started our way back to Hyderabad. In the train, we celebrated Shruti’s birthday and next morning, we reached Hyderabad and our unforgettable journey was finally over.

Through this trip to Ajanta and Ellora, we got to learn a lot of things about Indian history, especially about the era of Aurangzeb, and the art forms that the people in that era created and practiced.

Lucy

IB DP