Of the many trips and tours held this winter holidays, some feedback from two contrasting events are shown here. One is a report on and another by a staff member and her son to Pakistan to further the support of Route to Roots a charity that brings pupils in India and Pakistan together through letter writing and then friendship and visits. In mid December 2014, a group of boys visited the Andaman Islands as part of the Andaman Eco tour. They scuba dived to see marine life thirty feet deep looking at many species that they had learned about back at school. The trip also enabled the boys to learn more about pre independent history of India through the stories of inmates of the infamous Cellular Jail and Ross Island which presented them the Japanese attack in World War II.

The group also experienced the geographical features of mud volcano, limestone caves, the island topography, the corals and climatic conditions and so on. They also experienced the anthropological diversity that the Island presented to them in terms of the rich prehistorical tribes like Jarawas, sentinelese and onge and their lifestyle.

The trip to Pakistan was a completely different experience. As part of the Routes to Roots Augsuta saw Lahore with his own eyes post the Peshawar massacre. Augusta had a chance to spend a week living in one of the most talked about countries on earth as part of the NGO’s attempts to bring greater communication between Indian and Pakistan children.