A journey initiated at and conducted by our ‘Rasik Bhita’ to three places of interest- the House of Sister Nivedita, Science City and Swami Vivekananda’s ancestral house was indeed a great experience for me.
Our journey started at 7 am on 6th May 2015 and our expectations and thrill mounted to the brim. It was the House of Sister Nivedita where we paid the first visit, a very beautiful house indeed. The repairing works however were in progress. Having entered there, it appeared to us as if we crossed the threshold of a historic era. The great poet Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda, had met at the tea party where we were standing.A boundless joy, to have learnt the information, enveloped the teen-aged visitors like us, igniting our curiosity.
The next place of our visit was the Science City. As we reached the Science City at about 10:00A.M. and patiently stood in a long queue, our eagerness grew more. What a wonderful experience we had there. We were introduced to a number of strange creatures in the Evolution Park now in oblivion like dinosaurs, ape- like animals, elephant like animals and a variety of birds etc. Our team got introduced to the ways of survival of the aborigines, how they collected food for existence and the making of the first fire and so on.
Space Theatre was the next place of our visit where we discovered a strange world in “Alaska- The spirit of the wild” a large format film which was being played there. We saw spectacular sceneries of strange mountains, rivers, white bears, black bears, the gigantic aquatic creatures, seals of different variety and much more. The most charming was the sun disappearing in the occidental horizon. How wonderful is the world of nature, the richest wealth,in comparison to which, even diamonds are worthless!
And after this we visited the world of oceans in the 3-D show presenting before the audience some strange aquatic animals. They were, as it were, wandering about our bodies.
Where we had gone next was a Time Machine, a very interesting thing no doubt. Riding it we were going to a world where everything was taking place at a fast pace. The screen presented before us as to where we had been going the machine was moving and operating in high speed. Many girls of our team shouted leaving us in absolute thrill.
Finally our team reached the birth-place of Swami Vivekananda, the great personality; one of the seven great “Saptarshis’.While visiting the holy place we could not even imagine our dream to be really materialized. Here we fortunately chanced to watch a video on the upbringing of the great life. We witnessed with awe his reading room where Swamiji had a vision of Lord Buddha, his meditation room, his robes and the articles he used for keeping his physique sound and fit. While visiting the place we thought this great monk was, a versatile genius.
Swamiji was our father of socio-cultural and spiritual independence. What a noble experience we had had while visiting the birth-place of Vivekananda would not haveunderstood without visiting it. He was a saviour who had cometo us as a man of flesh and blood and loved India whole heartedly and his people and became an epitome of love and mercy, an inspiration to the youth to make a new India.
If I were asked which of the three places has left the greatest mark in my mind, I would answer unhesitatingly that it was the holy-birth-place of Swamiji that enormously touched me. I must admit that I am born and brought up in a country where the great heart ennobled himself to glorify the motherland and said: you help the people living in your surroundings, offer food to the unfed, water to the thirsty and help the needy; you will have the peace in nothing but this service. We may conclude saying that we gathered noble experience in visiting the three aforesaid places.