It all began with a presentation in the auditorium. The tour operators familiarized the students with the three places that they were going to visit - Ajanta, Ellora and Daulatabad. They were advised to take notes during the tour, as they would be participating in a quiz that would be held at the end of the excursion.

At 6.00 a.m. on the 14th of April, all sections of classes 8 and 9, along with 10B, boarded the luxury buses for Aurangabad. After a thankfully uneventful trip we reached our destination late in the evening.

On 15th morning at about 8.00, Class 9, duly armed with notebooks and pens, embarked on its visit to Ajanta. These caves are located at about 104 kilometres from Aurangabad. The initial climb to the caves is steep but the students seemed all raring to go. Before we started the ascent, a guide gave the students a preliminary address on the caves. For about 1,000 years these caves lay buried in the slopes of the western mountain ranges till they were accidentally discovered in 1819 by a British soldier, John Smith.

Each class was provided with a guide and they were shown around caves 1,2,10,16,17 and 26. They moved from one painting to another overawed by their sheer artistic quality. The technique employed by the painters is at once ingenious and original. The foundations of the murals were first inlaid in a plaster of clay, cow dung and rice husk. This layer was then coated with fine lime on which designs were outlined with a brush and the colour filled in. The pigments, too, speak of originality, involving the use of natural material such as yellow earth, red ochre, powdered green rock, lamp black and copper oxide.

The central theme of the wall paintings falls into two main categories - narrative scenes from Buddha's life and illustrations of the jataka tales. Within the framework of spirituality, an entire pageant of contemporary life unfolds, depicting men and women from various walks of life and expressing a variety of emotions. The paintings on the ceiling comprise mainly geometric designs, floral and ornamental motifs, and celestial beings in flight, animals, birds and plants.

On returning to the hotel, the students relaxed for about an hour and then sat down to make a journal entry on their visit. Later, they enjoyed a game of 'housie'.

The next day we were scheduled to visit the Ellora caves and the Daulatabad fort. The Ellora caves are located at a distance of 28 km from Aurangabad. They are the products of three religious systems - Buddhism, Brahmanism and Jainism, with each system boasting of individual architecture styles. We headed straight for cave 16, known as Kailashgiri, the abode of Lord Shiva. The students felt that the temple was 'simply awesome' and I am inclined to agree with them!

The guide then took us to The Buddhist Vishkarma chaitya. It is a remarkable piece of architecture with a vaulted ceiling which one of the students very aptly compared to a dinosaur's backbone! It has a huge figure of Buddha seated under a Bodhi tree in a preacher's pose with attendants on both sides.

We now visited the Jain cave number 32, the Indra Sabha, famous for a magnificent Yakshi statue and its ceiling paintings. The caves seemed to have made a deep impression on the students for all agreed that Ellora was truly worthy of being selected as a World Heritage site.

The Daulatabad fort was the icing on the cake. Rising dramatically over 600 ft above the Deccan plain it was once known as Devgiri. It still displays many of the internal contrivances that made it invincible. A series of secret, quizzical subterranean passages lie amidst the fort. The students followed the guide, spellbound, as he led them through the MahaKot, the two-leaved entrance door right up the Mendha Tope, the ram's head cannon mounted on a bastion. Crossing the moat, which had once been chock-full with man-eating crocodiles, and walking through the bat-infested 'andheri' passage were the highlights of the day.

On returning, the students again filled in their journals and settled down for a quiz organized by the tour operators. Pranav, Parth, Parikshit and Prajay from 9B were the proud winners.

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