Looking Back Detail Page

01 Apr

- Jerry Ezekiel T L

Scouting is the world's biggest organi¬zation for teen-age boys.
It was founded by the late Lord Baden Poweil in 1907 who afterwards became the World's Chief Scout. He began with a small group of boys, but within one year there were about. 60,000 Scouts. This forced him to take up the question of uniform and badges for the organization.
Ohl let me tell you Baden Powell, after studying in school joined the Army, and had, therefore, to go to many parts of the world. While in Africa he studied the ways of the jungle tribes and how they managed to protect themselves against wild animals and hostile tribes. He then came to realize that the moral and spiritual qualities that these tribes¬men developed as a result of their jungle life were essential to civilized human beings also. And this led him to start Scouting which develops the qualities of ¬resourcefulness, initiative, keenness of eye and ear, discipline service, etc. In our troop - 43rd East Bombay – we have 22 boys. We always have a lot of fun even though we work and have to learn many things. This year we have already been for four hikes and one train¬ing camp and one educational as well as recreational camp.
Our first hike this year was to the Jo¬geshwari Scout Training Camp. This was the first hike of its kind to many boys from our troop. Our second hike was to Khandala. Here we lived in St. Mary's Villa and we had the privilege of seeing the St. Xavier's Villa. The third camp was the educational as well as recreational camp to Kashmir. On the way our boys stopped at Gwalior, Agra Delhi and other historic places. The fourth was a hike to Lonavla. Our P.L. of the Horses will tell you about it. Here we saw the big Naval Training centre named after Shivaji. We also saw the big Dam of the Walvan Lake. the water of which is used for generating electricity for Bombay. Our last hike was to Poona; here we lived in the Army Camp which is about 12 miles from Poona City and which is still under construction. It was here that we had the privilege of visiting the houses of Colonels, Majors, Captain etc. of the future Indian Military Academy of Kadakvasla - a huge thing a big town in fact when ready - a small town al¬ready now, when under construction. It is always fun to go camping and hiking, because it gives us training in how to look after ourselves in jungles and hills and away from big cities. It is during hikes that we learn the real Scouting. Scouts have to pass tests in many sub¬jects which are of practical use during out-door life. Our troop meets twice a week-on Thursdays and Saturdays. At these meetings we learn many things which help us to live in camps in comfort.
During the middle of July an "Indaba" gathering of the elders of the tribe-of the scouters and scout leaders from all over the world was held at Gillwell Park in England to discuss the problems of scouting. I hope as a result of these dis¬cussions Scouting will become even more attractive than now.