Report on Motivational Tour to OTA, Chennai
In overall development of student’s motivational tours plays a vital role. In regard to this the school authorities organised a motivational tour to Officers Training Academy(OTA), Chennai. And also planned to cover some informative places nearby Chennai so that we can utilise the opportunity in a fruitful way by gaining first hand experience at science museums and cherish the curiosity about the rich Indian heritage.
With a lot of excitations to explore new places and especially one of the India’s pride places that is OTA. We started our journey from school at midnight 0100 hr on 1st of September with 114 cadets being escorted by five staff members. After reaching Chennai at 1500 hr, we visited the Central Library which is one of the oldest and largest libraries in India with vast collection of books which covers knowledge of universe. As it was under renovation we could only peep through the windows and returned to the place of accommodation.
Next day morning we started our journey to Mahabalipuram, the UNESCO World Heritage Site which is known as the land of sculptures located 55km away from Chennai city, sometimes the journey will be more pleasurable than the destination but this time both journey and the destination were pleasurable thing because the road from Chennai city to Mahabalipuram was adjacent to seashore which added to a very amazing experience. The sculptures carved in single stone, temples carved at the top of the hill were astonishing and amazing about made us to think about the engineering skills of ancient times. Some of the important places we visited at Mahabalipuram are Pancha Rathas(Five Chariots) which is carved out from a single stone, a Mantapam, carved on top of a hill and sea shore temples. And the important point to note that vicinity of the temples was maintained well and cleanliness was ensured. We also got an opportunity to visit a light house and enjoyed the aerial view of the land of sculptures.
On the way to Chennai we visited Madras Crocodile bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology which is run by a private organisation. Almost 15 species of crocodile and some of the rare snakes imported from south America(Green anaconda) etc… also they kept for exhibition which was a wonderful experience to sea such a deadly alligators closer and real and to get to know about them.
Early morning in the next day was the important and major event of our tour was there that is Passing Out Parade(POP) at OTA, we all organised at OTA Parade ground by 5:30am the parade starts at 6am and ended after almost 2hours, the whole duration of POP was organised, well planned and draw our attention completely. The whole event was exciting and motivated our cadets to the peak and we are thankful for the authorities who gave us opportunity to witness a pride moment of an Indian.
After leaving the OTA we directly went to one of the oldest museums in India located at heart of the city, which is constructed in Indo-Saracenic style and consist a variety of artefacts and objects covering field’s including archaeology, numismatics, zoology, natural history sculptures, palm-leaf manuscripts and Amaravati paintings. The museum was a boon to a history lover who can get almost all information of our history in one place. After that we visited Anna Square which is the memorial of Great actor former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran, but unfortunately the memorial was undergoing renovation so we did spend some time nearby places by roaming and return back to central railway station. And finally we reached our school next day morning with lot of memories and new josh motivated by POP.
Thank You.
