It struck me last evening that the other day when I walked to the bazaar, that was probably the first time in my life I had walked there alone. My visits here since school days were with either George or Tom. During school days, as young females, we were NEVER permitted to go anywhere alone. We always had to go in groups and until our senior year, with a teacher as chaperone. It was so liberating our senior year when we could go to the 'buz' in groups of two or three with no chaperone.
I was wandering around the school property after dinner last night & trying out various paths and nooks and crannies .. and found myself hesitant to go certain places. Then I remembered that in the youngest grades there were certain areas that were very strictly OUT OF BOUNDS and one could get into great trouble if one went into forbidden areas.
The freedom to move about is in some ways much the same but in most ways quite different. This is the one of the few places in India that one can go about an obviously non-Indian and not attract attention. This was still the case when I went into the bazaar the other day. However, security measures are vary prominent throughout the school grounds. At the Woodstock gate is a guard house with uniformed guard .. and another on the back side behind the kitchens. There is high fencing right below ZigZag path and above the Media Center and Parker Hall area, as well as at the bottom of the stairs going from the Quad towards the lower dorms. The gate there has been locked during the holidays. On the hillside there are markers denoting the edges of Woodstock property .. here is a photo of one near Edgehill.
There is also so much more traffic on Tehri Road. It seems some sort of election is coming up, and in the late afternoons and on weekends cars with loud speakers blaring go tearing around the curves. This all makes it less inviting to walk that way. [FYO the traffic is autos and jeeps, motor cycles & scooters, small buses and trucks, and still the occasional mule or donkey as freight carrier.]
I was wandering around the school property after dinner last night & trying out various paths and nooks and crannies .. and found myself hesitant to go certain places. Then I remembered that in the youngest grades there were certain areas that were very strictly OUT OF BOUNDS and one could get into great trouble if one went into forbidden areas.
There is also so much more traffic on Tehri Road. It seems some sort of election is coming up, and in the late afternoons and on weekends cars with loud speakers blaring go tearing around the curves. This all makes it less inviting to walk that way. [FYO the traffic is autos and jeeps, motor cycles & scooters, small buses and trucks, and still the occasional mule or donkey as freight carrier.]
