3. A Trip to Bhopal

Today Sugandha is very excited. All the children of her school are going on a trip to Bhopal with their teachers.

Ms. Meenakshi and Mr. Rakesh are talking about the number of buses needed.

Ms. Meenakshi — We will need 4 buses.

Mr. Rakesh — I think we need at least 5.

Ms. Meenakshi — Each bus has 50 seats.

Mr. Rakesh — Let us see how many children are going.

Class	Number of children
I	33
II	32
III	42
IV	50
V	53
	Total _____

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Waiting for the Buses

Sahiba jumps out of the line to see if the buses are coming. She shouts loudly - Hey! I can see them. Run! Grab the window seats. Many children start jumping in excitement. But _____

Now there is an argument.

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The Journey Begins

As the buses start moving from Hoshangabad, children sing at the top of their voices. Some look outside to enjoy the view of the green fields and the hills.

Indra - When will we reach Bhopal?

Ms. Asha - If we don't stop anywhere, we should reach there in 2 hours, that is around_______________ o' clock.

Manjeet - Is it very far?

Mr. Bhimsen - It is about 70 km.

Ruby - Are we going to stop anywhere?

Mr. Rakesh - May be at Bhimbetka, about 50 km from here.

• If they go to Bhimbetka, they will reach there
  
  - Before 10 o’ Clock
  - Between 10 o’ clock and 11 o’ clock
  - After 11 o’ clock

As they are talking, Bahadur shouts — Hey! look at the Narmada. Everyone looks out of the windows.

Ruby - Wow! it is soooo long and so wide!

Let us guess how wide it is.

Gopi - Uhm---m, 100 metres? No, it is much more, Can't say.

Victoria - It must be more than half a kilometre.

Ms. Asha - Look, it is written - 'This bridge is 756.82 metres long'. So we can guess that the Narmada must be about 500 metres wide at this place.

Sadaf - I just can't imagine 500 metres.

Ms. Asha - See, our bus is about 5 metres long. Imagine how many buses can stand in a line on this bridge.

Everyone looks down at the river.

Mr. Rakesh - The water level now is quite low. It must be about 40 metres below the bridge.

Ms. Asha - But in the rainy season, the water had risen. Then it was just about 15 metres below the bridge.

The children discuss about the river for some time _____

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Suddenly, the bus stops with a jerk.

Oh! The petrol pump. Two buses need to be refilled.

The buses stand in a line. Children are sticking their necks out to see how diesel is filled in the bus. Some children have got down to look more closely.

Hey it has such a big tummy! It has already taken 100 litres.

So we have to pay 3500 Rupees for the diesel!

As the buses are being refilled, some children go to the toilet near the petrol pump.

Aman has taken as much time to empty himself as one bus is taking to refill!

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To Bhimbetka

After the buses are refilled, the journey starts again. Now the children are told that they are stopping at Bhimbetka.

Anjan - What is Bhimbetka?

Ms. Raina - It's a place with lots of caves and cave-paintings made by people ten thousand years ago.

Sumonto - Tentho _ uu _ saa _ nd years! I cannot even think of one thousand years back!

Gopi - Oh! one thousand years is a big thing, I can't even think of one hundred years.

Gauri - I can think of 100 years because my father's grandmother is 100 years old.

Manjeet - That means those caves are almost hundred great grandmothers old!!

Everybody bursts into laughter - Ha! Ha! Ha!

Now the children are really excited to see the cave-paintings. It is about 11 o' clock when they reach Bhimbetka.

Wow! Even 10000 years ago, people made such lovely paintings, that too on rocks!

Oh! These rocks are thousands of years old!

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Shankar - This painting also has very big bisons. Hey, I got an idea. I will count the bisons and you count the deer in the paintings.

Bonomala - I will count people. Let us see which are the most - bisons, deer or people.

34, 35, 36, 37... I got 37 bisons.

... 112, 113, 114 ... I got 117 deer! Yeh!

But Bonomala is the happiest because the number of people is even more than the number of deer and bisons together. Her count is less than 200.

214 / 154 / 134 / 177

The guide tells them that there are 600 cave-paintings in all. It is time to leave Bhimbetka.

They are now moving towords Bhopal, Thet should reach there in less than, at about _____ o’ clock.

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Lunch Time

The children are hungry by this time so they take out their lunch- packs. Biscuits, oranges and bananas are also distributed in all the buses.

Each child is to be given 1 orange, 1 banana and 5 biscuits.

All the children take oranges and biscuits but 38 children do not take bananas.

Manjeet and Bhanu quickly finish their lunch and start asking puzzles to pass the time.

Manjeet - Tell me the number which is exactly between 100 and 150.

Bhanu - 120 ... no, 130 ... no it is 125.

Manjeet — Right. OK! You ask now.

Other children join in. Everyone is asking puzzling questions.

Can you solve these? Try them out.

Which Boat do We Take?

They are so lost in puzzles that they do not notice they have reached the lake in Bhopal. It is a very big lake with a small island in it.

The lake looks very beautiful at this time. There are a lot of ducks making a loud noise. Some children give them popcorn.

Now comes the exciting part! It is time to go for boating. They have to choose which boat to take. But that is not easy.

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There are different kinds of boats. Each has a different ticket price, and also different trip times.

	Name of the Boat	Ticket – price	Trip - time
1.	Double- decker	₹ 30	45 minutes
2.	Paddle- boat	₹ 15	30 minutes
3.	Motor- boat	₹ 25	20 minutes
4.	Boat with oars	₹ 15	45 minutes

Four of us will take a paddle boat and race with Gauri and her group.

We will take the motor-boat, it is costly but fun-Zooo _____ m!

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Let us take the oar – boat. It not costly and we get more time for a peaceful ride.

Hey! We are going on the double – decker, It also has music, It costs a lot but we get more time.

Time to Return

Children enjoy different boat rides till 4 o'clock. It is time to return. Now they will not stop anywhere and reach back in two hours.

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