On 11th April at around 12 p.m we gathered at the scout and guide headquarters guwahati to welcome our honourable sir Srinath Tirumale Venugopal, a former regional director of the world scout bureau Eurasia who came to assam all the way from Italy to visit us. He was received by Chandan sir accompanied by a few guides at the airport. We all greeted him after his arrival with salutes and offered him seats with some refreshments and introduced ourselves. We soon began with our program with a welcome song we practiced and sang with joy. Then, our guide captain madam Anima gave a brief outlook of our chief guest.

Sir also introduced himself and talked about his family background and how he started scouting. He said “scouting always pulled me back even though I was away from it for six months”. He shared his inspiring stories and the countries he visited which were more than a hundred. His words reminded us the actual mission,moto and aim of scouting which we all must feel as young scouts and guides. He also sparked nationalistic feelings in his speech even though he lived in foreign countries for years. I was then asked to give the Vote of Thanks to our respected sir which was a real privilege for me and that completed our last program on our list. After the entire program we were asked to have a few talks with him thereby asking questions.

We started by asking about his experiences in conflicted countries such as Ukraine where war is still going on with full swing. He said “I was very worried after the war started suddenly. Somehow I was here in Bengaluru with my daughter and wife and all our belongings were there. My daughter’s toys and my clothes were all in our house. My office members had to offer clothes to us as the climate of Ukraine and India are totally different. Therefore it was a bit difficult.”