When my parents told me that we were going to tour England in my summer holidays, I couldn’t control my happiness because my dream to go to Cambridge was going to come true — the world’s best university with many geniuses and Nobel Laureates.
While Cambridge can be accessed by road, the fastest and easiest way to reach Cambridge is by train. It’s an hour from London (tickets cost £36.70). Gaze at the beautiful meadows as you spot students huddled in their books.
The University: The University of Cambridge consists of 31 colleges where over 18,000 students are taught by over 9,000 teaching staff. By the time we were in the university, a short drizzle had started. The first thing we saw was a strange clock with a grasshopper on top. We were lucky as the walking tour guide had just stopped, so we learnt that the clock is accurate only once every five minutes. The rest of the time, the pendulum may seem to catch or stop, and the lights may lag or race. The clock’s face was made of 24 carat gold!
The guide, Charlie, told us many interesting stories — about night climbers, a group of students who played pranks and one of their notorious tricks was putting a traffic cone on top of the highest tower in Cambridge, which is one of the four towers of the Kings Collage.
The authorities were horrified, of course! Charlie also told us about some strange questions posed by the faculty while interviewing potential students — One of them gave a brick to an interviewee and asked him to throw it out of the window. If you tried throwing it, you were disqualified. If you refused to throw it, you were disqualified as well!
The correct way to answer the question was to take the brick, go to the window, open it and calmly throw it out! Lateral thinking is highly appreciated. We also learnt that while Oxford had 52 Nobel Laureates, Cambridge had a massive 92 winners of the Nobel Prize!
We went past the Cam river. After the two-hour walking tour, we went punting. It took us all around the university. The entrance of King’s College was the last part of the tour and the most important. There was an apple tree near the gate, and in the corner of the building was Isaac Newton’s office at Cambridge. Charlie said that whenever Newton got bored, he would come out of that window and sit under the apple tree. The tree was planted in the memory of Isaac Newton.
— Devavrath is a ninth standard student at BGS National Public School
