My First Adventure with Life

Sourab Arora, one of my colleagues was explaining as to how their raft toppled down at the rapid “The Wall”, in river Ganga when he along with his college friend went for the first time for white water rafting. And how each one of on the raft was in the water, and raft upside down over them, and how the guide stood on the back of the raft, pulled the lifeline, put the boat right and pulled back all the rafters back on to the raft. He also told as to how some of them had been washed away from the boat and the guide had to through rope, etc. to pull them back. I turned back and said “ Dude(Read: Maharshi Mirdha or Dada) lets do it”. Sourab said he shall get the details about the booking and everything. He was quick enough to get back to us with number of people that must go as a team and that they should be 9 and it will cost around Rs. 450 per head. And then I roped in my entire merchandising team to join this new adventurous expedition of mine. I managed to convince our boss Atul and Mamta supposedly the most hydrophobic members of the team. Although each one of us was excited and scared about the whole expeditions, these two were honest enough to express it.

Sunday, 30^th May, 2009 was decided to be the “The Day”. I package deal was worked out wherein we shall reach Shivpuri a beautiful village on the banks of river Ganga surrounded by Shivalike Ranges of Himalaya, on Saturday, camp at the Jungle in the beach of Ganges, explore the natural beauty through a night tracking, bone fire, morning tracking and then the grand finale “White Water Rafting”. However, it would unjust to talk about the expedition without a little back drop.

Hindu mythology says and is believed that King Bhagirath brought Goddess Ganga (The Ganges) on to the earth at Gangotri. Gangotri is at the footsteps of worlds one of the biggest glacier Gomukh. Gangotri is 3048 mts high above sea level and is one of the four tallest peaks in Uttarkhand and is also very popular amongst Hindu’s for being one of the Char Dhams of North. Here, the river is called Bhagirathi. Another peak, Badrinath Dham is 3096 mts high above sea level, considered to be the house of Lord Vishnu and the place of emergence of river Alaknanda, is an adjust peak to Gangotri. Kedarnath the 3^rd peak at 3584 mts above sea level is the place of residence of Lord Shiva and the place of emergence of river Mandakini. River Mandakin meets river Alaknanda at Rudraprayag and then Alaknanda meets Bhagirathi at Devpryag to form the Great Ganga. River then comes to Shivpuri, Laxman Jhoola, Ram Jhoola, Rishikesh & then finally Haridwar, the last Himalayan Valley town, after which river Ganga gets down from the ranges and continues to flow through plains. Haridwar (Gate to God) as the name suggest is India’s one of the most holiest place and is one of the four places where the great Kumbha Mela (Kumbha Fair) is held once in 12 Years. River Gang then flows through Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bangal Desh and finally into Bay of Bengal. On the way it is joined at Allahbad by river Yamuna, originating from Yamnotri the 4^th Dham at 3185 ft above the sea level.

On saturday , 29^th May, 2009, Tarun started picking us all, Mamta from Rajouri Garden, Me from Lajpat Nagar and then Maharsi, Shalu, Karan, Rupal & Bhuvan from our office at Badarpur. Atul had left a day before to visit manufacturing units in and around Haridwar,of some of our contract manufacturer. We were suppose to take the Meerut – Mujaffarpur-Haridwar rout but instead our smart but arrogant driver took us through a short cut on the banks of a canal, which took us directly to Khatauli on the Haridwar highway. However, it was a wonderful stretch, with all of us getting acclimatized to the water flow and a drive along the country side of west UP, one of the most agriculturally progressive areas in the country. This part of the UP adjoins the state of Uttarkhand and is remarkably different interms of landscape, lush green agricultural belt, decency in language and attitude, somewhat respect towards law and order in all a developing area as compared to rest of UP.

The moment we came on the highway, the driver and I insist the driver stopped at a government sponsored and I again insist government sponsored restaurant called Cheetal. And when we settled down and decided to order something, the waiter raised his hand from a distance and shouted that he was already busy and will not be able to serve us at this point of time. Everyone around us on different tables started staring at us as if we were one of those regular freebee seeking customers, which this guy is trying to avoid during the peak hours. Embarrassed??? Angry????? Ofcourse yes. I wanted to make that guy sit on one chair and give a full lecture of 2 hours about customer service and customer service, but he was not even ready to look at us. We all left that place, and I did try to pacify my customer ego by scolding the manager by asking him to put a board outside “We are Full (Read Fool)”. After some refreshment we left towards our next destination Rishikesh, to Saurabh’s house. Enroute Saurabh gave a bad news that it has been raining heavily in Rishikesh since last night and if that continues, it might hamper our chances of rafting. Actually, this is the end of season for rafting, due to mansoon, water levels in Ganga rises and all the water sports are stopped between the month of Jun – August for safty reasons. Infact, initially we were suppose to raft from Marine Drive to Laxman Jhoola a stretch of more than 20 KM (4 hrs), and due to heavy rainfalls it was cut to 12 KM (2:30 hrs) from Shivpuri to Laxman Jhoola. We reached Saurabh’s house in Rishikesh, met his parents, brother, sister-in-law and the new born nephew “Shaurya”.

Our itinerary for such that we would not have got time to see the Evening Aarti at Har – Ki –Paudi, Haridwar, an another marvelous sight to watch. So we decided that we will go to Ram Jhoola, only to realize that after 5 in the evening no vehicles are allowed inside the city but have to take a bypass to Laxman Jhoola. At Laxman Jhoola when contacted, our organizer told that, the last night rain fall has washed away our camping sight at Shivpuri and it is now shifted to Garud Chetti. But rafting would still start from Shivpuri. He then took us to the camping sight which around 1KM inside the road to Nilkanth. There were around 5 tents camped at a height of 15ft from one of the small tributary of Ganga which joined Ganga right in the front of out camping sight forming “The Golf Course – Rapid” which was going to become the most exciting and scary sight the next day. There was a small village, housing 3-4 families adjacent to the camping sight. We were served with tasty pakodas and coke to get refreshed. We were told that we will be taken for a tracking of around 2.5 km after we are done with our refreshment. But as soon as we finished our refreshment our organizer Mukesh told at 6.30pm it would be little unsafe to do a deep jungle tracking fearing that the same path at times is also taken by some wild animals like Reich etc. For some of us it was even more exciting and we continued emphasizing that we wanted to do it right away instead of the proposed next morning. But then we dropped the idea for the larger good. However, he did take us little more deep into the jungle, on a beach on the banks of Ganga. I was so eager to jump in the water that, without testing the waters I stepped in and jumped out. It was FREEZING COLD. The chilling water, the speed water flow and loosing sand did not let one stand in the water for a longer period of time. We all then spend some time with the nature, did some artwork in the sand, took some pictures and only after it turned dark we decided to move back to the camping sight.

On our arrival the sight was ready for the borne fire and another round of snacks and drinks. Bhuvan and Dada were smart enough to carry the Royal Stag to take full advantage of the Jungle Safari. We were served with tasty dal, matur paneer and looovely chiken curry……yummmmiiiiiiii. Since last year, when I started eating non-veg, I have been looking for this kind of thin gravy chiken and I hogged it to glory. We sang songs, pulled each other legs our things, shared some amazing experiences of our lives and so on.Mamta, Rupal, Dada, Shalu decided to go to bed and rest of us continued to enjoy a soothing heat of the bone fire on one side and chilling breeze on the other side. After 11 in the night, vehicular traffic is not allowed through the valley, the born fire and the kerosene lamp did there bit of providing enough light for us to see each other’s faces. The sky was completely clean, we could also trace the “Saptrishi”, however it was too early to locate the Dhruv Tara (Polar Star). We decided to sit till we burnt entire woods brought in for the fire. With falling sounds made by vehicles & human, the sound of flowing water kept on increasing, giving us feel that may be water level was rising. At around 2 in the night, we decided to sleep. After some of the NCC camps nearly 7 years back, this was the first time that I got to sleep inside tent. For some of us it was the first experience. It took some time for me to fall off to sleep. Bhuvan from the adjacent tent, kept making some noises to scare us.

Didn’t even realize when it was 4.45 am and it was already dawn. It was still time for all of us to get up to start the tracking. But I decided to step out of the tent. I had never seen a morning beautiful than this. River Ganga continued flowing with the same speed and vigor and the sound of water continued with the same intensity. One could here birds chirping around whereas Cricket kept trying to tell us that it was still some time for the day to arrive. I freshened up myself. The good part was, since these are some of the regular camping sights, the organizers had made permanent toilets and one did not have to go the Jungle way. After I returned back, I started waking each one of my team for them to get ready for the tracking. My whole intention was that we should not get late for the main event of rafting. After our morning team and freshening up we started the track. We carried towels along with us, as we were told that the ultimate destination is going to be a fresh water spring. We started the jungle walk and I realized, infact all of us, that we were physical very unfit. Half the distance and all of us kept asking, how far is it? How much more? Will there be any energy left for rafting? And through the tough, slippery, dusty and scary terrain, there appeared a beautiful spring falling from around 25ft. I could not resist removed my shirt and jumped under it, IT WAS COLD…….da..da…da…da (read: shivering sound). After such a tiring track, this was like heaven. One by one everyone came in and reenergized themselves. It was so soothing that all those who were reluctant and scared from water from the time we decided this trip, were not ready to come out now. We had to literally force them out. We then walked down, it did not take much time, actually we walked faster too, and we were damn hungry also.

On our arrival back to the camp we were served with bread toast, butter, jam, scrambled eggs, porridge and Garama……Garam…Chai (Tea). We had to reach back to Laxman Jhoola from where we were to be taken to the starting point of rafting at Shivpuri. Atul was supposed to meet us here at 10. After a stomach full breakfast we packed our bags took bid good bye to the people at the camp. Just before we boarded the jeep back to laxman jhoola, everyone started running towards Ganga to see a raft about to pass through the rapid “The Golf Course”, but everyone’s dismay they anchored themselves on the shore, probably they were still not ready for the rapid. We all then hopped in the jeep to Laxman Jhoola. We had to cross the jhoola, go to other side, where a Tata Seara, converted to sporty look was waiting for with our raft deflated and folded in it and all our gears, viz. Rowing Paddle, Life Jacket & Helmet. on board. Some of us sat inside the jeep, while most of us decided to stand in the open trunk. We put our luggage at the organizers office and left for Shivpuri. Atul got delayed, but we had coordinated that someone will drop him at the sight on motor bike. Through the ghats, dusts, narrow roads and traffic our driver speeded towards Shivpuri. On our way we saw a bad accident of a bike skidding on the road. This guy was riding with 4 people on one bike, something like this was bound to happen in that tough terrain, but it sent a worry in all of us, as Atul was also going to come to Shivpuri on bike. We prayed for good, and continued enjoying our bumpy and swinging ride to rafting sight.

Although we were at the river Ganga and in the valleys of lush green Himalays, the screeching heat continued to make a point that we (humans) were doing everything to imbalance the environment and it is only a matter of time that Gomukh would have completely melted and Ganga may dry one day. Anyways, we all refreshed ourselves and meanwhile Atul also finally joined us. We then helped the guide and the rafting team in filling air in our boat and settling it in the waters. It was then a time for a crash course on rafting. The briefing began with;

1. The Raft: Raft in all has 9 compartments. 4 forming the outer ellipse of the boat, 1 forming the base and 4 detachable air filled cylinders forming partitions in the boat. We were told that the boat was compartmentalized keeping in view that if any one compartment looses air, the entire boat wouldn’t collapse and guide will have enough time to take it to shore. And the rafters were suppose to sit on the edge of the raft and not inside it.
2. The Paddles (Chappu): The paddle was our tool to row into the waters and had 3 parts, a T joint, handle and the blade. Blade is the wide portion at the bottom which is in the water and helps in rowing the boat. We were told, at no cost one should lose hold of the paddle, because if fallen out of boat this will be of great help for you to save yourself from hitting the rocks through the rapids.
3. The Helmet protecting the head
4. The Life Jacket: One of the most amazing gears, the life jacket can take upto 150kgs (certainly me), for about 70-75 Hrs and if anyone fell in the waters, this was the only thing that would save one and he very casually said, the rafting lasts for 2.30 hrs, so don’t worry.
5. Life Line: A rope that runs through the edge of the boat which is suppose to be the only support to hold while you are sitting on the raft. And if you fall off the raft, one has to make sure he/she does not lose his hands off it or else the rapid will flow you away from the boat
6. The Rope: If off the boat you loose the life line, the guide will throw this rope towards and try to pull you close to the boat and then you are suppose to hold the life line till you are pulled back.
7. Sitting Position: The front rafters ( I was one of them) are suppose to use there heal to lock themselves under the partition. This is the most difficult posture because, the heal doesn’t get fit. Since, rest of the rafts sits behind the partitions, they can slip in there toes under the partitions and can have a better grip.
8. Rowing Instructions: Forward: Everyone row forward, Backward: Everyone row backward, Stop: Ofcourse stop rowing, Left Forward/Backward: Only left forward/Backward, Right Forward/Backward: Only right forward/Backward, All In: If the guide feels, the boat is going to topple down or someone might fell off, this instruction will be given and everyone should sit inside the boat
9. When in water: If by Gods grace you fell off the boat, do not panic, the life jacket wont let you drown, try to hold the life line. For the people sitting on boat, only the guy who is sitting close to the one in the water is authorized to pull the person on to boat, even the guide himself will not leave his place. The one in water should be pulled only by holding the jacket and not by any other part of the body.
10. Dry Bag: Like the black box on the airplanes, this bag was always attached to the boat and can carry valuables and other things without wetting them under any conditions.

Everyone keenly listened to the instruction, no one asked for repetition of any instruction. And then it was time for us to begin. We all sat in the boat, Raju was our guide. Raju told us that we were going to face in total 7 rapids, of which 3 were of level 4 and rest were of level 2 & 3. He made us practice a little bit and in the somewhat still water and then with a loud cheer “Ganga Maiya Ki…..Jaiiii………” he guided us through the streams. Just within next 30 mts we were to hit supposedly the most strongest rapid called the Roller Coaster, locals called them “Kal Ho Na Ho”. The guide told us, how much ever you want to shout, do that, but not while sailing through rapid, one should concentrate on the instructions and follow them with at most discipline. He roared “ Every one forward, hold tight”, we rushed and gushed through the rapid and a big wave spilled huge lots of water and drenched all of us……the ad reline rush was short lived and everything was normal. Infact, some of started saying, oh! The boat did not topple down, This is it, This is not dangerous, phew! Not great!!!........And then the guide asked, who wants to get in the water and most of us raised our hands. But he allowed only 2 of us to get in the water, saying he would give more opportunities to get into the waters. We pulled back those to back on the boat and it was time for the second rapid.

The second rapid pushed us very close to the rocks on the banks of the river and then pushed us back to the centre. We passed through this one as well. We were now completely drenched and by now from being scared we were getting confident about the rafting. Maharshi & me, the front and supposedly one of the important rafters had picked up the art of rafting. The hand at the T –Joint of the paddle should be straight at elbow, bend forward and pull it back, that’s the right way of rowing. By now we had rowed around 5 KM and we were trying to show Atul, the place were we had camped the previous night. And immediately came the Golf Course rapid, the locals also called it Gajni, because they said it hit from both the sides. And it certainly lived upto its expectations. The Guided took us little around and from into the streams of one of the tubutory. The Rafts usually do not sail straight, they drift little side wise and mine was the side hitting the water first, 10 seconds into the rapid we were already at the highest level of our excitement when a strong wave hit our boat and tossed the boat upwards, the impact was so strong that I lost my heal lock, may be I had become little over confident. Before I could set myself back, there came another rapid and hit the bas of the raft, I lost my complete balance. This wave took the nose of the boat down with its trough and there came the 3^rd rapid, the height of the wave was so high and strong, it washed me away from the boat. What I remember after this was, I was in the water making every effort to breath, but the moment I opened my mouth, water rushed in, the moment I tried to breath it through nose, water rushed in. I don’t know how, but I managed to hold on to the life line of the boat and the paddle. When I opened my eyes, I saw Atul, who was just sitting behind me, his eyes were wide open, then I looked at other on the boat, everyone gave me a look as if this was the last time they were looking at me. Everyone’s face looked so pitiful and helpless at me. I held myself together and tried to come up once and the guide shouted “ No one will move from there place” he than looked at me and said “ Keep hanging for some more time”. And then I realized that it was better to hold on to the life line for some more time, because smallest of the movements in the rapid could misbalance the raft and might topple it down. I looked back into the river it was more 40 -50 mts to go. I said to myself, enough of adventure, ganga maiya finish it off. I held tight to the life line and the paddle. When we reached normal waters guide instructed Atul to me then pull me back. 1-2-3 and I was pulled back, everyone cheered back, a smile spread on everyone’s face. I looked at everyone and said “Phat Gai” . I don’t remember those movements from I was washed till I opened my eyes, must have been couple of seconds but it was fast, scary, exciting and adventurous. The guid asked, “How much water you drank”? I asked you to sit tight and lock your feets properly, see this is how it happens when you don’t listen. I also, answered back, what is the fun of rafting if you don’t fall in the rapid.

Then came the normal waters, the guide asked all of us to jump in the water, He insisted, otherwise he would turn the boat down. We all got into the water. I then asked the guide, the water would be around 25 to 30 ft right, and he says at the rapid, it was around 80 ft and the speed must have been not less than 30-40KMPH, I once again heived a sigh of relief……..We continued doing the free floating for around 2 km in the 80ft deep water. Thanks to the life jacket, swimmer, non-swimmer & hydrophobic everyone got the chance to swim and wash there sins in river Ganga. Guide then pulled us back on to the boat. He than directed the boat to the shore for the next event of the day – The Cliff Jumping. Every raft stops here for people to jump from 25 ft high cliff into the water. There was a huge rush but we managed to the top most cliff and chappak. Seeing 100s of people jump, even Mamata & Shalu, who did not know swimming climped up the cliff and chappak. By now we had completed most of our journey. Laxman jhoola was another 2KM of raft. The Guide once again asked us to jump back into the waters for the last time and then he finally parked us at Laxma jhoola. We then went to the organizers office, changed ourselves and all set for lunch. During the whole time we kept discussing how I felt at the rapid. I proudly said, if there was some who fully encashed the adventure was me. However, from inside kept saying myself that it was a stupidity and will try to be more cautious next time. We were joined at the lunch by Geeta, Atul’s wife , Gauri & Shreya Atul’s daughter’s and Aunty. Throughout our journey back to Delhi, the rapid fall experience was very fresh in my memory and it is Indeed fresh even today.

What Next??? White water rafting from Ladhak in the Indus River. This will be a 5-7 day expedition, where we shall carry all camping equipments like tents, food, etc. Raft-Camp and again Raft……………..