Chun chun ke maaroonga

The title to this blog must have reminded you of the movie Sholay and the immortal Gabbar Singh (Dharam paaji can be forgotten for some time though), but this post is not going to be a review of Sholay or even anything related to that.

Why I have chosen this title is because of the choice we all from Ganga Bhawan (IITR) make while deciding on the trips we take. Four days back, we all went on a rafting and camping trip to Rishikesh. It was decided just a week ago that these were the only possible dates in which all of us could go together somewhere.

Day 1 : A gang of 16 highly enthusiastic people, we all went to Rishikesh. Our camp contractor took us to Shivpuri and made us do rafting back to Rishikesh.

Although it was an experience which cannot be explained in words, I’ll still dare to make an attempt at it, though I am sure words will fail me. Divided into two groups of 8 each, we jumped onto our rafts with our kits on, ready to face the biggest rapids of the Ganges. On the rapid called Golf Course, Kanu, who was sitting to my right on the raft, lost control due to the sudden gush of water and fell on me. I don’t remember exactly what I did to save myself. All I can remember is that I had held the rope called the lifeline tightly with one hand and the pedal’s tail with the other. Rasiya, sitting behind me, later said he thought that I would be falling into the river for sure, and also went on to say in his unique style “Main to tujhe bachaane ke liye ek dum jump hi maar deta” (he doesn’t know how to swim!!!)

Other interesting events on the way were the jumping out into still water and jumping into the river from a rock at a height of around 25 feet.

We reached Rishikesh at around 5 in the evening. Seven of us stayed at the beach there for some time and enjoyed photo sessions posing like Sanyaasis. The camp coordinator then took us to the camping site, Kaudiyala, around 40 kms from Rishikesh. On reaching Kaudiyala, we were told to go walk down to the camp. It was completely dark, we had no guide with us, and none of us knew the exact way to the camp. To top it all, we faced wild cows and heard dogs bark (for those who don’t know, even the feeling that a dog is nearby can make my heart sink). All we had were two torches to help us find it. But finally, we were there.

The arrangement there was awesome. There were plenty of tents for two each. Everyone chose his tent partner and went on to change and get set for the campfire party. Playing dumb charades is fun anywhere, and what can be better if you get to do it near the campfire on a somewhat cold night. After having enjoyed there for quite some time and taking dinner, most of the people decided to go to sleep, but some of us preferred to play cards for some time.

Day 2 : In the morning, while some guys went for trekking and others were enjoying rugby at the beach, I was in my bed, thanks to my birthright cough and cold :( But it was good that I was better in some time and didn’t have to miss the rafting which was longer and more adventurous than that on day 1.

The rapids called Daniel Dip and Three Blind Mice were too exciting to go through. These guides there follow a rule that commercial rafting is not done on rapids more than level 4, and we were therefore denied to go through “The Wall” which is a level 6 rapid. But it was fun to see the team of guides come through it successfully. The guide on our raft later commented that we were pedaling beautifully and they should not have made us avoid it. After shouting and pedaling almost continuously for around 4 hours, everyone was too tired to do anything and decided to return to college.

This was the trip that was always in my mind, something that I had decided I would surely be doing during my stay here in Roorkee. Thanks to the B. Tech. guys, who sponsored the trip for the dual degree guys as a placement treat, to Soni who put this idea forward, and to all the group members who made it unforgettable :)