A Welcome Weekend :)

I would often wonder why i dont get that great joy , and feeling of ultimate happiness each time i go shopping or watch a movie and have good lunch outside( although i love these things), i would feel that i dont get the feeling of ultimate bliss.

I felt this feeling of ecstasy, not just the short lived one that one gets after having a bar of mind-blowing chocolate, or an amazing delicacy, it was something different, something that stirs the soul from within, and brings that same unadulterated pure bliss when you just close your eyes and relive the beautiful moments.

I am talking about the wonderful adventure and fun-filled trip i had in rishikesh.

I was mildly excited about the weekend the day we had to leave, but controlled the excitement levels so that i would not feel sad in case the trip did not turn out to be as big a success. It was a group of strangers except for Parul, but they were all sweet and welcoming, most of them Didi's ex-colleagues. There were two people of my age; siblings of the older ones, just like myself. Three other people were friends of other Hewitt employees, so indirectly, Hewitt was a reason for many of these rafting trips that these firebrand youngsters had been having(I am a youngster myself, you will say :P).

I had a beer , which did not taste as disgusting as i thought beer would be, but while drinking it my stomach and body seemed to be giving me angry looks at supplying unnecessary amount of carbon dioxide, all the same i wanted the experience and coaxed them to deal with the gas just for a night. I was left with just a little bit of dizziness which lulled me to sleep in the bus ride to rishikesh. Then began the adventure, including the way our bus driver rode like the road belonged to him(the vehicle did though), leaping, flying and swerving at every oppportunity he got. We later came to know that he had participated in Delhi-Jaipur rallies too! He actually felt proud to hear our gasps when he went head on into a truck, and then swerved smoothly out of the way at the very last minute, almost giving us a heart attack. Our collective gasps were like compliments which seemed to say " Boss u r so awesome, gethu machaan!" I actually liked it at times when i was not sleepy.

We reached the destination at around 8 or 9 am, and walked to our camp 2km away, it was a nice trek to the place and we were greeted with a wholesome breakfast of bread, omelette, puri and dahlia, all of which tasted great (not said because we were all really hungry).

Next we enjoyed at the waterfall, where the water was colder than it had ever felt in my life, and the pressure of the waterfall seemed to cut through the skin like a knife would...but it was all extremely refreshing and it served as an ice breaker for the people who did not know each other well.

Next we went for something that was life changing for me- cliff-jumping. With helmet and a life jacket on us, we were supposed to jump several feet into the cold water; seemed really exciting to me, "i know swimming, so i will be okay", i thought, but when i was to jump from the unevenly positioned rock, i felt scared, and when i jumped i was wondering why i was not making contact with water, but when i did, i was not expecting it. I made contact with the kayak and started panting heavily hoping to catch my breath, the man handling the kayak, Jeevan was a local there and very friendly, he started having a chat with me to make me feel alright, my entire lower body was freezing as i had to hold onto the kayak with my legs till i reached the shore. He asked me whether i knew to swim, i told him that i did but was not so confident about it now,so he urged me to go on and swim to the shore. I took a deep breath and went ahead. The helmet which was too loose for me, obstructed my vision and i could not see where i was going, After swimmng a few metres i felt a rope coming my way which i held onto gratefully. Upon reaching the shore i felt like i had run a marathon. But when i looked at how smoothly the other people were swimming back to the shore, i felt i could do much better. So i climbed back to the place where i had jumped from, adjusted my helmet, let my body loose, and jumped again, felt the familiar feeling of restlessness, and was not ready when i did meet the water. It was not a very pleasnt fall, i lost my breath and swallowed water again, but this time i was able to swim to the shore more confidently.

Still not happy with my performance, i wanted to jump again. Instead of climbing back , i swam to the point from where it would be easier to climb the portion from where i had jumped. Didi looked on worriedly when she realised what i was going to do, but smiled encouragingly when i told her i would be able to do it. So i reached there, decide to jump from a higher point, to challenge myself and the slight fear that was developing in the pit of my stomach.

This time, the jump made me feel like i would never ever reach the water, but when i did reach it, i was calmer, and managed to swim smoothly back to the shore. I felt victorious. This was officially my first swim in a river (i.e a non-swimming pool). I realised i was the last to arrive as many people had started to dry up in the sun.

But i felt an overdrive of energy and wanted to use it more, so i got into a kayak, because i was always very drawn to kayaking, i had almost started getting a hang of how to row when i fell sideways into the water. I got out, decided to rest a little and watched on as a cute labrador tried to swim, doggy paddle rather, into the water, his feisty and active owner went for a swim with his dog too. I came to know later that the man was the owner of the Camp Riviera where we were staying, his entire family(wife and young daughter) looked fit, and cheerful. The man, who went by the name Anil, had broken his leg, a few years back, and was unable to walk, let alone swim, he would stare at the water and smoke away his misery. But one day something in him told him to get up and try to live life to the fullest, and since then , he has not looked back. Inspired, i went for another round of kayaking, had fun this time, was able to balance well and got a good hang of it, rowed for a long time.

After a bit of lazing in the sun and watching the volleyball match between the guys in our group, we had lunch and took some rest. Such was the level of tiredness that despite the boiling heat, and no fan in the tent, i slept peacefully.

Next i went for rock climbing and rapelling(the act of coming down the rock that one climbed).

This was a great experience in itself too,because during rock climbing, all you have for support is a rope tied across one section of the rock, and if you look down, you will be gripped by a fear of how far below the ground is, so i avoided that. I reached one section of the rock where i did not know where to place my feet for proper grip, the instructor helped me with that and when i finally reached the top i felt a sense of achievement.

Rapelling left me with a really classy feeling, i was strapped with a sheath harness, and Jeevan( the same kayakaying guy) had the full control so i did not need to worry about falling down even if i lost my grip, i just needed to loosen the rope as i kept going further down, but posture us an important thing, and if that goes wrong you can be left hanging in the air till u find proper grip again. I did fine, but i wish to do rapelling many times again in my life, to go down really smoothly.

The next morning was D-day; ie the Rafting day. Had a good breakfast and left at around nine thirty am with all our bags sent separately to our destination.

We were told about the safety tips during rafting, how to hold the oar, how to respond to the commands the guide of each raft would give, how to pull someone from the water back into the boat(rescue operations) and the likes.

We divided ourselves, eight on each raft, and started our sail downstream. We encountered two rapids on the way; one which was like a level zero , baby rapid, and the next was called Daniel's dip, a bigger one, fun but not too wild or crazy. I did body surfing thrice, at different points(which means to get into the water and let your body float along the stream). It was undoubtedly the most exqisite experience in my life, i felt like i really was in heaven and sent a mental note of thanks to god.

The biggest rapid we were about to face was called 'The Wall', and it was hyped to a large extent, so much so that we were told that those who were afraid could get off the raft and walk by the place. We stopped at a place where the guides coud have a good view of 'The Wall' from the top of a huge rock and form a strategy to cross it, felt like a war zone. We rowed in ernest, but hit the peak of the rapid, our raft went high into the air, and the next thing i saw was water all around me...the boat had capsized, and i was under it, felt like everything was in slow motion, i even heard slow background music from Ekta Kapoor's serials in my head. Moving in rhythm with this slow motion, was a fellow raftmate's slipper, it was rescued along with me, by yours truly. Another raftmate passed me their oar, and i felt myself being pulled by the second raft. They were happy but sad; REASON : Their raft had not capsized, happy at 'surviving THE WALL' but slightly sad at having been unable to feel the thrill. This had been done by the guides because rescue becomes difficult when two rafts capsize together, so their raft had been directed from the side of the rapid, unlike ours. This too, was a very unforgettable experience. I decided to take lead on our raft, every grain of my being feeling charged. We drifted along did body surfing a few more times , the sun shining as though god was blessing us, and after a few more metres, reached land.

We changed, all of us refreshed after the day's experience, but hungry. We had makeshift sandwiches, and a good meal at Bikanerwala later on. The driver continued his dangerous driving style, but ironically even he could not do anything when there was a heavy traffic jam near the ghaziabad area.

Didi and i reached home, filled with memories of a great weekend, hoping to have many more.