My Colleague, Sanjay (All excited): Yeah Man, we should.
We go around asking other people in the office and everyone has some work or the other lined up for the weekend. We have no other choice but to be disappointed. I go back to my desk, sans all the enthusiasm I had before, and for a short while after, I got that (brilliant??) idea. I get back to my usual business of chatting (and you thought I was gonna say....work??).
Me (to Imran - A school mate of mine): What are you doing this weekend?
Imran: Going to Rishikesh along with a friend of mine for rafting. Wanna join us?
Me: You bet, I want to!!!
But there was a catch. Imran, being a hardcore biker, was going to Rishikesh (roughly 250Kms from Delhi) on his bike. And now I had to convince my parents to allow me to go. This part didn't take much effort and I was all set and raring to go on my first Road Trip on Bike, the Rafting part was the perfect icing on the cake.
We (me, Imran and Sachin) left early in the morning on Friday, the 10th of April and reached Haridwar at 11:00 AM. The ride was amazing. What was more amazing was the fact that we just did one halt in between for breakfast. The route we took was pictureque, a narrow road along a canal. What more can one ask for??
We were hosted by a friend of Imran's at Haridwar. I met Rachit and his family for the first time, and it never felt so. We had some good time and sumptuous meals at Rachit's. Plus the funny moments (sad part was I was at the wrong end of the jokes) we had with the Super intelligent girl with superb presence of mind and a superb vocab for a 3 yr old kid, she was Rachit's Niece (More on her on Kids Say...Version 2). After spending the day in Haridwar, we were all set to for the big day ahead. Me and Sachin had been waiting for the day with bated breath, partly coz it was our first time rafting and mostly coz of the description that Imran and Rachit had been giving us. We were really excited albeit a bit scared abt the whole rafting thing (did i, by any chance, say rafting was the icing on the cake??).
We reached the camp (Sea Hawk) at 10:30AM on 11th April and had the most amazing time. I dont have words to explain the fun we had. We did all sorts of R&D with a circular tube kinda thingy that we got. I got to do a bit of kayaking too. Post lunch we (Me, Sachin, Rachit, Imran, Rachit's dad, Amit Bhaiyya and Sheeba Bhabhi)
Everyone took turns to sit in the front of the raft. Sitting in the front fills you with such a feeling that you alone are going to be the saviour, come what may. But this feeling was short-lived when the raft went through a terrible rapid and the raft almost became vertical. I lost my balance and I was lucky not to fall off the raft. There were 14 rapids in all, having weird names like Three Blind Mice, Roller Coaster, Initiation, Golf Course etc. Roller Coaster was the one that caused the most trouble. We did jump off the raft once, its called Body Surfing. This involves jumping off the raft and holding on to a rope called the life-line and floating along.
Then came the most thrilling part of the whole trip. The dreaded Cliff-Jump. One has to jump from a 30-40 ft cliff into open waters. For a non swimmer like me that was a huge ask. And once I had gone up I had no choice but to jump, after all I didnt want to be a coward in front of girls who were lining up to jump for the 2nd time. I went to the edge of the cliff, didnt look down and jumped. Those 3 seconds were the longest 3 seconds of my life. Man, that was the "Funnest" thing ever. I am gonna do that again for sure.
Back at the camp, we had a few Gaana-Bajana sessions and yours truly did sing a couple of songs :). After the delicious dinner under millions of stars, we spent the night in tents.
Spent a couple of hours playing in the water the next morning and we were all set to head back home. I was so not looking forward to sitting on the bike again as I was really tired. After about 150Kms, we stopped at Cheetal Grand for lunch and Imran asked me, "How are you feeling?" and I was like "I am feeling great about going back, its just that I can't feel my backside" :P
Like all good things come to an end, this full-of-surprises-at-every-turn trip too did. I made really good friends and had a whale of a time. I might get kicked on my already sore backside for saying this, but I would like to thank Rachit for the wonderful hospitality, Imran for taking me along, and lastly Sachin for taking care of me on his bike ;).
Hoping that this was just the beginning and there are many more trips to come, I am signing off......
