Rapids!

‘Boring’

‘Just the usual’

‘Screwed up’

‘Nothing much’

‘Fucked up’

‘Don’t even get me started on that’

The above mentioned responses are some of the most common ones you get when you ask somebody that fateful question,

“How’s work going on?”

Of course there would be positive responses like,

‘My boss is hot so I don’t mind’

‘It’s not that bad coz social websites aren’t blocked’

but am talking about the majority here. All of us would agree that most of us don’t actually love to go to office when we wake up in the morning.

It’s pretty much the same story with me and my friends. So, as an act of beating this boredom, we usually slosh the riches we earned during the whole week slogging it out at the workplace on parties and dinners and trips during weekends.

One such attempt turned out to be an incredible thrill.

‘Macha next weekend white water rafting. We’re going’ said Anjana on the phone

‘What?’

‘Rafting da. There’s this place called Nagarhole en route to Coorg’

‘Okay’

‘What okay? We’re going. Don’t make any other plans’

‘Wait macha. Rafting is that boat rowing thing isn’t it’

‘Yes that’s it. It’ll be fun’

‘Who all macha?’

‘You, me, Ankita, Aparna, Labib and Royce. Am just asking Anki too’

‘Ohh’

Anjana, Ankita and I were classmates from MBA and good friends. Labib, Aparna and Royce are Anjana’s friends and I had met them only once before so I wasn’t very sure how comfortable they would be with me and vice versa

‘It’ll be fine da. You’ll have fun with them, chilled out they are’

‘Alright macha am in’

And Ankita confirmed too.

The plan was to leave Friday midnight and reach there Saturday morning. River rafting right away after breakfast on Saturday. Some trekking in the evening and the usual bonfire and stuff in the night. Sunday morning we would do river crossing and then leave there after lunch and come back via Mysore where we would just pay a visit to the Maharaja’s palace and may be the zoo. Royce made all the arrangements, we booked an Innova.

It was a 5 hour drive at the max spanning 220kms. We had to go through Channapatna, Mandya and Srirangapatna. It was supposed to be a beautiful drive with all the scenery and jungle stretch and all that.

The six of us gathered at Labib’s and Royce’s place on Friday night. We had to start at 2am midnight. We were there at around 11. We sat around hogging on the snacks which was packed for the journey and copying music on the USB and chatting. Labib and Royce also finished their packing meanwhile.

The car came by 1.30. We loaded up the back seat with luggage, we also loaded Anjana and Ankita along with it. Labib, Royce and Aparna settled down in the middle seat while I took my place in the front to chat the driver up. But I knew little of what was coming. I spoke in Tamil, I spoke in English, I even tried the negligible amounts of Hindi I knew but all the driver spoke was Kanada and only that. So basically we had no clue what each person was saying to the other. Nevertheless, we had some fun conversation through most parts of the trip!

It didn’t take much time for me to become friends with Labib, Royce and Aparna and I’m sure it was the same with Ankita. They were very sweet people and a lotta fun. Royce went out of his way to make us feel comfortable and we did. The journey went on with a lot of music, most of it stereo and some very good live music too! Aparna sings beautifully and everybody else did a fair job providing company.

After about 2 hours, we stopped at some place, I don’t remember exactly where, for coffee. We had coffee and bread omelette (spell that word however you want) and shifted places. The night was dark, the music played on, it was getting increasingly cold and we took turns sleeping.

By the time we reached the jungle stretch with some 20km to go, we were all wide awake again. It was about 5.30 in the morning, the first rays of the golden sun pierced through the thick cloud cover and we had light and warmth back in our lives!

The drive through the jungle was serene. We weren’t allowed to play music which would scare the animals away. It didn’t turn out to be a wild safari by any extent but our luck was pretty decent. We caught sight of several deers, bisons, elephants and a lotta elephant dung.

It was exactly 6 when we reached. The sun had gone back to hiding. It had been raining throughout the night. The place was fresh and beautiful and cold. We checked into our rooms and ordered for breakfast immediately. We were so hungry that we left bathing and freshening up for later.

Idlis and dosas and aapams and multiple varieties of chutneys along with sambar were just what we needed at that moment. When we were done we felt like doing nothing but hit the bed and sleep the whole day. The sun too wasn’t out yet. It was

‘We’ll just sleep guys. Rafting and all we can do later’ Labib said with lazy eyes yearning for the bed

I liked the idea too. But the others were determined and the rafting slots were booked too so we had no option. Royce called the rafting organizer guy and he asked us to come there by 11. It was only 9 then. The river was about 5km from the resort and it was a 30 min drive. We took our showers and dressed up. By the time we were ready to go it started to rain, rather heavily.

‘You sure wanna do this’ asked Labib again looking at all of us

‘Yesss’ screamed Aparna and Anjana with infectious enthusiasm. Suddenly they looked like cheer leaders to me. Ankita was pretty composed as she was the only experienced candidate among all of us. She had already done rafting at Bheemeshwari and was proclaimed to be a pro in it.

The rain got heavier as we started for the river. We reached the bank of the river after a considerably slushy ride. I got down from the car shouting ‘yaayy rafting baby’ bubbling with excitement and slammed the door shut. A stinging pain slashed through my right hand and then through my spinal cord straight to my head. Only then I realized I hadn’t taken my right hand completely as I shut the door with my left hand. My right index finger was almost jammed! I squeaked in pain and jumped around. The finger turned red and turned hot in a few seconds. None of these people knew I was hurt they thought I was jumping around in excitement. It took me some effort to attract their attention and then they all came swarming around me to check my condition. The nail started to turn grayish green in a few seconds, it was a blood clot. The pain was enormous. I said I was okay and we proceeded walking to the river bank.

They had a small office types at the bank. We had to fill forms with our names and other details with emergency contact numbers. I couldn’t hold a pen with my jammed index finger, Aparna filled my form. The paper said that the organization was not in any way responsible if ‘anything’ happens to us during the raft. It was suddenly frightening with the rain pouring down. Also I need to confess at this point that I didn’t know swimming. Not a soothing truth that is.

Nearby, other groups of people all geared up in their air bags and helmets were standing around their rafts intently listening to their trainer’s instructions. Our trainer hadn’t come yet. We were drenched and shivering in the cold. We couldn’t wait to get on to the boats and row the damn thing. I was getting used to the pain but with hope that I would forget about it once I got into the waters.

Our trainer finally arrived. He was short but looked well built.

‘Machaa he’s hot’ whispered Ankita into my ears

‘Yes macha why not’ I said. And immediately regretted saying that.

He lead us to our raft beside which all our air bags and helmets and oars were kept. We were handed our gear and he along with another helper helped us put on our gears. It kinda felt cool after wearing all that, I was already forgetting the pain in my finger.

We couldn’t take our cameras our mobile phone along. The organizer would take pictures at different points standing on rocks. We had to pay for the photographs. We took a picture before we got into the water

‘Okay attention please’ shouted the trainer

We all looked at him

He stood besides the raft with one leg on the raft and the paddle in his hand. He looked like some warrior standing on top of a hill looking down on his army.

‘This is the raft’ he said pointing to the raft beneath him. It was massive and blue in color. I bent down and had a close look at it…you know just to make sure there weren’t any holes in it. I even touched it to get a feel of how strong it was.

‘It’s okay Sir it’s very safe’ the trainer said

I stood up and smiled embarrassingly

‘Machaa you’re pretty light to worry about the strength of the boat’ said Royce

‘And this is the paddle’ he said lifting up the paddle in his hand. We all lifted ours paddles up as acknowledgement

He continued with his instructions about how we had to sit, how we had to hold the paddles and how we had to row when he yelled specific things like “Right forward” “Left backward” “All fast forward” and all that

Finally we got into the raft. We were six of us and the raft had three thwarts, so it was a perfect fit. The trainer placed himself at the back. We sat down clamping our feet to the floor and holding on tight to the rope which was tied along the D-rings around the raft. It was going to be a 5km raft with 4 or 5 rapids.

For those who aren’t familiar with the term, ‘rapids’ are those when there are hollow trenches in the river and the water flows really fast. The raft rises above the water at high speeds splashing water all over and we all scream. Well that’s the most fun part in white water rafting.

So we were all set to go. The rain was still pouring down. ‘This is going to be fun’ I thought to myself

One last scream.

‘All forward’ shouted the trainer

And we rowed…white water rafting just began!

Right forward

Left backward

All stop

All forward

The trainer yelled on.

The rain poured on.

We were nearing our first rapid. My heartbeat rose.

There were two huge rocks at a distance in between which there was a massive trench and the river seemed to flow at enormous speed through it

‘The rapid is coming’ said the trainer

We all looked at each other gripping our paddles tight

‘now when I say All forward, all of you row as fast as you can but do it uniformly. Only then the boat will sail through above the water smoothly’ he said

‘Okay’ we all said

We neared the rapid, suddenly the raft seemed to gain speed. The water beneath us was flowing faster here

‘ALL FAST FORWARD’ screamed the trainer at the top of his voice

We all screamed and rowed the paddles as fast and as hard we could.

Uniform? What uniform?

The raft was racing now…we kept rowing…and suddenly just as we neared the rocks the raft took a wide plunge in between them while gaining even more speed water splashed and poured all over the raft and us, we couldn’t see anything for a couple of seconds and then the raft rose high sailing over the water giving us the thrills of our lives. The adrenalin when the boat went under the water…then rose over it…the speed with which it happened…was unmatchable! I suddenly realized this was the most fun I was having in a long time.

And then we were back in smoother regions. There was a part of the river where the water was very still, it was still flowing but slower than all other parts. We asked if could take a plunge and the trainer agreed. He didn’t let us jump without giving another lecture on how to float with our heads up and what to do and what not to do if we drift away.

I made sure my airbags were tight, said one last prayer to the Gods and jumped into the water without a second thought. The force took me inside the water for a second and when I came back to the surface I could see and Anjana and Ankita still sitting in the raft hovering over the decision to jump or not to jump. The four of us were now yelling at them to jump. They didn’t look like budging so we went near the raft and dragged them down while the trainer gave a little nudge from behind. They fell into the water screaming in apparent fear but then immediately realized how peaceful it was. We floated for a while…tried a few diving stunts and then got back coz we were running late.

Three more rapids followed which were equally magnificent to the first one. We came to another small bank where we were supposed to finish. A few helpers were waiting there to help us carry the raft and place it on the jeep which would take them to the starting point and another one which would drop us to the same point. We wouldn’t be able to walk the distance back, especially after a nerve racking, energy sapping ride like that.

We got back to the resort and all we could do was have lunch and sleep. We woke up in the evening and took a stroll around the hills. It was dark when we came back. The drinks which were ordered had arrived along with some hot spicy ‘pakoda’ and ‘bajji’. Please don’t ask for their English translations. They lit the fire of us. The warmth of the fire was heavenly considering the cold had gotten to our bones by the time we came back after the small trek. The drinks were drained while the side dishes were refilled four times. It was time for some dance. We turned on the music and danced around the fire like tribals. And then Labib did a couple of romantic solo performances for Aparna and we made Ankita show off the dance form she had been learning for a while. The fire was still on, it was about 11 in the night.

We finished dinner around the fire and sat down to play dumb charades. Labib, Royce and Aparna teamed up against the rest of us. We were doing movie names. There were a few tricky ones which demanded a lot of intellect and effort, like for example ‘Chronicles of Riddick’ – I am not going to explain how I managed to act that out.

We went back to our rooms at around 12 and settled down to play ‘bluff’ with cards. Those who don’t know ‘bluff’ learn it now. I tell you, ‘bluffing’ is a lot of fun!

We went to bed at around 1.30 and woke up the next morning before 8. It was supposed to be river crossing today and then check-out. Royce called the organizer fellow to ask him when we had to come there. The organizer told him that the river crossing trainer hadn’t come today and gave us two options – take your money back or do another white water raft. There was no question of taking the money back. After a raft in the pouring rain the previous day it was going to be a raft in under the shining sun today.

It was a different trainer today and he turned out to be more aggressive and fun than the previous one.

The adventure and the excitement were double! We had the time of our lives.

After another breathtaking raft we headed back to our rooms and checked out.

We took the Mysore route while coming back. We visited the zoo and also sneaked a peek at the palace. We relived the whole experience throughout our way back to Bangalore except for one debate. A santro was going in front of us on whose back window the following lines were written –

“During the time of rapture, this car will be unmanned”

All of us had different interpretation for it and finally we left it unsettled.

You could give a shot at it yourself

We reached Bangalore by 11 Sunday night.

We would all have to get back to the ‘boring’, ‘just the usual’ offices but the impact of this trip was going to last for a long time.

White water rafting was sexy..!

By the way, the finger has healed.