The Giangetic Adventure

Aaah the beauty of the ganges, the shimmering clear cool water reflecting the suns golden rays, the rich dark green foliage covering the hills on one side and the creamy white sand on the other. Is this what “heaven on earth” was all about? These were the thoughts that ran through my head in the 3 odd seconds in which my raft was plummeting a 10 feet fall, part of a rapid known to the rafting fraternity as “THE WALL”. Its amazing how silent, beautiful and long those 3 seconds were and in this almost zen like moment all I could do was admire the beauty of the place rather than ponder on my not so certain fate at the end of this fall. The raft nearly did capsize, friends were thrown overboard, frantic rescues did happen. As we floated, colder, wetter and more respectful of nature than when we started off, downstream on a much calmer ganges, all I could do was reflect back on those 3 seconds of silent lucidity where time had stood still, the sound of the thundering rapids blocked out and where the distinction of nature and man were blurred.
We were a group of friends from the same B school (Anisha, Sourabh, Namita, Shalini, Avneet, Pulkit and Anand (my best friend from Mumbai). The lead up to our spectacular collapse over the wall was beautiful. We drove down from Delhi to rishikesh and were pleasantly surprised to see the camp where we were staying. Very spacious tents with pucca beds and all. The toilets were the highlight of the day as it was a makeshift tent which housed a dug up commode in the sand and the flush was replaced by sand. For city slickers like us, this arrangement provided the fuel for many a joke, animated discussion which terminated in peals of laughter. The locale of these camps was spectacular to say the least, our camps on silver white sand with the ganges flowing next to them and the green hills overlooking the opposite bank.
Eddie: not to be confused with a small whirlpool which is also called eddie. This was the name of our instructor who was this 20 something cool rafting dude. We immediately took a liking for him as he seemed pretty chilled and friendly. He took us on a simple rafting run where we were taught the basics of rafting like rowing in unision, back pedaling, turning the raft etc and Pulkit due to his feeble contribution in rowing, was the designated “high side”, which basically meant that upon hearing the word “high-side” from eddie he had to throw his bulky body (ha ha, he was a featherweight with a heavy weight wit) on the nose of the raft so that it didn't tip over.
The first day was spent going over rapids creatively named like “3 blind mice”, “ball breaker”, “pot-hole” etc. The 2nd day we made our way through some higher level rapids. Rapids were graded on a level of difficulty and danger. Level 6 was the highest which bordered on the un-navigationable. Level 5 combined a fair element of fatality and was ventured only by the elite rafters. Level 4 was a high probability capsize with some elements of danger. Level 3 was a bone shaker but nothing serious. Level 2 was just fast flowing interspersed with a few bumps while level 1 was a float on the clouds. We had attempted some level 3 rapids on day 2 with eddie ably guiding our efforts to safe ground. We were drenched but our spirits were high, I even contemplated leaving it all and taking up rafting coz I seemed to be a natural. We even did some body surfing on the ganges with our life jackets on.
Come day 3 and we were already talking in hush tones about our tryst with “THE WALL”. On the bonfire of the previous day eddie regaled us with his stories and some history of rapids and rafting. He also informed us that we should be attempting a level 4 rapid called “THE WALL”. Inebriated with the beer and high on enthusiasm we were all unified in our approval of such an adventure. The next day and nursing a hangover, our bravado was deflated when we neared “THE WALL”. We had stopped the raft at a vantage point while eddie went scouting to see the wall as it was important to gauge the mood of the river and the force of the current. I didn't know what was more intimidating the thunderous sound of the falling rapid or the angry white foam rising from the falling water. Whatever it was, I was pretty intimidated and our usually boisterous party was sullenly quiet was we paddled our way towards the rapid. Eddie was furiously shouting orders over the deafening sound, there were other rafts from other camps which had ventured ahead of us and in the distance we could see each of them gathering speed in the rapids and then disappearing over the fall. We also reached the point of no return where our raft was now at the mercy of the rapid and all our collective rowing and eddies frantic orders were as ineffective as venkatesh prasads yokker.
The plunge as I mentioned before was a moment of beauty and the next couple of minutes passed by in a blur of frantic shouts, and lashing water. I don't remember exactly who all, but anisha, Namita avneet and Shalini were thrown overboard by the brute force of the rapid. I managed to stay on board but it felt like a giant had yanked at me with all his strength. The raft managed to stay upright though at one point of time it had stood upright as if to salute the mighty ganges. Now it was time to pull out the forced evacuees. I spotted avneet floating some distance away and anisha seemed alright, but there was no sign of Namita. Apparently she was caught in a circular eddie which kept dragging her down and bringing her to the surface again. Somehow she managed to resurface without going down again and the current was bringing her towards the raft. I was leaning over the raft outstretching my arm to avneet who was trying to make his way back to the raft. I saw a grateful look in his eyes which seemed to say “Thank you my friend” Then I saw the more beautiful Namita floating towards me. Instinctively my outstretched arm changed direction and poor avneet floated past the raft with a look in his eyes which seemed to say “*##** you ditched me for a babe???”. In my defence I think Namita was more in need of assistance and I thought avneet could have hung on for a few more secs. Well all being said, Namita was pulled out drenched like a wet hen and shivering, avneet was on board several seconds later with a little more respect for the water and a lot less respect and faith in me. The water was calm and serene just a few metres away from “THE WALL”, we all silently floated on, till Eddie reminded us that noone had died and we had just completed the wall. This gave vent to lots of chest thumping and soaking in the moment.
We made our way rowing happily onwards till we reached a point where we docked the rafts and climbed an overhanging ledge. On reaching up eddie informed us rather nonchalantly that he wanted us to jump off the ledge in to the water below. Normally we would have cringed away from such a dangerous request, but given our inflated sense of heroism being WALL conquerors, we agreed. I don't know the order in which we jumped but me and anand went up for seconds. Only poor Namita did a break even analysis, solved complex equations, philosophized the teachings of Plato while she contemplated her imminent jump. Eddie from master rafter revealed his alter ego – Inspiration man. Namita was subjected to motivational speeches, meditation, drawing energy from the sun etc to expedite her leap of faith. Well I can’t tell whether she got bored listening to eddie or whether his methods actually worked, but Namita jumped and gravity did its thing.
This trip was memorable for a variety of reasons. It was a heady cocktail of good friends, amazing nature, a pinch of danger and some good old fashioned near death experience.