Had you been to rishikesh

“okay team all forward! Now! Faster Dig Deep! On reaching the side i shall call for all down! Be quick to lower yourself into the boat.” here we go into the famous rapid “ the roller-coaster!”” he said this with so much pride and enthusiasm. We all were amatuers in rowing and our paddle never made it to the water perfectly. It was a downstream and thus by the laws of motion we continued to stay in the same state. The water gushed in the centre creating a wallow just ahead of us. The sharp turn provided the water to gurgle up and splash on the rock with a massive strike. The rocks made the difference. They were so unevenly positioned that they raised the turbulance much more than it meant to be. This was one hell of a rapid we were to enter. Just a yard ahead of us the first raft entered it side ways. A strong rapid is deadliest when you enter it right through its womb. You get to tap the entire force of the rapid to get your raft outside. The more the heavier the raft, the more balanced it is. But at the same time its more vulnerable to tackle the entire force on it. The raft in front of us thus entered the rapid form the side. The person sitting on the right side middle was the bulkiest of all in it. The moment the raft gave a shake,out of angst the person stretched for his lifeline and shifted himself. This disturbed the raft's balance and eventually the man fell outside. By then our raft has got positioned to enter the same rapid and we heard the guide say “ Hard and fast team!” we brushed our paddle as much we could into the most holy river of India, The Ganga. Just after a few strokes i realised we were entering the rapid head on. On the same moment our raft gulped right into the wallow and popped above us just as a mighty horse does to celebrate the riders triumph. I was in the centre left holding my lifeline with all my life. We saw the fatso emerge out of the rapid in the far left, his boat pretty safe without him but far ahead. By the force of the rapid our raft had gotten pushed to the right and all of us were forcing to find the balance since we were still engulfed in the rapid. Just then we heard the command “stoppppppp! Paddle back. Double it . We need to take up the guy.” the raft turned right just at the end of the rapid. The river was gurgling less and we were all vibrating but it dint stop us from rowing. All of a sudden we all felt heroic and all we wanted to do was say that little fatso. “all forward now! The left one stretch your paddle to lock with his. Bring him closer and give him the lifeline.” We reached him in a minute, by now the river has settled calm and we in the left, three of us struggled to get him inside. After a strenuous effort we had him inside. He was all drenched with fear and little water. Once he got settled our guide shouted “ there is another rapid nearing us we cross the rapid and transfer this fatso to his own raft! Now all forward.” now that we had him with us, the raft pressed more into the river and we felt like drowning more. Still we went forward crossed the rapid with the raft nearly reaching an explosion due ot over pressure and helped him get back to his raft.
We entered the final and a more fierce rapid called “The Golf Course”. The moment i heard the name it brought my old memories back. Just six months ago i had entered the same rapid with six other friends and got toppled with the raft right in the centre of it. I shall never forget that. “All forward team nice and easy.! We shall clear this one and we head home”, the guide said. I caught my lifeline for the last and final rapid. “team down now!” the water splsahed right into the raft pushing aside my friend sitting opposite into the raft. He had completely lost his balance. On approaching the centre the river rose into a whirlpool and it just swooped us with the raft. By then all have settled down into the raft. “hurry now back paddle hard and fast! Faster! Faster!”. We forced our raft from hitting the rock just in front of us. And then came the deal breaker . A solid cliff just on the course of our raft obstructing us from moving forward. “Left back! Right Forward team” was the command. All of us tired and exhausted followed the command and pushed our raft away from it with a 90° turn and somehow made our way out of it. All this while i dint paddle even once, i held to my lifeline hard and on seeing the cliff i forced myself to paddle back since i felt it was my responsibility too to keep us all alive in the raft . I paddled the rest of the cruise without much of a fear. For once i had come out of the golf course. Its not that rafts are dangerous. And a fall from it is just a thrilling experience. Rafting is a adventurous sport and Offcourse you dont fall into the golf course always!