Yesterday morning we reached Haridwar. After roaming around, by noon we reached Rishikesh. I took no long to figure out that there is rafting facility. Since me and one of my friend had an unsatisfied experience in rafting in Dandeli, we dragged another ten boys with us and just decided go rafting in the white cold waters of the great Ganges. It was told that we'll be charged only 350/- each for 18km rafting. We agreed for that. The charges seemed very cheap because in Dandeli we were charged 1500/- for 6-7 km rafting. After our our crew was ready we're taken to the spot in a trax. Within an hour we're ready at the spot, wearing a life jacket, helmet, a paddle and raft. We had an instructor too.
The place over there was covered with beautiful mountain ranges all along the way. I suppose they're Shivalik ranges. Amidst those, green tinged water of Ganges flowed, which has set bed of beautiful fine sand on the bank. One can see hundreds of tents all along. Ofcourse I was jealous of all them. With the paddle in the hand along with life jacket and helmet we felt almost like warriors and screamed a lot with all available slogans. It was like a wild bird has awoke from within.
When everything got set, the instructor gave some basic instructions to be followed during emergencies and how to paddle etc. We were ready to sail away. We left the shore, the instructor screamed 'Ganga ma ki' and we together cried 'Jai'. It was like heaven. We peddled following the instructors commands. There were some places where the flow was more rapid. At those places the water flow used to throw the raft up and again leaving it to thump back which splashed water on us. My heart used to be heavy at those moments. The chill waters sent shivers, that used to make us scream.
After we reached certain distance. The water was still. The instructor asked if we wish to spend time floating on water. Ofcourse I was waiting for that particular moment since I had experienced it already. As he said it. I clutched my hand to the rope by the side of raft and just fell in water. I went inside the water, lost breath for some seconds and water went in through nose. And you know how one feels when it happens so. The life jacket brought me up. I enjoyed the float longitudinally for sometime. Then I stretched my hands side ways keeping head and legs straight to body. In this particular position, the life jacket makes one float in a perfect relaxed position. Oh!! Hard to explain that tranquillity. The moments were so serene and to add beauty to it I just chanted the poem ''Pighle neelam sa behta hua ye sama. Neeli-Neeli si khamoshiyaan" from ZNMD. Though no one over there knew what that great poem meant, I didn't wanted to give up that madness.
Beside this ecstasy, the matter of anguish was all others were searching us. My escort professors were almost broke. We called them in the middle of our voyage but all we got is bloody scoldings. At that point we were enjoying the last moments of our endeavour. Paddling it more rapidly till the hands ached alongside keeping our high frequency screams constant. We hurried fast towards bus as we got to the shore. The professor had called to our parents. As my number comes first in the roll call list. I was the first victim. That part was really terrible. Heavy assault with scoldings from both sides. I got strong warnings from my father. We just took every scolding as a masala for what all we experienced for past few hours. Atleast the freedom should cost that much, 'freedom is not free'. Finally I would say, I really feel that Uttarkhand is a good destination for hangout with friends. It has many great facilities to spend time. Just don't want to miss any of it. So let me wish to visit here again with a better dynamic and mad crew of navodayans.
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