“Ahh! No sky diving event please”, I said timidly to Peeyush. He asked me “What happened Raghav? We will be just watching it, not doing it.”

I said in exasperation – “Whatever, I am not interested”. I gave every possible reason not to go there, after all, how could I have told  them about the dream last night… they would have made  fun of me.

But the discussion continued while we stood in punishment. Then all of a sudden, Ashu interrupted in-between and said… “I have done rafting once and want to do it again.” Gaurav replied “Yes, Ashu, let’s plan it sometime soon.” Everyone concurred with lot of excitement, except me. Anyway, the class got over and so did our punishment. We rushed inside the classroom and settled ourselves. Ashu, Gaurav, Abhijeet and Peeyush decided that they would be going for Rafting. It took just five minutes, the brief interval between two boring lectures, to pass this resolution. Then as usual and always, using their veto power they forced their decision onto me. Finally, it was decided that we would celebrate Holi at Rishikesh.

Sunday morning, 28^th February 2010: five of us met at Chandralok Building at Janpath, New Delhi. From there we took a bus to Rishikesh. It took us five hours to reach there. All the bookings and arrangements were taken care by Gaurav. Amongst us, he is best in the business, especially in making impeccable arrangements. We were received by a fellow from the tour operating agency that did the bookings for us. He drove us to our final destination that was few kilometers uphill between Shivpuri and Rishikesh. It was termed ‘Ganga Exploration Camp’. My adventure started from there itself with the make shift Toilets. These were simple sand digs inside canopies, the sign board instructed ‘Do it, cover it with sand and forget it forever.’ Sunday was for resting!

Next day on Monday, a small Holi celebration took place at the camp. The breakfast menu was rich and was apt to the start of the day. Peeyush commented during breakfast “Raghav eat less otherwise you will make the raft heavy and drown us all.” I replied “Who cares, for me this is more thrilling.” Abhijeet added – Then be ready for consequences”.

Then, we were driven to Shivpuri. Till we had reached our destination, Ganges looked like a tiny stream and it felt rafting would be an easy task. At Shivpuri, we met our instructor and co-rafter. He gave us tips on rafting; it was kind of a crash course, which crashed through my mind as I was clueless about what was going to happen. All my friends, including me, we appeared to be in a similar state of mind. It was like a grand gathering of us clowns, thanks to the Holi celebration.

We wore our life jackets, sat in the raft. Sadly, I got first seat from the right side. Ashu, Abhijeet were lined behind me. Peeyush and Gaurav occupied the seats onto the left side along with our serious instructor. We were instructed to paddle fast when in the rapids and stop paddling when the raft was taking a turn. Instructor assigned me one special task and that was to lean my body forward when approaching the rapid. Ashu laughed on this seeing my pale look – “Ohh Raghav, this is going to be fun,” I offered him my seat – “Umm …why don’t you take my seat and have this fun”. He refused immediately saying that “I have had it in the past, now it’s your turn.” I was cursing the day these four guys became my friends – I mean there is enough fun in sitting, eating, chatting … there are so many things in life – but for them, it is some or the other weird adventure thing that creeps up at te back of their crazy minds. Seems like they are determined to either get me killed  or take the fear itself out of me. Since my childhood, adventure of any sort hasn’t gone very well with me, not even in my flying dreams.

With every gentle paddle, we were moving into the middle of the river. Then came the first rapid, someone sarcastically named it “sweet sixteen”…I started paddling very fast but less into the water and more in the air…seeing this Gaurav burst into laughter  and said “Easy Raghav, easy.” I pretended to be normal. Ashu then pushed me in front of the raft to lean forward. I did so but my heart was already in my mouth, it felt as if the untamed river is extending its numerous arms to pull me. The first rapid got over. “Thank god”

Similarly, we passed other rapids. Then came the rapid Hilton and Terminator (Grade-2), –  I leaned forward, lost my balance and also disturbed raft’s balance. I shouted “Help, I am falling from the raft”. Gaurav who was sitting across me held my hand and said– “Hold on buddy, I don’t want this to be our last holi, so please stay calm.” I was trembling and thought, ‘what a fool I was! to agree with them.

However, we sailed peacefully through the rapids called Three Blind Mice (Grade-3), Cross Fire (Grade-3). Now it seemed enjoyable as Ashu had moved to the front. So I squeezed into him at these two rapids. For the first time, I was smiling now, and felt good. But my comfort was short lived at the next rapid ‘Golf Course (Grade-4)’. Sitting in the middle was of no use here. Ganges was violently making its way through big boulder and we were riding on it. True to its name, our raft took off in the air like a golf ball and I slipped into the water. The real ping pong happened with me – “Help… Help”, my heart was beating fast. Instructor was almost annoyed… I heard him say “Don’t move your body, nothing will happen.”.What an advice to give at someone during this moment. Life jacket kept me floating but I had gulped enough water by now, I was tired. Water was hitting me from every directions; I could only see hazy images of my friends and the raft…. I tried to reach towards them.

In the evening, I found myself lying on the bed in the camp. I could not believe I was alive, but I was short of ideas to express it. Four devils of my life were standing there; they were worried for me… I smiled at them. Seeing me smile, Peeyush came forward and said… “Come on! You had a life jacket on. Learn to hold on to yourself.”

“Maybe Raghav, you do need some more adventure in life” – added Abhijeet. Taking leaf out of this Gaurav commented… “I think he should try cliff jumping tomorrow before leaving” and looked deliberately at me with a convincing look.

“Why not! you guys have come to this world to take the fear out of me, isn’t it …guys! I retorted. “I don’t get scared, It’s just that I don’t like it”…I replied rather annoyingly. To this all of them burst into uncontrollable laughter – “We know it dear  …we know it! You were so good today”.

More short stories about Adventures of Raghav coming soon. Did you read the first adventure short story of Raghav and his rendezvous with Sky Diving…. its worth reading.