Meow Feedback - Rafting Trip (Dev Prayag-Rishikesh)

CATS had gotten over the Harike dolphins, had kept with our promise for the Akhand Path, collected the funds to distribute the books and stationary for the whole academic session under our ‘Each One Teach One’ program at a local school, even contributed towards the cost of purchasing a funeral van to be used specifically for the cremation of the unclaimed bodies in the Tricity, not to mention the extremely successful and very well reported Candle Light vigil to raise the awareness of electricity conservation during the Earth Hour.

Don’t think we could have thought of a more disparate activity than White Water Rafting to overcome all the goodness of the past few weeks. CAT Paramjeet suggested rafting and I welcomed it promptly. I was looking forward to taking a back seat and let a fellow CAT organize a trip for a change. Cats are mean creatures at the end of the day!

CAT Paramjeet was perfect in his planning, right from the factsheet, rafting brief presentation, follow up information sheets, navigation directions to name a few. Though the optimum level was 18 CATS for the trip, the demand was so high that for once we experienced the luxury of refusal due to over-booking. With everything else in place, I discussed the travel food/sustenance menu and logistics with our foodie CAT Navpreet over dinner and hey presto, we were set to rock the raft.

True to her reputation, CAT Manpreet reached Hotel Beckons 20 minutes before the appointed time of 4am. CAT Paramjeet was next and set up the registration papers. CAT Navpreet decided not to sleep at all since he had worked and partied late the previous night and thought it was not worth getting into bed for a couple of hours after all. Rest of the paws followed soon. I myself could not catch a wink due to anxiety. This was the first time CATS were getting involved in a thus far alien territory; rafting. We would come back rocking if all went well, but there was a remote possibility that we could indeed be rocked in the raft.

Quick distribution of travel sustenance and name badges in place, just shy of five we set off on the journey, in the rain. There were lots of first-timers in the group this time, including two newly-wed couples, whom we teased mercilessly right from the beginning. We had agreed to travel together rather than meeting half way at Paonta Sahib direct. Relentless rain and regular pit-stops ensured that we were running an hour behind schedule by the time we reached the Gurudwara. Within the premises most of us decided that we will skip the tea or langar and will head straight to Rishikesh to make some of the time lost. Trotting back to the car park, when we looked in our cars, we found our drivers missing. CAT Jolly was found standing in a tea-stall outside the Gurudwara. When I went upto him and asked what he exactly was doing there, he replied smilingly, ‘They serve good tea here!’ Bless CAT Ashish A who chirped in charmingly, ‘Bisskut wee… Main nahin Navpreet mang reha hai!’

Soon we found ourselves at the foothills of the hotel in Rishikesh, where we were supposed to park the cars, before hopping onto the bus arranged by our guide Ramesh, to reach Dev Prayag. Despite a polite reminder by CAT Paramjeet that rafting trip was not a fashion parade, CAT Navpreet could not resist spending a few bob on ‘rafting friendly’ clothes. Pity he did not find a swimming skullcap as he was spotted wearing a very curious headgear at the hotel carpark in Rishikesh. CAT Ashish C did not fail to draw everybody’s attention towards ‘Navpreet in moam-jaama’.

In the bus, we decided to play Antakhshri without our customary bhajan and guess what the very third song was sung to save a point by one of the teams, ‘Ae malik tere bande hum!’ Views outside were breathtaking with white sandy beaches lining a clean looking Ganga and the mountains standing guard ever so protectively on either side. CATS kept pulling me inside to join the Antakhshri but I wanted to hear Ganga sing merrily and see the trees dancing slowly to its’ tunes. For the first time perhaps I understood the true depth of Bulle Shah’s verse,

‘Sharaa kahe paibund namaazi ho jaa tu,
Ishq kahe ik paase yaar khalo ja tu,
Main donaa gallan ne gheri,
Kuchh samajh na aawe meri,
Rabba main poojjan yaar nu,
Ke rakhaan yaad teri’

Enroute we stopped at Kodiyala for a much required and sumptuous breakfast at noon, where a few of us made phonecalls home from a local STD booth, since our mobiles had stopped working. CATS also changed into their rafting gear here and went back to the bus for the last leg of their journey. Food always makes CATS lethargic and many were soon found snoozing on the bus. Small landslide delayed us further but soon we crossed the bridge which took us to our waiting guides and rafts.

Our guides quickly got us into our protective helmets and life jackets. CAT Jolly had to struggle hard to find one which could fit him. CAT Rachna wanted to have her picture taken since she was not sure when she would be rafting next in her life. I was wondering who was more excited, CAT Priyanka or her mother CAT Nisha to embark on rafting? CAT Madhvi was seen fussing over her baby, CAT Joey at short of 16yrs also happened to be the youngest of the CATS pride this time, whilst CAT Rajpal took the honours of being the eldest at 47yrs.

In no time at all, the head guide Pradeep had all the CATS on the stairs for the rafting maneuvers, safety aspects and code of conduct. First rafting technique he shouted at us was ‘Forward All’, which CAT Madhvi decided sounded more like, ‘Barbie Doll.’ It might have been her first trek with the CATS, but she was already demonstrating some peculiar traits typical of CATS! Guide Pradeep knew from this point onwards exactly what was in store for him and how did he have to deal with this pack of CATS.

Having learnt our Barbie Dolls, All Backs, All Downs, All rights, All lefts, Relax, Left Forward and Right Backs, we were allowed to get into some real action; but not before we were clearly told that we would have to pay US$ 70/- per paddle if we lost them during rafting. Now that was a lot of dosh and we held onto our paddles with our dear lives. Dollar may be depreciating against the rupee, but still seventy dollars were at stake you see.

Guide Pradeep led a pack of eight CATS, Guide Hukum (indeed!) had six, while Guide Bachhan (yes Bachhan!) had another pack of eight CATS. It was an adventure for the CATS who were chattering away as usual even in the rafts, whilst it was serious business with significant consequences for the guides. Within minutes Guide Pradeep told us that unless we kept quite in the raft, we would not be able to hear his commands and that could lead us into trouble. When that did not stop the nattering, CAT Madhvi suggested that they should supply masking tapes along with the helmets and the life jackets in future!

We were encouraged to take a dip in the Ganges which practically most of us let past. It was chilly, the weather was heavily overcast after heavy rain, the water was freezing and there was no sun to help us dry. However, there were indeed a few brave souls amongst us. CAT Vasu, CAT Navpreet, CAT Jasmine were seen hopping up and down the Ganges. That gave courage to CAT Joey in our raft too who jumped in. CAT Madhvi went soon and so did CAT Aditi. Seeing the bonhomie in the water, CAT Sourabh too decided to join the gang. As soon as he jumped in he yelled to be rescued. When he was told that chill would be over within seconds and he should stay in, he shouted to be rescued at an even higher pitch. Oh dear, I thought CATS were brave, but no harm in being honest.

Enjoying the rapids, (pronounced as raffid by Guide Pradeep!) from Grade -2 till Grade 1 and then progressing onto Grade 2, we were overjoyed to see our camping site set deep inside the jungle, away from prying eyes and of course no electricity. It was a postcard perfect treat for the eyes at Vyasghat. White sandy beach, heart warming log fire, beautifully rounded and polished natural stones in myriad of colours, lush green foliage, valley in front of the tents pitched at the edge of the mountain. Now add the rumbling sound of Ganga to keep us company through the evening. If this is not enough, include delicious home cooked food served unobtrusively by well trained and hospitable staff. It was perfect. We felt on top of the world.

And yes, before you start rolling your eyes, there were toilet tents too, complete with toilet seat and yes, we had the toilets rolls as well. Rest you would have to find out yourself when you join us for the next camping trip. Best of all, we had brought home all the pedals intact. A penny saved is a penny earned afterall.

Whilst the rest of the CATS got busy in the logistics of sleeping arrangements, CAT Jolly engaged himself in a rather more important task – LUNCH. He could not care less as to whom he got to share the tent with or the location of the tent, all he could think of was food after pedaling for 20kms in the Ganga. Perched on our little stools underneath the tent, we actually struggled to conclude what was better, the view around or the sumptuous and delicious food.

Thereafter everyone did whatever took their fancy. CAT Madhvi took a book to the edge of the stones to read poetry, CAT Paramjeet left the world behind for a while to sit closer to Ganga, I was torn between the clouds kissing the valley and the tranquil Ganga flowing past. It was too treacherous to walk or swim across to the other side of the shore, so I just walked barefeet on the wet sand, letting the Ganga wash away the tiredness of the journey through my toes. Isn’t that how life is? Washed by the constant current of time through our hands whilst we are left empty handed at the end of the day?

Our both newly wed couples made appropriate excuses to retire to their tents, leaving us singletons to dissect the trip thus far. CAT Vasu had come ill prepared for the trip and decided to hijack CAT Nisha’s shawl to keep himself from shaking incessantly. CAT Gopika was seen running towards the log fire with her teeth chattering, much like a ‘Bheegi Billi.’ Darkness enveloped us soon but we were not complaining. We had nothing to kill our time with, but none of us missed either our families/friends or the television/clubs. We were blissfully happy. After another round of snacks and dinner, we retired one by one for the night.

Chirping of the birds was enough to wake most of us the following morning. Bleary eyed CATS started emerging out of their tents one after the other. Some wanted to catch the sunrise at dawn whilst the others wanted to ensure that they were done with their morning ablutions before the toilet tents got too busy. Some were found brushing their teeth at the edge of the river, others used stored water, rest were seen holding bottles of water to clean up. It was refreshing to wash up in Ganga. CAT Nisha in fact splashed about good half an hour doing Ganga Isnaan and Surya Parnaam as it was also the onset of Navraatras.

Packing was done soon after a lovely breakfast. CATS with great pride had a group photograph taken by the word CATS drawn in sand by CAT Jolly with a pedal, before we got going for our morning session of rafting. We had a heavenly idyllic time frolicking with Ganga for 20kms. At times it will play with us with her Raffids of 2+ and at times we will jump into her tempting arms to swim around. Ganga caressed us lovingly and we had the time of our lives.

We felt so energized that we would keep pedaling even after our guide had commanded us to ‘Relax’. He told us stories about the leopard which was killed by the legendry Corbett after it cunningly killed over 200 local people. CAT Joey and CAT Sourabh told another similar story of two tigers, which also had killed hundreds of people after attaining the taste for human flesh.

CAT Jasmit sitting in the middle of the front row of his raft drew maximum attention. Complete with his dark glasses and beard, he looked like the picture book pirate. CAT Jolly teased Guide Hukum of the other raft endlessly, by intermittently saying in a loud voice, ‘Hukkooooomm.’ Hukum would turn around thinking we wanted to speak with him, only to find a bunch of silly CATS giggling away like college students. We would splash water at our fellow CATS on the other two rafts, we would hold mock race competition with them, we would try to spin them around by latching onto the chicken rope like little kids. We were getting a vicarious feeling of being ‘Alice in Wonderland.’

Quick lunch followed by a little siesta on a mock beach by the restaurant refreshed us enough to go back to our Ganga again. We were told by all the guides that our raft was the most strongest of the lot with a couple of good swimmers too. However, a word of caution was also sounded by CAT Paramjeet. Daniel’s Dip with a strong whirlpool was staring us in the face and he gave us the option of opting out. However, we loved our Ganga and it had been kind to us. We had faith in our guide and we knew the techniques. Additionally, we were wearing the safety jackets and the helmets too. All of us decided that we were not really afraid of any Daniel. There is indeed a fine line between being confident and over confident you see!

Though our raft with Guide Pradeep was the last one to get occupied, it was chosen to lead. Our guide took us through the rafting techniques, including emergency maneuvers once again, whilst the fellow rafters from the other two rafts looked on at us in utter silence. With Daniel’s Dip roaring perhaps a hundred yards away, we knew it was serious but we were prepared to take the challenge. Our guide told us that rather than avoiding Daniel altogether and raft across the safer left side of Ganga, he said we would go towards the right to ‘kiss’ Daniel and then move on. With deep echoes of ‘Jai Ganga Maiyya’ we set our pedals to work.

Our instruction was Barbie Doll fast which we followed religiously, whilst Guide Pradeep navigated the raft towards the right. More closer we got the dip (the whirlpool), Ganga suddenly started looking a little different. It was not frolicking with us anymore. It looked a wee bit frightening, but we had absolute faith in our guide and our Ganga. We kept on pedaling hard to slice through the mighty waves which suddenly became higher and even higher. Our Guide shouted All Down and in a jiffy we stopped pedaling to sit down in the raft holding onto the chicken rope and of course the US.$70/- pedals. That was the last time we were seen above the water by our fellow CATS in the other rafts! Before we had the opportunity to kiss Daniel, Ganga had flipped our raft as if one tosses a cigarette butt after finishing the smoke.

The only CATS who managed to hold onto the chicken rope in our raft were Jolly, Madhvi, Ashish C and Aditi. I found myself holding onto three pedals worth US$210/- whilst being spewed out and getting sucked into the whirlpool. Struggling against the rocks and the raft, strangely enough CAT Joey also kept thinking of the US$70/- he had lost during the flip. I saw CAT Sourabh being washed up even higher where he stuck onto a rock like the Spiderman. CAT Rajpal was spotted struggling badly as only his helmet was visible above the water.

Kudos to the raft of Guide Bachan, who rescued three of the four CATS from the Daniel that afternoon. This raft had the most number of fun loving CATS cracking jokes nineteen to a dozen, but I noticed that none of them were laughing anymore. Concern was writ large on every face. A little smile made the air lighter in the raft and everyone was relieved. I also learnt that my fellow raft CATS Jolly, Madhvi, Ashish C and Aditi were rescued by our own raft’s Guide Pradeep immediately after the flip and that they were ok. I told Guide Bachan that CAT Sourabh was stuck on the rock and I was assured that CAT Sourabh had apparently managed to climb up to safety from that extremely precarious position above the whirlpool himself. The other two rafts apparently had not had any trouble since they did not go as far right as we had done. They played safe.

With all flipper CATS safely aboard, we were taken back to our own raft a little further up. CAT Madhvi was relieved to see his son CAT Joey and mocked, ‘Yeh saara chakkar hi kiss ka hai!’ She became extremely concerned as Joey was in extreme discomfort and barely managed to hobble onto our raft. Amazingly though, injury made a chatter box out of CAT Joey. He was made to lie down towards the front of the raft with his feet up and he would get paranoid with even the slightest change in the noise Ganga made or the direction of the raft. He panicked more since he could not see the water from where he was lying, ‘Yeh awaaz kehaan se aa rahi hai? Yeh kaun se grade ka rapid hai?’ CAT Sourabh had also developed an allergy to water by now.

Thanking our lucky stars but grateful to be back in the raft, we slowly started pedaling forward. However, the vibes in our raft were low and even our Guide Pradeep was feeling demoralized. If in the morning we would keep pedaling even after he had shouted ‘Relax’, now we would leave our pedals the moment we heard ‘Reee!’ Slowly we gained our momentum.

An hour later came our second test of rafting, the Wall (with three holes/whirlpools). Our guides took us on shore to see the Wall from a height. He explained in great detail what we should expect at each hole. Seeing the water frothing white at the Wall, with the memory of the flip at the Daniel still fresh in everyone’s mind, 8 CATS opted to walk along the shore to the other side of the Wall whilst 14 brave ones decided to take the plunge, albeit gingerly. Myself and CAT Aditi were the only Daniel flipped CATS who decided to take on the Wall.

Ours was once again the first raft to pedal towards the grade 4 Raffid called the Wall, much against our protests! Pensively but with determination we crossed the first hole, skimmed over the second hole but the third hole proved to be too mighty for us once again. CAT Vasu had reached the surface but CAT Priyanka pulled him down in panic. I witnessed this drama since I was swimming below Vasu. However, in comparison to the Daniel allotted lower grading of Raffid 3+, Wall at Raffid 4 was a cake walk, or shall I say a CAT WALK.

Guide Pradeep quickly pulled me in and for some very strange reason, I found myself holding on to two pedals again. Then came CAT Vasu, who had lost both his slippers during the flip. Whilst Guide Pradeep was keen on saving the pedals of US$70/- each, CAT Vasu insisted that we rescued his sister’s slipper floating past first. Together we flipped the overturned raft in position, in which we found CAT Uday’s sandal still stuck in the raft where he had locked his foot. Apparently, though he had done a wonderful job of locking his foot to ensure he did not skip out of the raft, the wall was too strong. It tore CAT Uday out whilst the sandal got left behind to tell the tale.

Very soon all of us were aboard our respective rafts with rescue work complete. The second raft which had followed us smoothly went over the Wall since we had borne the brunt of the wave already. There was merriment all around. Cheers were rendering the skies. CATS were meowing to the seventh heaven. CATS had gone back to their normal jovial selves, cracking jokes and pulling legs at will. Distress of our Guide Pradeep also receded and soon we were sharing stories again, personal ones this time. CATS Paramjeet, Jasmine, Jasmit, Preethy and Pradeep along with our Irish mate Phillip took the honours for riding the crest of both the Daniel as well as the Wall. I had been unanimously crowned the ultimate 'Pedal Queen'!

We stopped pedaling, not because we were tired but because we did not want our trip to end. However, all good things have to come to an end. With shore in sight at Marine Drive, we took some last pictures of the flipper gang of CATS on raft before alighting. True to our being, CATS frightened the next batch of rafters who were about to board the rafts. We could not stop laughing at CAT Vasu, CAT Gopika and CAT Uday, who were standing by the bus with one slipper each on their feet.

With our luggage loaded onto the bus, we soon reached the hotel in Rishikesh where we changed and CAT Rachna smeared medicated creams onto every sunburnt face. Hot pakoras with masala chai to get us going for Chandigarh. Even on the journey back, we could not stop nattering about our mini rafting expedition. CAT Joey kept yelling instructions from the back seat, ‘Get down’ when we hit a pot hole, ‘Barbie Doll’ when the road was all clear, ‘All left’ when traffic got bad. It was simply hilarious. Around midnight we hit Hotel Beckons where we were greeted by our student under training, Sukhi from CIHM.

But I could not finish without saying that our rafting trip would not have been possible, or at least not as smooth and well organized, had it not been for the hardwork of CAT Paramjeet, head guide Ramesh who ensured that everything was well explained, well understood and well followed by the CATS; CAT Navpreet who as usual helped in planning and purchase of travel sustenance; CAT Vishal who solely managed the registration process and the briefing session; and finally the under-training students of CIHM such as Sukhi, holding the reception desk at Hotel Chandigarh Beckons.

Oh guys, you REALLY don’t know what you missed.


- CAT Supreet