The Weekend

Monday morning. I reach office with swollen eyes and hell bad body pain.. yet with every muscle move I remembered what a crazy weekend it had been. It's kinda ritual in the office that everyone asks you about how your weekend was and I was just waiting for that one person to ask me how was mine.
Friday. I was shaken up at 3 in the morning by my roommate. Startled I got up. I had just slept. She asked"Rishikesh chalogi?" "Hell yes!" I said. I never say "No" to going out, even when you wake me up from my slumber. I quickly packed everything that I could get my hands on. The plan was to leave the next day at 12 in the night.. 'Oh What would I do till then?' I hate to waste my weekend. So I decided to join my friends partying at Cyber. We had fun and I forgot about the time. Just then I received a call from my roomie and she shrieked over the phone.. such an angry sikhni that she is..I love her when she displays her fluency over all the punjabi slangs. She asked me to run home it was almost time. I'm a brat kid amongst the roommates. I don't really follow what's told to me. Still I took some time to reach home..I wasn't expecting the trip to be a successful one as all the planning was in a very bad state. We had no idea where we'd stay.. how it's gonna work. Still I hopped along with her. As I entered the cab, I saw a bunch of dull, sad people looking at me. It felt as if the traveller was hijacked and I'm from the rescue team. I knew no one and I was pretty much high, so with no intention to create trouble for others I took the farthest seat and made myself comfortable. I'd already sensed that this trip's gonna be super boring. I was prepared but somehow it reflects on my face when I'm not liking it..my roomie understood.. she kept on insisting me to come and dance and have fun.. ab sala I can't dance on chittiyan kalaiyan. After a long non verbal, eye to eye argument with Taran(my roomie), I finally stepped in and took incharge of the music. I played back to back party songs to which these sad, hijacked people just clapped. Hadd h. I somehow tolerated.

After hours of sleeplessness.. i finally asked Taran to give me my "medicine" so that i quietly doze off and just wake up at R'kesh. And voila the guys got into action.. The trip finally began to get interesting. They were impressed at my speed and capacity to drink the bitter medicine without making any faces...
We finally woke up in Haridwar. Well, about H'dwar... please don't overspend. The breakfast was pathetic and was so overpriced. Also don't take any girl-aunt along with you who just acts as if she knows it all.. trust me at one time I just wanted to slaughter her. After all the dupki and paap dhona at H'dwar we took our seats again and resumed our journey to R'kesh.

You know you've entered the City Of Gods when everywhere you just hear temple bells echoing as the place is surrounded by hills on all sides.

I was starting to like the trip now. That was what I came for tolerating all these boring ladies and even boring guys. Just for the sake of ease always book your trip beforehand and plan where you'd like to stay because you'll find most of these places occupied and you'll have to spend the night In the traveller. There was this aunty with us who was continuously blabbering how her vacation with her husband was when she came here earlier and how well she knew every place here.. she knew how stuff works..i felt like giving a roadies salute to her right under her left ear..irritate kr diya by God.
Well, we reached the place where they booked the rides for rafting. The sea was experiencing high tides so we could manage to get a 12km ride only but that was more than enough for a first timer. The Ganga was enthralling. The chilled water amidst the sound of bells and bhajans echoing from all the directions. We geared up for our rafting spree and the guide who was a very young Goan guy, gave us instructions..."suno sab ekdm kaan khol k..4 instructions dega apun..theek se follow nhi krega to apni safety khud dkhne ka..jo jacket diya wo 72 ghanta bacha payegi bs.." With the roar of Ganga Mayya Ki Jai we all the set our rows in water and set for the experience of our life..

we rafted over four rapids... each one even more dangerous than the other.. after crossing two rapids the guide told us to jump..Jump? Man this is the coldest water ever, 150 feet deep.. how can someone jump. A water baby that I'm.. I cannot resist water..I jumped..sinked into the chilling waters of The Ganges, battled my way up to the surface and enjoyed it to the fullest. Thereafter I kept swimming..I crossed the Laxman jhula. The Ram jhula. I swam across them and it felt like crossing the English channel. To top it all.. it started raining.. but it didn't make the things any worse but even better.I don't remember if at any time throughout the trip we stayed dry.. not for a very long time even if we did. There comes a Maggie point where there's a hault for sometime. While many enjoy Maggie break there other maniacs like me try to explore more. Me along with two more guys, who seemed a little bit inclined to the cool brigade, went for a small trekking..we trekked alongwith the little waterfall and wanted to see where was its origin. We'd climbed almost 5km when we had to return to resume our rafting but not before trying another jig- cliff jumping. Oh what a thrill this trip was giving me. I loved all these adventures. I had no idea how much deep the water was, diving into a pool is a very different thing but here it's all the more raw and adventurous. I climbed the cliff and jumped right into the water without much resistance. Half way into the water....I again gained control of myself and fished myself up to the surface. What a feeling! It's a must try. R'kesh offers a lot of adventure sports like these at a very affordable price. We can book a package and plan the trip accordingly. The loopholes in this trip actually helped me plan a better trip for next time. Our rafting ended after covering two more rapids. We enjoyed the rest of the evening at a chai stall. The weather was beginning to get bad..we were expecting heavy rains.. and really the camping plan for the night was squashed. I planned to spend my night with my best friend living at R'kesh rather than going to the camp as it was of no use. We won't be able to do anything in these heavy rains. My friend's flat was also surrounded by hills on all sides and the lightning and thunder gave me quite a shiver. R'kesh is definitely a place to visit for nature lovers and yoga freaks. Being the yoga capital of India it is the hub of many yoga institute mushrooming at every nook and corner, attracting lots of foreign tourists every season. What an irony..wo hmara yoga kar re hain aur hum unke burgers kha re hain.
R'kesh is like a single bedroom flat that we have in Delhi, every thing at hand. There's just a single market that caters to the need of the entire city. Multiple picnic spots, waterfalls at a drive's distance. After spending the night at my friend's place which felt no less than a hill resort to me, considering all the beautiful scenery I woke up to in the morning, I headed towards Patna Waterfall.
I don't know why they call it that. Everybody else was already present there. They had spent the night at the camp and all they did was to sit inside and chatter away..seriously?? My friend rode me to the waterfall contouring through the markets and narrow lanes of the city. It was a mad ride. The next thing I saw was Laxman jhoola in front of me, flooded with people and there was no way we were riding across this. But we were. It was so scary to see a narrow bridge hanging in the middle of Ganges, swarming with people and bikes riding over it..Incredible India!
We rode through the twists and turns of the mountains and reached the waterfall. Everyone else was waiting for me. Least that they know how much fun I had in the last two days. We geared up for our next trekking experience. It was really tiring but where will you get these experiences. Just a day more and then we'll be back to our 9 to 5 jobs..cracking fingers all day. This was a much needed fun to uplift young spirits. It was a two hour long climb and when we finished it we had the most beautiful scene in front of us.. The water so clear, the air so clean. It seemed it was purifying our soul, wounds were healing on their own.

(People have still managed to litter around..sudhar na paenge kabhi. )

We spent a good amount of time playing in the water, climbing steep rocks and enjoying the natural jacuzzi. There are many more waterfalls around the same area. They also have cliff jumping and flying fox sports conducted there. Maybe next time will head towards that but for now we had to leave. It was a long descend. This time we descended along with the flow of water to make sure we don't lose our way down. And this is better because a person gets so tired in the process, being near to water keeps you cool and hydrates you.
Our traveller was waiting for us on the main road. Couldn't believe weekend was gone already and we have to leave. The weather in the hills is unpredictable and it had already started to rain. We were welcomed by heavy storms and long traffics on our way back but it seemed nothing was ruining the mood, in fact adding onto it. I had become friends with most of them now, owing to my nature that I become friendly pretty fast and everybody gets comfortable with my nasty joke cracking abilities. I am a fun person to be around.. yeah C'mon I'm not bragging..hehe..(if the other person is friendly enough to talk) . Anyways, we took out our medicines once again and the weather added spice to the atmosphere. We stopped at multiple places for snacks, tea, loo breaks. The traffic was not clearing up and there were reports of landslides from the nearby areas. Our driver was even more worried, not about the weather much but being in the company of freaks like us who sat on the roads every time the traffic paused.

I have developed this disorder of insomnia recently that doesn't allow me to sleep much. I was up till morning and slept only when we were about to reach. There was a hell lot of work to be done in the office, It was the Bloody Monday.