Trip te Rafting - Shaweta's version

i went for this fantabulous river rafting trip to rishikesh this holi week-end. pooja, my elder sister also came along. what crazy fun we had, esp. coz we didn't know how to swim! the guide would yell 'jump' n we wud hv to let go of all apprehensions n jump in the chilly waters of ganga. that was his way of familiarizing us with the waters in case we fell into the water and needed to be rescued. our tight life jackets clung onto us n the ropes from the raft were no less than our lifelines all through. the rapids had interesting names (eg the wall-where the raft has to flip and throw everybody out coz it is as huge n dangerous as a wall can be once u hit it head on. we never hit it though! there were other relatively easier rapids called the three blind mice, roller coaster, double trouble etc...all with little stories behind their names) and they were graded from 1-6 according to danger levels. we went thru rapids from 1-4 grading n were tossed about in the turbulent waters more than 20-25 km from 'byasi'-the place from where we began rafting. pooja n i had the ore raft while the other raft had to be paddled. our guide was called garry n i later found out that he was also the head cook for our camp! this is not confirmed but i heard a little birdy saying that. after the rafting came cliff jumping. for a change i was lying in the raft n looking up at all sorts of people n their reaction before n after jumping. i was glad i chose to watch them rather than jumping in like my usual self!that night cannot be described in words. we were staying in tents, pretty big ones with two beds n quilt n pillows for each bed. imagine this. full big moon in the middle of high green hills, a beautiful wide river singing by in the twilight, empty tents lined symmetrically in front of it n a bonfire in front of the beach volleyball court. we were a group of thirteen young boys n girls sitting around the bonfire, sharing songs, ghost storie! s and lots of poor jokes thanks to out sardar friend, monga singh , the manmeet. his 'serious name' is manmeet singh monga but we all began calling him 'the monga' or 'the manmeet singh monga'! . some of his jokes will linger on for a long long time. for instance, he asked me what r u doing? i said 'i am rela'xing' n he reponded by saying 'i am manmeet singh'! there are atleast 100 more punch lines he gave us that have permanently offset our thinking brains! the next day we were to climb down a cliff. it was not a very high cliff and coming down didn't look challenging at all. waiting for my turn in the queue tired me n the sun made me feel 'faintish'. by the way, thirteen of us were standing perched on the mountainside for more than half an hour, like the chameleons of shivaji in gorilla warfare perch! chalo we also managed to come down the mountain safely n posed at different levels for photographs, as if we'll never be caught on camera doing that again!...we pulled out some 'ganne' from tractors passing by while coming back in 2 hired qualis gaadiyan. came back chewing them n singing all kinds of songs later-jattu songs, punju songs, eng/hindi songs, sad songs, fun songs, 'cheepar' songs (what a friend of mine called the vulgar ones)and some classy good ghazals too. abhi my boss will shoot me at sight if i dont start working on my assignment... coz all this morning i hv been thinking n writing just about this trip...only if i could go back JUST ONCE ...i'll stop churning the experience from different angles inside me... :)