la vie: September 2006

September 10th 2006

Destination: Bhimeshwari

Location information: This is being conducted in Cauvery River, Bangalore Dist., This place is around 100 Kms from Bangalore. The rafting starts from Bheemeshwari and passes through thick forests, which is in Cauvery Wildlife sanctuary, Kanakapura Division, and the rafting event is around 8 Kms, This swift and powerful river stretch is through beautiful valley, the real experience through the wilderness without leaving any trace in the nature and still experiencing the beauty of Mother Nature. The entire stretch comprises of Grade 2+ which offers more thrill and the rush of adrenaline high of your lifetime.

Now the funniest part of the information provided by the organisation was: Non-Swimmers can take part in the Rafting Event because all the participants will be provided with Life jackets. Now I dont have clue about swimming. I relie on eating as much and drinking as much as I can in order to create a false and misinformed illusion that I will become more Buoyant and will survive by floating above water. Once we reached there, we checked out the Jackets. There was a list on instructions on the back of each jacket, the primary being " this is not a life saving device. This jacket will not save you from drowning " . It will assist swimmers in thier efforts. Damn ! then why the hell was it called life jackets!!!!

Majestic railway station reservation building was our pickup point. We all grouped there at around 7.00 am and entered the station canteen for a non descript breakfast. I have some stale cheese sandwich whereas the rest gorged upon South Indian regulars like Idly sambar, Onion Uttapam, Masala Dosa etc. we chitchatted for a while about the bad food.

Then we boarded our mini bus which was stationed at the parking lot. There was another group already in the bus. They were around 10 people. Looked like another techi -crowd by the looks of it. We settled down and the Journey began.

We passed thorough the center of Ol Bangalore through Basavangudi(famous for its sunday shopping sprees and fab restaurants, then passed through Banashankari (famous for the notorious Deepti Chandrashekar) , kanakpuram(dont know what is it famous for ) . Then started the journey towards mysore.

The gang started with Dumb Charades, we had some state school champs amoungst our midst and the game turned out to be too easy for both teams.. I watched in amazement at how a wiggling of a thumb or a groutesque expression can enable the teammates to guess the film names in split seconds. Guess being emotive is a talent as so is non verbal communications. They say a nod of the head or a smile can convey thousand emotions. Am sure that they made up that phrase after watch these guys an girls in action.

Then we moved on to Antakshari, the other gang in the bus was also playing the same musical game. so we decided to have a battle of vocals hehe.. But those poor souls were outnumbered badly. so we being the gracious homo sapiens lended our voices to their selection of songs. a few budding Latas and Rafis where spottings...err.. who am I kidding! we all sucked at singing, well almost all of, there were a few decent voices like varsha and priyanka..

We exhausted all our songs and then a lull fell upon us. minute by minute passed, the silence thicked. Then I whispered to Fiaq, " dude, I really need to go" he gave me a knowing smile and said " me too". Then we conferred with the other members and arrived at an ultimatum, either stop the bus within 10 mins at a desolated place or ........... stop the bus within 10 mins at a desolated place. Then by a sixth sense that the vehicle possessed, it started twitching and jolting with a malevolent spirit. ' uuhhhh" sighed all of us in unison. Then a sensible subject from the crowd approached the driver and mutter some incohherent rambling words into his ears. and a miracle shone upon us. Then vehicle slowed down and halted to a stop.

As we admired the scenic beauty of the place, a herd of gaunt, emaciated bulls strolled passed us. The desire to become a Matador overcame me and I walked haughtily towards one of the specimens. The nearest I came, I realised my folly seeing its long sharp horns. Making a wise decision, I pulled back and restricted myself to giving a gentle pat on its back. " Peace".

We hopped back onto the Bus and then reached our destination in about half an hours time. We had the fortune to come across some wildlife, a elephant cow with its baby and a bunch of unruly monkeys. Once we reached the place, we alighted and walked towards the river side. It was a wonderful sight, the river flowing gently along its course with a backdrop of lush forest covered hills behind it. It was a sight to behold. You get a sense of being transported to a different timezone where man and his preoccupations seem insignificant on the face of the vast supremacy of mother nature. It seems selfish to think about yourself when you can sense the forest teeming with millions of lives which co-exists with a peaceful harmony.

Well, as I wandered in my contemplative visions, the rest of the gang had changed into waterwear, well thats a new word to the English vocabulary. The stuff the gang wore could not be termed as anything close to swimwear, neither it was normal wear, thus the term conjured into existence.

We all wore out battle gear consisting of the ineffective "life" jacket, colorful helmet(fit all sizes) and a spear cum paddle. We all look so smart that we commanded the organizers to take some pleasing snaps of us and we sure did make a great battalion!. The main instruction , a north east dude, climb upon a raft and started articulating on the curriculum on hand. Pretty boisterous chap I say!! after the blood curdling speech, we roared out a battle cry and engaged our machines for the Journey( translation: carried the raft to river bank) then one by one we climbed on board and waited for the order from the guide. The guide shouted Forward Row and we embarked upon the unforgettable journey. Our captain of the raft resembled jack sparrow to an extend with his unshaven rugged look( not to be confused with johney depp, incomparable) with the sly grin and the confident way in which he command the rowers.

Intially we were thinking it was more of a boating trip than that of rafting excursion. The thought of mutiny arouse but was doused quickly at the sight of the first white waters. we looked upon our captain for direction and on cue he started giving commands, Forward row, stop, backward row stop. Thus we cross the first huddle, consequence= respect for the captain and willingness to slog our asses off.

It was the best experience that I had in a long long while and I think that would apply to everyone in our gang. The best stress reliever I have had in ages. The kinda fun we had was amazing. Initially everyone was rowing as hard and fast as they could, but as soon as we realised that its the journey thats needs to be experienced and not the destination, we kinda relaxed into a slow rythm taking in all the beautiful landscape in ( atleast thats what I did.. now I wonder whether thats Y the raft was angling towards the other side all the time hehe ) we hit some more white water spots swirlling around and bouncing up and down.

Then we reach a calm spot. Suddenly the Captain said " everyone jump out of the boat" . I looked at him shocked.. Did the freaking sun fried his brains?? didnt he know that I would sink like an anchor to the bottom ie if there was one! .. he repeated again "jump" and some bugger actually tossed himself out. I was like ' damn , I am the only sane one here " one by one all of them jumped out.. images of old pirate stories where men are made to walk the board flashed.. then I said what the hell, I aint gonna get stuck with the crazy captain and dove into the water.. The water was so comforting that I actually blessed the captain and again my respect rose. So we stayed hanging by the side of the drifting raft for the next 15 mins. I almosted anticipated the captain bursting into a song as we just flowed by.

Then play time was over, he hauled each of us onto to raft, the funniest being priyank who fell onto the raft like a beached shark, trembling on the floor of the raft. the rowers onboard suspected that she fainted, and I who was still floating an trying to catch a glimpse thought that she got stuck betwn the two seats. fortunately she was just laughing her lungs out lying prone on the ground.

So we reached one of the most active parts of the river where the rapids were actually rapids.
We negotiated the treacherous zone with a proffessional zest and crossed over to the finishing point.

We jumped into the water and soaked our aching muscles and bones in the cool water for a few precious moments. Then we all hopped onto the back of a African safari Jeep imitation. The drive back was awsome to say the least, the cool wind whipping across our faces as we duck below overhead branches. We made our way back across the 8 km terrain to base camp.

We got down and changed into dry cloths..exception being me.. I did not get any , thus i was roaming around with a towel wrap around me, typical mallu istyle.

we boarded the bus and then stopped at a vacant area near the river side to have our lunch.. famished as we were the food tasted heavenly. we also had some monkey friends for company..

We finished lunch and then resumed our journey back to city tired, happy and a little sad that it ended so quickly.

Some of the best snaps from the trip are on the web link given below, dont forget to go through it!!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sunith_shyam/album?.dir=/d1abscd