Splendid Expedition

[Preface: There is no glory than the glory of nature’s splendid view. Here author gives lyrical descriptions of nature’s splendor. He came for fun trip to Rishikesh. After having glimpse of Ganges River, Author was ecstatic to witness for the very first time which I had never thought off before. Author got thrilled of witnessing her new looks. Find out what author had to share about nature’s beauty.]

Chapter 1

A day in nature’s lap

After a long time with lots of excitement, I accompanied my colleagues for outstation fun trip. But on the way to our destination, it seems as if this journey was not adding any fun to my excitement, and in fact journey never happened to be safer and comfortable due to the poor construction of the road and this kept on halting all of my excitement. After the entire day of travel over rough and tumble roads and through the hustle and bustle of the rowdy town, this journey had utterly fatigued all of us. Night had fallen by the time we reached the camp. As soon as we reached there, I without any delay diverted towards restaurant and tried to hail waiter for the dinner to be served fast and then to go for an early sleep. That night the sky was dark and stormy. As I curled up in sofa, all snug and warm, soon listening to the storm outside, I felt asleep. After long time, it was sound asleep for me within the moments of getting into bed.

Though I rarely wake up early, hearing to the morning chirp of bird compelled me for early wake up. Rubbing my eyes in curiosity I moved out of my tent and followed the catchy chirp in order to see the bird that produces such an enchanting sound. As I moved out of my tent and rushed forward for the bird’s chirp, cool breeze outside made me feel more heavenly when it gently hit my face and blew my hair.

Oh it was freezing cold outside and was hard to bear as I was without shoes and warm clothes. But as I was about to turn back to my tent to get wrapped in the warmth of blanket, soon I could hear the bubbling sound of water moving over stones.

Suddenly moving a bit farther, my eyes stopped blinking; my steady heartbeat started pumping fast, I started rotating and looking around again and again, I was ecstatic to witness for the very first time which I had never thought off before. With the glimpse of "Ganges River" with the bubbling sound of water and the chirp of bird where the bird was flying up and down in a musical wave touching the river water again and again. I can’t believe that, Can the nature be so beautiful! I was completely speechless and short of adjectives to define the beauty which I always dreamt of. Sitting on the edge of Ganges River, I was astonished and extremely delighted to witness the elegance of nature’s splendor peace and tranquility and its well composed element's fun and joy. Though I was feeling cold, I couldn’t stop myself to throw hands up in the air and wave them around like I just don't care of it and wanted to embrace the blissful thrill of nature’s fun.

Slowly and slowly morning became sunny day with clear atmosphere. With clear sky the blueness of sky was looking more graceful to gaze. The chilly morning was gradually getting the heat of love from the glittering sun and was thinning out over and over in great rejoices. The murmuring sound of the butterflies flying with the thousands of joy was speaking in the language of angels. The Ganges was welcoming and inviting the Sun by shining and glittering more with the beautiful reflection of the light. I could see the beautiful flies touching the beauties of Ganges and making the small circular waves of water into plenty of countless circles. Then suddenly the new look of Ganges was discovered when sunlight strikes to these countless waves making thousands of twinkling reflection of light around all directions, which seems as if Ganges was ready to welcome the arrival of the angel “the beauty of heaven”. The whole nature around me was rejoicing and speaking the language of warmth and love.

Standing on the edge of beach I was enjoying the endless thrill of nature’s joy and fun. I was more delighted looking at my image on the still water as if as if I was there playing on the lap of Ganges. Soon my image in the still water was watered down into the layers of endless wave when beautiful butterflies touch my watery image. I felt myself being disappeared slowly and slowly with this wave far across along with the slow moving stream of water.

I was alone enjoying the riverside. I was soon been disturbed by the noise made by crowd. They wanted me to join them. This place is Rishikesh, the Holy place of India. My office colleagues had come for fun holiday. I had no choice but to join them. The whole crowd recognized me as an entertainer and wanted me to join them to witness my great sense of humor. I made everyone involved with interesting stories and incidents. People say my style in voice make things interesting.

Slowly and slowly the glory of day was turning towards awful evening where Ganges was converting into the carpet of darkness and this darkness was painted darker and darker with the shadow of Hercules Mountains, the monster of earth. On other side “Clouds” the Monster of sky seemed combating for the beautiful light of Sun to add to the darkness caused by the shadow of “Mountains”. Finally whole surroundings were completely painted dark and the noise of nature’s joy was jolted for silence. Night was getting miserable for me, but soon it seemed as if miracle is about to happen and I was given opportunity to be astonished to witness the miracle of heaven. I could see the spark in the sky as the swing of magic stick by the great magician of heaven causing miracle to happen in splendid way. Suddenly quite and silent night with the spark of magic seems getting prepared to welcome the starry skies and shyer Moon. Moon was bright but the brightness was in symbol of shyness, it was as if moon hesitates to be noticed by the creature of earth. But I could notice that it was clouds acting as monster putting them around and spreading it high to cover the brightness of moon as if it was getting jealous of beauty in moon’s vividness. We were looking at moon in great hope to put its milky in the dark to cheer the loveliness of starry skies.

Chapter 2

Daring Class

After having hot Chinese sweet corn soup with toasted bread and butter in breakfast on the riverside we were told by our guide to hurry up for river rafting. Till then the climate was still unpleasantly cold and the warmth of sunlight was not coming elegantly to us due to the smoky cloud scattering fast in the sky. Due to chilly morning all of us were petrified of cold water and was reluctant to move forward. But no choice was offered by our guide, instead he threatened us not to serve any meal and anyone who dared to deny the proposal would be thrown to water. Nobody dared to deny the proposal of this notorious guide.

If the team is big, the fun elements would definitely be plenty. The more funny part of this team of 14 members was that out of those only 3 were genuine swimmers. Since the both side of the river was covered by the hills and dense forest, the reflection of dark green color into water makes it look more horrible. I held my breath and put some courage to put on the rafting suit in order to honor the order of notorious guide. I put on my rafting suit and started taking some photograph. I looked amazingly cool and sexy in blue rafting suit with red helmet. In fact everyone had discovered their adventurous looks in that lovely rafting suit.

Technician and Instructor accompanying the guide told us that before moving forward for rafting we need to learn certain basic skills for the joyful ride. We learned how to position our body so that our body weight will be positioned rightly to balance our raft. We were demonstrated how to hook our feet into the raft rubber. I felt that in order to balance our raft with the flow of water needs expertise. We learned how to hold the paddle in order to maneuver rafts through running water. Paddling involves both skill and the ability to work with others as a team in order to steer our raft on the river. To learn paddling was very tough. Instructor told that Paddlers should be spread evenly on both sides of the raft. To move the raft forward, the paddlers make a digging motion. This is done by making left hand pull the stem of the paddle towards the aft or the rear end of the raft. The right hand at the same time pushes the top end of the paddle away from him or her. The opposite is done when making the raft move backward. This was easy to understand but tough to put into action. To make sure that things coordinated and that the paddlers of each side of the raft are paddling at their proper directions, our instructor chooses a leader to guide the rest of the team. They are usually the most experienced rafter of the group. It is each paddler’s duty to listen to the leader’s instructions.

All these basic skill was tough for me to understand and I was getting bit scared of committing mistakes which were very probable to happen. In our team with majority non swimmers I found terribly difficult to understand the importance of what the basic skill will do to in case the raft gets spun over by the high current of water. Putting lots of confidence I raised my voice towards instructor to ask what the worse that could happen if I commit any mistake. I was replied by the Instructor that any of your mistakes can throw you along with your friends into middle of this river.

Here comes the safety measures for us incase someone get jerked out of the raft due to roller coaster flow of river water. He raised the lifejackets for demonstration and told that this will make you float to be safe and I will rescue you from incase of any mishap. He warned all of us that, none of the mistakes are excused; you all will be suffering by any single mistakes. So flow the instructions and learn to save yourself and to save your crew member. Laughing towards us he cracked a joke by informing us that even in case of worst scenario this life jacket will make you float for more than 3 days and 3 days is sufficient for me to rescue you. Suddenly query rose which was obvious, “how can we survive without food”, He again laughed and told do I need to tell how to chew a baby fish in case of desperate hunger. It was really adventurous sport I had came across in my life. But at the end instructor made all of us to fell comfortable and confident for the adventure.

In between I was more ashamed when I observed that girls were almost ready for the raft and learning the skill more confidently. In order to avoid any tease from girls for being insulted, I thought to be into action of humor and tried to put myself more interesting, courageous and man with lots of confidence I came back into action and shouted at everyone to be very confident and call me for help and shouted high to inform them that in case of any problem and if someone is about to drown in the middle of river call my fellow friend who know swimming but not that well.

This fellow friend who knows swimming but not that well was young confident lady. This lady was cool and very excited for the rafting. I asked her if she is aware of the depth of the river and can she mange her swim in the middle of river rapids? She told southing in front of all of us that she don’t know swimming that well. It was funny to notice when every one there asked her in same voice in great surprise that you don’t know swimming. Oh everyone heard what se told I don’t know swimming. But the end of sentence “swimming that well” was not heard by anyone. After understanding what she was trying to say, whole team busted in great laugh which was echoed well to put fun to the atmosphere.

It was good to notice that everyone was regaining the confidence for the rafting. I too crawled down with the crowd towards the water. Instructor asked us to see if the water is cold. Oh it was frigid enough to keep my whole body sever. One pretty lady of our team raised her voice, “water is very chilly and is hard to bear it for long”. Then instructor asked other guy standing next to her to pour water into her. As he started pouring water into her, she shouted in a horror and pealed not to do that. But I added to it by splashing water hard to her face. Soon everyone started raining water to each other. The fear of cold water was gone now. What a great instructor we had, who cleverly made us to fight with our fear factor. Soon fear factor disappeared. Now he raised the whistle and showed his confidence that everyone is prepared for the adventure.

Chapter 3

On the way to Rafting

(We apologize that this portion is still in draft phase)

Article Written By :

Bijay Kumar Yadav
Administrator/Member