First love....

Forward mails don't impress me at all. They usually get deleted within 30 seconds from my inbox. But this particular mail is an expection. It has been residing in my inbox for more than 30 days(quite an acheivement considering my standards);so I decided that I will put it up in my blog. It is a simple story but I was so moved by it that I was almost in tears when I read it for the 1st time. Hmmm it is probabaly because this story is based in my native place Trichy... Read on... :) 

It's a story of a Brahmin gal who loved a non-Brahmin and due to father's compulsion married a Brahmin guy and leading a perfect life with little happiness!!

Dearest Appa,
27th Jan'1965

Hope this letter finds you, Amma, Raji and Seenu in good health. The weather here in New York City is icy cold. But Avar sollraar- I have missed this winter's biting cold. I still wish I had seen the snow…

But then, I still wish I had not left Trichy at all. I do miss Trichy, Appa. You, Amma, Raji, Seenu, pakkatthaathu Rama, Vikatan, Ucchi Pillaiyaar Koil, filter coffee, Holy Cross College, the Physics Department and of course Sakthi. I know you wish I hadn't brought his name in this letter.But not to worry Appa, I understand that you got me married to Visu because you thought it was best for your daughter.

I still remember Amma wiping her silent tears with her madisaar thalappu and you shouting at me the day I told you about Sakthi. Later, when the initial shock wore off you patiently listed umpteen reasons why I should not marry Sakthi. I agree Appa, that 20 is too young to decide, that Raji and Seenu would have been affected greatly by my 'mistake', the Agrahaaram would have scoffed at you… a meat eater was not a good match for someone who had never even tasted onion and garlic. The reasons were innumerous. I knew you'd still have objected and offered other reasons even if he had become a Dhigambara monk. Visu on the other hand, wore a poonal, he is the son of Neelakanta Sastri, an Engineer and he researched about computers which is what made you jump for this alliance. Am not complaining Appa, Visu is a nice man.

Tell Amma that I could not try her kozhakkattai recipe this Pongal because coconuts were too expensive and Avar nenacchar that it was ridiculous. Anyway, we went out on Sankaranthi day and dined out. He thought it would be a good idea to invite the Chatterjees also. But I didn't speak Bengali and Mrs.Chatterjee spoke English in an accent that comes with living years in America. Hence I made myself busy with the menu card. They ordered various species of fish,shrimp and a lot more of items I had never seen in my life. I ordered orange juice and a sandwich. The other diners thought it was queer coming to a seafood restaurant and settling for a sandwich. That day, I learnt that Avar prefer pannradhu beef, pork, bacon and seafood. Do you know, Appa… Sakthi gave up meat because of me? I didn't ask, he just did. But then, Sakthi is not Neelakanta Sastri's son and that made it imposible for Subramania Iyer's daughter Kalyani to marry him.I will keep you posted on what happens here. I don't think I can make it to Seenu's Upanayanam. Tell Amma not to get me a pattu podavai for the poonal, I don't use them here. I wore it once and felt like a clown here.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa,

20th Oct'1968

We are fine here. Gautam is speaking his first words and I swear they sounded like 'Dosai'. But Visu claims it's just gibberish. From your previous letter, I gather that pakkathatthu Rama is married and settled in Jamshedpur. Nice to know that. Please find out her address from Saarada maami and write it to me. I want to keep in touch with her. I hope Raji is happy with her husband in Madras. I spoke to her last month, great to know that she has a phone. Do tell Seenu to study well and prepare for his school final exams. Raji also told me that Sakthi is married now. I wish him good luck, but I could not convey the message to him. Raji refused to be the messenger and I know you have severed ties with Sakthi's father, your long term friend Sankaravel, thanks to me. I hear his wife is his cousin… He must have succumbed to his mother's wishes.

How did Avani Avittam go? Visu's mother gave me a bunch of new poonals for Avani Avittam but Visu was in Boston that day. He wouldn't have used it anyway, I haven't seen him wear one in the last three years. Gautam is now playing with the spool of thread- mere thread it is, what else can I call it? Gautam will not even know what it signifies, I guess. Visu is making sure Gautam grows up listening to English only. He says it will make his life easier. But I do read out passages from Ponniyin Selvan and Bharathiyaar's poetry when I am alone with him. It's more of reading to myself, I guess. I actually got that poetry book as a present from Sakthi, it still has his scrawling signature in the first page.

By the way, Visu saw that book and asked me about Sakthi, I told him. Hold your breath Appa, he didn't throw me out of the house. He is a good man, no question. He said it is okay and that he doesn't mind. And then he told me of his American girlfriend whom he was once in love with, when he first reached America- Amy, a fellow Researcher who was in a brief relationship with Visu when she was in New York. They lived together for 3 months and decided against marriage, somehow. Amy once dropped home when she was in New York. Nice lady, she was.

Ask Amma to send me Sambar Podi for this whole year. My friend Sudha is coming to Madras next week. Ask Seenu to catch the Rockfort Express and give it to her. I will collect it from her here.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa,

3rd June'1974

We have arrived here safely. After two months in India, I find it hard to adjust back to normal life here. Gautam and Ranjana demand vadai,paayasam and vaazhai ilai here. Visu's relieved to be back in America. I left a set of my books there. If it's not in Trichy it must be in Visu's parents' place. If you find them, safeguard them until my next trip. They mean a lot to me since they were gifts from Sakthi. By the way, Appa, I found out Sakthi's present address in Madras from Rama and Saarada maami. I wrote to him. I am extremely proud to know that Dr.Sakthivel is a cardiologist much in demand there in Madras. He was thrilled to hear from me after so long. You know what he has named his daughters? Kalyani and Raagamaalika.

He called me. You know what, he's still a practising vegetarian, Appa. He didn't revert back just because he lost me… He asked me if I still sang and whether Gautam and Ranjana could sing. I could see a proud father in him, when he claimed his daughters could sing upto Ra ra Venu Gopala. That's when I remembered that I was once a good singer. I wonder why I stopped singing, wonder why I never exposed the kids to Music and Dance. But then, I realize that I had buried all that deep inside me when I left Trichy; after bidding farewell to my best Rasika, actually. Sakthi. After the call, I tried singing 'Kurai Onrum Illai'. I could not rquite reach Charanam, because of the lack of practice and more importantly because of the tears that filmed my eyes and the constriction in my throat. I sang to Visu and the kids one of these days. Though Gautam was impressed, father and daughter could not just wait for me to finish!

By the way, next time some friend comes to India, send me a Sruthi Box. I would like to start singing again.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa,

14th Aug 1978

Just back after our tour to California. Find our photos, picture postcards attached herewith. After you are done with showing all family members,relatives, friends and neighbours, pass them to Visu's parents. It was a welcome break for the four of us. But I missed my paattu class students all along and was happy to resume the classes again last evening. Did I mention in my previous letter, before we left on the tour - I finally got my driving license here. I sent a few photos to Sakthi too. He has sent me quite a few records and cassettes. I loved it! I'm reminded of AIR, almost! I'm circulating them among my friends too. And of course, playing them for my students too. They are picking up beautifully. Funny news is, I, a Tamilian, is teaching Telugu and Sanskrit kritis to a cross section of Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada,Telugu, Marathi, Bengali students in an English speaking nation. The music sessions have resulted in a reborn Kalyani, Appa. Thanks to Sakthi, really. I would have never taken it up had it not been for his reminder. I am now thinking of what life would have been like if I had indeed married him. I would have of course lost you and Amma.

But right now, with this life in America, Visu and these monthly letters to you, Rama, Raji and Seenu what have i gained? I don't find an answer, Appa. Neither do I think I ever will. Again, as I have always reiterated, Visu is a good man, no complaints there. He is every bit the son in law you wanted. Researcher, American Post Graduate Degree holder, a dutiful husband and father,earning a comfortable income. I know it is too much to ask for anything else.

That is a fantasy I left midway in my life… Once upon a time in Trichy with someone else.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa,

14th Apr'1984

Met Dr.Sakthivel after 19 years… He had come to New York for business purposes and paid me a visit. Visu and the kids welcomed him home with great pleasure. And they liked him too. In fact, they did most of the talking initially. And of course, he got me a whole load of books, cassettes, Mysore Paak and lots more.

Your loving daughter,

Kalyani.

Dearest Appa,

20th Jan' 1990

I just went through all these letters lying in my closet draw for years together. These are letters I started writing to you and then decided not to post. For obvious reasons. I could not mention Sakthi to you even though I was itching to. Not because I was afraid to invite your wrath. I just did not have the heart to hurt you, I know these letters would have hurt you. Because deep inside, I know you were disturbed- you knew Sakthi was a good man, you knew he was a man of substance, yet you didn't want to go further. Society, I know. Family… I know… And all these letters would have only wounded you more. Today, 2 years after your death, and 6 months after Dr. Sakthivel's untimely death in a road accident, I somehow felt like re-reading all these letters. To me, all these unstamped, unposted letters mean a life that could have been.

Kalyani Viswanathan.

How valuable is your money...??

If your wallet is somewhere near you jus take out a 100 rupee note(well if it s the last week of month even a 10 rupee note wud suffice :P). Just think of what all you will be able to do with this little piece of paper in your hand. You can just walk in to your nearby Potti Kadai for instance and can buy stuff worth 100 rupees . The shopkeeper simply accepts that piece of paper(yea trust me .. it is only a piece of paper..) in exchange to all the stuff which he provides you. But if you try to shop with the same piece of paper in some other country the shopkeeper will simply shoo you away. (Well if u wanna experiment this try payin an autorickshaw driver in chennai with sri lankan currency...observe wat he says and report back to me :P nd don complain if ur ears start bleeding) . Similarly one can't use Indian currency in Lanka. Well everyone knows this as a fact but why is that the piece of paper which is valuable in India worthless elsewhere?

Well if you look closely you can see the following promise note written out on the currency note 'I promise to pay the bearer the sum of one hundred rupees' signed by the honorary governor of RBI.(Probably all jobless people like poeple like me would have noticed this). So what is the significance of this statement and why is the governor of RBI has come down to the level of 'aam aadmi' and written out a promise note to us.

I was under an assumption that RBI would maintain a reserve in gold equivalent to the currency which it publishes. So suppose lets us say that somehow you lose faith in the RBI you can always go to the RBI and demand for gold. Well this sounds fair enough. The RBI gets to keep the real money and you will be having the representative paper money which is easy to carry around for trading.

Consider this scenario. Supposing if there is only 1 kilogram of gold in the RBI reserve. It can issue currency worth around 7500000 rupees only (yea thts the price for 1 kg of gold...for those who are specific about the exact gold price check it out here. esp for de ladies). Of course they can issue notes worth twice that value(i.e Rs 15000000)but it only means we are reducing the value of our currency by half.

With a little bit of googling I found out there is a name for this and it is called the gold standard. But thank god I did some googling. I found out some other startling facts. I always had assumed that this gold standard holds good even to this day. But I realized that this gold standard was dumped long back even before I was born. USA was the last country which had used this gold standard but it was abandoned in 1971 by Mr.President Nixon.

Before 1971 it was agreed through Brenton Woods system that all countries would maintain its reserves in US dollars (not in gold as I had previously assumed) and in USA every dollar would be backed by one dollar worth of gold (well atleast in theory) . The countries which would have its reserves in dollar would be able to exchange the US dollars to gold whenever it wished to.

To put it in plain terms let us suppose you had one hundred rupees with you before 1971 and wanted it change that cash to gold. What you should have done is, you should have walked upto the RBI and got US dollars equivalent to 100 rupees. Then you will have to go all the way to Washington DC to the Central Bank in USA and get gold worth that amount.(Phew tough job.. :P.). Lets imagine that each and everyone of us decides to do the same thing; suddenly the pressure on the US govt to give gold will increase and the system will collapse. This is precisely what happened before 1971 when some of the countries like France wanted to convert its dollar reserves to gold and US was in deep trouble because in reality it had only 22% percent of its dollars backed by gold.(Anyways there was never enough gold in this earth to back all the paper currencies in the world. So this system was bound to collapse.)

So one fine morning in 1971 Mr. President Nixon announced that the US dollars cannot be exchanged for gold. All the countries with which had dollar reserves woke up to the rude fact that all the reserves which it had built over the years are nothing but mere paper. If you look the current US dollar bill there will not be any promise note as we have it here.

US $1 bill

Note that it only says that the note is only a legal tender for all debts public and private. Nowhere in the note there is any promise made to return the bearer the sum of 1 dollar like in our case. (Note that after this incident countries started to maintain reserves in several foreign currencies commonly known as the forex reserves. Since there are several currencies in the reserve the value of the reserve would remain reasonably stable. Well I ll write about forex reserves in another blog. Now jus read on.)

So now we have ruled out the gold standard completely. That brings us back to square 1. What is the meaning of this peice of paper in your hand and does the governor's promise in our notes still hold good? If it is not gold standard there has to be something else which gives the value to the money.

Well the answer is "FIAT". What does this word remind you of? Cars which ruled the Indian roads in 1980s..?? (Cars which ruled Indain roads? Fiat??U mite never agree.. ;) U mite say Ambasador or Maruti 800 or may be even the contessa.. Since my dad owned a Fiat Premier Padmini (1985 model) I am giving this honour to fiat.. lol .. Anyway this is my space and I can write anything here) . But we are talking about a different FIAT here.

Well what exactly is this FIAT? This system declares all paper currency issued by the government as legal tender. So basically the 100 rupee note which you are holding in your hand is not backed by anything valuable but just by another bunch of papers signed by some government authority declaring it to be valuable.(Hmmm isnt it quite funny that we slog out day in and day out jus for these bunch of papers.)

Well then... What about the governor's promise in the note which you are holding in your hand? Does it still hold good? Well the governor's promise makes this piece of paper a legal bond. It is the Government's way of telling that it will accept taxes only in form of the currencies which it publishes. Since our government accepts it, everyone who is supposed to pay taxes to the government will accept these notes.

Note that this system will work only if the people of the country trust the value of the currency. The governor's promise is there in the note only for the sole purpose of instilling trust in the people. My God!! We are living in the Kaliyug and we are talking about a system which works purely on TRUST.Sounds creepy? Hmmm...

There is a reason why such a ridiculous system is put to use all over the world.This system establishes the paper currency as the common form of exchange for all forms of trade within the country.(Note that it is only within the country). If there isn't any common form of exchange then everyday trading would be almost impossible and comical. The price boards in your local vegetable markets will look something like this.

1kg Rice = .25 kg of potato

1kg potato = .5 kg of onion

1kg onion = o.2 kg chicken

and list will go on..

You should actually got to have some potato with you to buy rice. (You ll be in real trouble if you are a vegetarian and if u wanna buy some onion in this particular market.. :D). So paper currency is the saviour which helps us to do all the shopping even though they dont have a intrinsic value for themselves.

So ultimately what is the one thing which gives the value to the peice of paper which you are holding in your hand. It is TRUST. It is quite stange but it is a fact. It is only with this trust the entire world is functioning today. Hmmm.. Nambikai than Vazka.. So true...

PS: Please leave a comment if u read this post..

Hi.. 1st of all i wud like to thank the person who tagged me.. archana.. for otherwise this blog wud ve been dead.. de prob is i don find nethin to write abt.. neways i am answering this particular 'love tag'... for dose very few ppl who happen to read this plz post marks outta 100 for my answers .. ;)

RULE #1 : People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.
RULE #2 : Tag 6 people to do this quiz and they cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?

Well !!! If this were to happen I wudnt have fallen for that gal in the 1st place.... but if at all it happens i wudnt be too worried about it.. I ll jus move on...


2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?

I have only one big dream..i.e to make a round trip around the world.. nd it ll be no ordinary trip.. it shud last for atleast 2 to 3 yrs..


3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
All bday boys' butt :) durin de bday bumps..

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?

I would like to make my dream come true.. (ref Q2)..  athuku apprama 'nallu paerku nalladu pannuvaen'.. I would start schools in all remote villages giving quality education free of cost to those who cant afford it.. then i would also like to go to the international space station as a visitor.. (well i doubt if 1 billion would be enough to do all this.. y dont we make it 10 billion..)


5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?

Y not ..?? I wud happily fall in love with her..


6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?

This is the easiest question .. Being loved is blessed.. no doubts abt it.. 


7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?

If i keep waiting I mite be waiting forever... So I wud go ahead and fall in love with the person whom i wud marry... :)


8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?

Nothin can be done.. I can only leave out a big sigh..:)


9. If you like to act with someone, who will it be? Your gf/bf or an actress/actor?

Have played in acts in school.. but now am not interested in actin.. i ll turn down the offer


10. What takes you down the fastest?

a speedin car or a train or a truck wud take me down de fastest..!! (atleast i shud put one PJ.. thts y sorry abt tht)

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?

10 yrs...!!! I wud like to do a lots of things by then.. but wait.. i ll update this particular answer on 25/09/2018..


12. What’s your fear?

Ghosts...:) 


13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

I reallt do not know much abt her to be very frank.. but i ve feelin tht she is very intelligent and has the natural tendancy to debate and convince ppl.. (may b u shud try ur hand in politics...)


14. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?

Rich and single.. Obivous choice.. ;)


15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

There would this big question in my mind... Should i open the eyes or should i sleep for 5 more mins..??? 


16. Would you give all in a relationship?

If it is a real relationship then I wud give everythin.. (well giving everythin is my defintion of a ideal realtionship)


17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?

I would propse to both of them nd ll choose the person who says yes... U may want to ask wat ll i do u do if both say 'yes'.. (ethallam romba too much imagination...oru ponnukay vazhiya kanoma,.. rendu paer veraya..??)


18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?

I ll defintely forgive if the person involved is really my frnd and if he realizes his mistake.. lla na 'middle finger' than

19. What are your three most important expectations in love 

This is a ironical question.. There shudnt be any expectations..That is true love..


20. Well this is the one question which i can change..??? hmmm here is my question.. is it ok if i break RULE 2???

(original question : List of 6 ppl to tag)

Yes..Y not .. I like breakin rules...(sorry abt tht)

Raving Rafters - Part II

hi...this is the second part of our little raftin adventure... so if u r vistin dis page for the first time kindly scroll down ,read my first post nd come back....Thnk u... happy readin :)


We started moving quite gracefully (yea I think I ve used de rite adjective) over the river. To my surprise, the paddling wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. But just as we were getting comfortable, I noticed that there were quite a number of rocks in the course of the river. All of a sudden, a new fear crept upon me. “What will happen if we hit a rock and puncture the raft?” Well I thought, “There is ought to be some sort of a steering mechanism, otherwise we would not have any control of the direction.” Just as I was thinking this, we were effectively negotiating around a little boulder. I looked back and noticed that the captain and his assistant who had taken their positions at the back of the raft were paddling to control the direction. So effectively they were acting like the steering wheel and we were like the V2 engine (now i don wanna get too technical abt this engine stuff… :D) powering the raft.

The captain had asked us to stop paddling after some time and we were just gliding along quite smoothly. I just looked around and was awed by the sheer beauty of nature around me. The mountains on both sides extended like huge walls and we were floating deep inside a canyon. (Not as deep as the Grand Canyon though, but quite deep nevertheless. :D)

Just as we were enjoying the nature, the captain announced that we were approaching our first rapid. “Yeh hai pehla rapid. Iska naam “Lord Robert”* rapid. Yeh bahut chotta rapid hai aur simple b hai”. (Thank God, I was getting used to his hindi lol). He also said that if we were to enjoy the rapid fully we would have to paddle really fast. "Fast Forward" he commanded. (Only later, while we were pursuing the rapid we did realize that his command was almost impossible to obey. With the raft shaking violently we were struggling even to dip our paddles in the water, leave alone paddling quickly.)

(* The name of the rapid has been changed since the author doesn’t remember the original name. lol :D. Deepak had told us that all the rapids had been named after the British Lords who visited these places. So I generated a British name myself jus to keep the paragraph flowin :D)

As we entered the rapid, a huge splash of water hit us. “Oh my gosh!” The water was soooo cold. It should have been only a couple of degrees above the freezing point. I found it very hard to believe it since the sun was scorching and the air temperature should have been around forty degrees and yet the water was so cold “Unlike Kaveri this river was melting from a glacier so it is ought to be cold” I realized.

By this time, we were right in the middle of the rapid, our raft was shaking uncontrollably, and we had a tough time even to keep our asses in position. At one point of time, the raft tilted almost thirty degrees, and Dhanss almost fell overboard. But somehow, miraculously he kept his balance and didn’t fall over. When we were coming out of the rapid, we just felt that we had completed a ride in a natural roller coaster.

After successfully negotiating two more rapids (the xperiences were pretty much de same as de 1st rapid. only de names were different. Infact there were some 8 rapids in our course. Readers r given de liberty to name all de rapids themselves except de last one :D coz thts de only name I managed to remember) we were asked to pull the raft aside on the bank of the river. To our surprise, we learnt that four other people were joining our adventure (3 from England and 1 from France). We soon came to know that they were on a 15-month long tour across the world. “15 months! hmmm that’s quite long. What about your jobs? I mean you possibly couldn’t have taken leave for 15 months from your employer” I asked. “We have actually resigned our jobs to make this world tour. We have been saving the money for quite some time to make this happen. We will have to go back find ourselves a new job and start all over again”.

It was quite interesting to talk to them because they had already visited a dozen countries and were sharing their experiences. Then Deepak decided to break in our conversation and announced, “Folks you can now jump overboard and swim now if you want.” I have got to admit that I was actually a little bit nervous to jump out like that on a swiftly flowing river. But I didn’t have to worry. “Life jacket hai na. There was no chance of drowning”. I thought (hmmm…btw I ve gotto mention tht sara chickened out from this particular dare…). It was awesome time for us out there in the water. Infact I was enjoying it so much and was actually reluctant to get back to the raft. (I was the las person to climb back to de raft).

Just as I was catching up my breath, Deepak broke out yet another news. “We will be rowing a little further to reach a spot where we can do Cliff Jumping.” OMG! That was quite a scary terminology. Jesse and Sara called it quits as soon as they heard this word.

Cliff Jumping sent shivers down my spine too. Nine out of 10 times I wouldn’t have taken the jump. But then I asked myself this question “Just how many times in your life would you be given an opportunity to jump into the Ganges from a cliff?” And moreover I thought I could boast to my friends back home “You know what? I did cliff jumping in the Ganges”.

But all that dilemma evaporated as soon as I saw the cliff. It wasn’t as tall as I imagined it would be. It should have been only around 15-20 ft. (now I ve gotto mention tht I ve jumped from these heights in de local swimming pool evn w/o a life jacket). We pulled up the raft near the cliff. “Now who is gonna jump first?” I asked. (I certainly didn’t want go first. Tht terminology still haunted me). Arun and Dhanss who were least bothered about the so-called “scary terminology” were the first persons to take the jump.

There weren’t any hitches in their jumps and that gave me some confidence. It was now my turn. I climbed on the cliff, (actually slipped a little bit on my way up….fortunately kept my balance… no damage done), looked down, waved my hands to the people down in the raft, took a deep breath and jumped(actually wanted to keep my eyes open durin the flight … but my eyes refused to obey… they closed involuntarily).

I fell down with a big splash. I quickly made my recovery and then with some effort climbed back onto the raft. At this point of time, even though the sun was scorching away I was shivering coz of the cold water all over me. But then the Captain gave is orders “Paddle forward”. (Who am I disobey a captain of a ship/raft lol :D)

We had reached Rishikesh now and were sailing beneath the Raman Jhuhlla and Lakshman Jhuhlla bridges (Now dere were a lotta ppl lookin @ our raft from dese bridges. We jus waved @ them as if we had won de Gold medal @ Beijing games :D). The waters were quite calm in Rishikesh. That just gave us the opportunity to relax and have a chat with our European friends. (We actually talked ovr a wide range of topics ranging from hindu mythology to de Mumbai traffic).

Then Deepak announced “Before we reach our destination there is still one last rapid to cross. Yeh rapid ka naam bye bye rapid”.(dis is de only name which I remembered rite) Now this was the rapid, which I hated the most. By this time, we were all and were completely dry. We had actually forgotten how cold the water was. (I had jus stopped shiverin and was in no mood to get wet again). But as soon as we hit the rapid, a huge wave splashed across us making us wet and cold all over again.(Damm Bye Bye rapid)

We pulled up as soon as we came out of the rapid. Yea! Our adventure had finally come to an end. It was hard to believe that around four hours had passed since we began rafting. We were completely exhausted and it found it difficult even to walk down the road. Me, still being wary of my stomach decided to skip lunch. I had just about enough energy to make it our room and fall over the bed (fell asleep almost immediately and I was Kumbakarna’s personification for the nxt 10 hours :D)


The End.

Raving Rafters - Part I

The following blog is an excerpt from a book titled “Discovery India ’07 ” authored by me. (The book hasn’t been written yet though :D).


I choked and vomited all the stuff right after the last drops of tea went inside my tummy. Blame it on all those rotis, dum aloos, panner butter masalas etc. etc… which I had the previous day and the chai which I had just now acted like a catalyst in bringing the stuff inside my stomach out :-( … Looks like my stomach went on strike for some reason. It simply hadn’t secreted any digestive juices. (How mean?????)

Well the positive side of my vomiting is that all my room mates woke up from their deep slumber. They were still sleeping even after repeated snoozes from their mobiles. There were 5 of us (sara, jesse, arun, dhanss n me) and we were staying @ a hotel in Haridwar (or Hardwar that’s how the people of haridwar choose to spell their town’s name …..hmmm how strange Hard War). It was only 4:30 AM but we had planned to be up by four o clock itself. We had decided to do some rafting in the Ganges that day and that rafting wala had asked us to report @ his office in Rishikesh by 7 AM.

So we got ready and finally reached Rishikesh @ around 7:15 after traveling for about 1 hour in a rickety Uttaranchal govt. bus. We met our rafting wala and he said that a jeep will be coming to pick us up and in the meantime he asked us to have breakfast. (well I decided to give in to my little tummy's demands and didn’t take any food…. jus a glass of milk bus!).

The jeep, which he mentioned, was waiting for us, outside the restaurant to take us to a place called Shivpuri further up the mountain along the Ganges. We had planned to raft from Shivpuri to Rishikesh covering some 17 kilometers in the river. I was absolutely thrilled about this, but it lasted only for a moment. When I opened the jeep door I saw the life jackets, helmets paddles etc. etc… The raft in which we were about to travel was deflated and tied over the jeep. dunno y but the thought that I was going to cover 17 kms in the Ganges with the help of these accessories sent shivers down my spine.

As the jeep moved up the hill my fears only worsened. We were moving along the Ganges and we could see the river raging down the mountains with tremendous speed. I looked @ sara.. "man how r we going to raft in that… It looks very very fearsome and dangerous???? " i didn’t get any reply from him. Ever since we started talking about rafting, he has been saying this "enaku thannilla kandam" (he had somehow convinced himself that venturing out in the water isn’t very safe for him). Looks like my question had only increased his fears and I could clearly see that in his face. I said, “Well don’t worry man. Even if you die today the Ganges will take u to heaven straight.” He jus glared at me. (Damn y dont i hold my tongue).

We finally reached our destination Shivpuri. As we were getting down the jeep, Jesse asked, "dude u remember the movie final destination?” “yup why are u asking??” I asked. “i m afraid that some freak accident similar to the 1 in that movie can happen to us”. I said not to worry about it because there weren’t any rafting related accidents in that movie trilogy so far. I just asked him to relax. Then suddenly arun quipped “maybe they ll put our accident in final destination IV”.

I was trying my best not to show my fears off to them. However, it was getting increasingly difficult for me to control my fears especially with so much pessimism around. So I decided to walk away from that conversation and moved towards to the bank of the river. Dhanss also joined me. We stood there took a deep breath. "My god the view is sooo beautiful feels like heaven da” I said. The ever philosophical Dhanss decided to put one of his philosophies on to me "machan azaghu eppovumay aabhathu" (means all tht s beautiful is dangerous) unfortunately @ the wrong time for me.

So on the whole, no one was very comfortable with the idea of rafting at least for the time being. Suddenly we were a group of extremely pessimistic thinkers. We could see our raft was being inflated and we were asked to put on the life jackets and helmets. A man named Deepak came over to us and introduced himself as the captain of the raft. (hmmm i thought only ships had captains)

Another problem with our group was, except Jesse no one knew hindi and unfortunately for us our captain didn’t know english. So we had to depend entirely on Jesse for the translations. The captain said that he was going to give us some vital instructions and asked us to listen carefully. Well Jesse had a habit of skipping some points while translating so we were not at all comfortable with the idea of him translating to us. But we had no other choice. :-( .We had to depend on him.

(The blanks in this paragraph are all hindi sentences and since I do not know hindi I couldn’t type it out lol)

So our captain began "yeh life jacket 150 kilos weight .......................”. The fact that most of the northies mix a lotta english words in their hindi certainly helped me. I decided to guess the translations myself with my “thoda thoda hindi” knowledge. Jesse translated it for us "He was saying that this life jacket could bear upto 150 Kg of weight. (Hurray! I had guessed that correctly. I quietly congratulated myself). I was listening to him with all my attention, catching every word from his mouth. (hmmm if only i had given this much attention to my collg lectures atleast my GPA wud have been higher .hmmmm anyway no use thinkin of it now). He was continuing "....rapids hai..... raft capsize b ho gaya......."Wait wait did he jus say "Capsize"???? Oh my goodness"

“There are chances that the raft can get capsized while wading through a rapid. But there is nothing to worry” Jesse translated it for us. Deepak continued “Life jacket hai naa ?? No problem. Important thing is enjoyment. So no worries guys!!”

Then he continued teaching us some basic commands, which he would be giving to us while we paddle.(Looks like the captain of a raft is no different from a captain of the ship). “Paddle Forward” meant that we had to move the paddle from front to back in the water to move forward. “Paddle Backward” meant the vice-versa. In addition to this there was one more command “Fast Forward” meaning that we had to paddle forward rapidly. So with these basic lessons we finally climbed on the raft and took our positions. By this time the fear component in us was slowly evaporating and was being replaced by the thrill component

The captain gave out his first command “Paddle forward”


To be continued…