Riders on the road #2--Delhi-Haridwar-Rishikesh-Dehradun-Mussourie-Delhi

10th April 2010…Six o’clock in the morning I, KK, Abhishek and Ankur…all set to hit the road. Shipra, Ghaziabad was the starting point. The search for NH-58 begun…only one mistake which cost us 20 minutes and then we were on track. The road was straight ahead and the wheels rolling. Cool breeze, open highway and pumping adrenaline. Ghaziabad…Modinagar…crossing Meerut the course was smooth…then began the toll road construction. Bandwidth allocated for half duplex was now being used for full duplex hence speed reduced to 40 kmph. Dust and traffic jams amplified the enthu and we moved on...

Our first halt…at 9:00 hrs in Muzaffar Nagar where we took our breakfast. Life had started its daily routine and people were on the road now. Temperature started raising hence the air density decreased which reduced the fluid friction and we accelerated from Muzaffar Nagar to Roorkee. We went on to touch Haridwar at 11:30 hrs. There we took a dip in The Ganges at Hari-ki-Paidi…the occasion being Mahakumbh. When you are stripping at a public place it is always embarrassing but once you go through it and get inside the water…oh God!!! It was chilling…you cannot feel anything else but heaven…specially when your brain…which was covered with a 4kg helmet throughout the journey…is boiling. KK had a strange reason not to join us in the thrill…according to his story nobody in his family can take bath in The Ganges for 6 months after the marriage of a family member…can you imagine? Anyways thanks KK for looking after our stuff when we were relaxing in the holy water. All the tiredness dissolved into the river and we were recharged.
Then we started for Rishikesh. Taking Shikanji and Ganne ka rass at intervals to beat the heat and traffic. Next project was to find a place to stay.

We had to cross the river for that and the path was through Ram Jhula. Nice experience of riding through the iron suspension bridge made in 1939…it was shaking under the influence of anabatic wind…the displacement being negotiated by the quad-directional suspensions.
We took a non ac room for Rs.1100 which is much more expensive than usual but we had no choice as it was the cheapest available and we had no prior bookings. Then we had our lunch in half a century old Choti Wala Restaurant. The food was awesome because we were much more than starving by then. The clock tower had the hour hand at 5…and I didn’t even bother to look at the rest…coz we needed rest.
We woke up at 19:30 hrs unfortunately missing the Aarti of the Swargashram…. I took out my maiden Capri, Ankur in his bum chums, Nuts(Abhishek) in pajamas and KK in jeans…none topless…went to the ghat and relaxed for sometime enjoying the cool. KK again trying to be as far from water as he could. We took some snaps and came back to the market.

Firangis are absolutely sanki people. We saw a lady sitting beside a beggar and asking him to train her how to beg. That poor fellow overwhelmed by her mere presence so close to him was shaking…though it might have been the happiest moment of his professional life. Well we went on not bothering whether he could transfer the expertise or not. Then another strange thing…a man with a collection of antique coins on sale had a 20 paise coin which he was selling for Rs.5 only.
Next morning was devoted for rafting. Got up early, had poori bhaji at Choti Wala and crossed Ram Jhula for the pick-up. Yogender who was going to be our raft captain came to take us. He had to pick some more people from his camp after which we moved on to Marine drive…our starting point for rafting. Got ourselves into the rafting gear…listened to the ultra important instructions…took some snaps…and took off.

 It was a moderate stretch so we practiced for some time. We were instructed to follow commands like forward, right back-left forward and vice versa, fall in-go back, join T etc…to pull someone into the raft and how to float in water with head upside. Only I and nuts had done rafting before so it took others some time to synchronize…Ankur has always been a quick learner but KK was the clumsy one. We were 8+1…the captain.

The command was ‘Forward’ and we rowed into “Good Morning” the first rapid. Rowing my friends is not so easy…it challenges the arms and back…do eat well before going for rafting. Then came “Black Money” another mild rapid. Mainly the command during a rapid is to row forward. “Cross fire” was the first splashy rapid. By now our rowing was synchronized. There were around 20 rafts moving together as a team…one after the other maintaining a distance so that we don’t crash into each other during a rapid. In still water we usually came closer. Splashing water…passing comments and having fun with strangers. Sun was bright and shiny so it was getting hot…so why let it be so…down I went in the river…nuts followed…then Ankur and guess who is the next one…KK…breaking all promises and not bothering about any rituals he was down inside

The Ganges living life to the fullest. “Three Blind Mice” coming ahead…we were pulled back by the other guys who were sharing the raft with us. First mice…rowing forward with full power…nasty river hitting from all directions…yet crossed it easily. Second mice again the same behavior…this time we lost and the mice won and splashed us twice. We were exhausted but had a plan for the Third mice…we dodged it rowing with less power and letting it push us out…well we didn’t do anything but it happened so. The next rapid was the most interesting one for me…”Body Surfing”.

Captain said u can jump in water away from the raft and swim through the rapid…nuts asked are u going?…I said yes and jumped…swimming in a fast moving river is so effortless but u must have life jacket on because there are numerous whirlpools in the rapids which can engulf you in and squeeze life out. I was floating towards and away from the raft to maintain an average distance… locomotion was provided by the current. I never went into the raft for the next twenty minutes…others joined in and we had a photo session.

On one side Ankur with one rope in hand…me and Nuts on the other side holding the other belt and rowing was not required anymore. We were simply pulling the raft along. There are patches of sand at the river banks at regular intervals. On one such patch there were some people taking sunbath and our eyes lost their virginity…Firangis again. We took a halt half a km ahead of the exhibition for relaxing our enervated (ciliary) muscles.

 
After Shivpuri a series of grade iii rapids laid waiting. “Return to Sender”…and we were ordered to row hard…there was a curb in the flow towards left with an elbow on the right. One of the rafts got stuck in the elbow because they were not rowing hard enough and were returned to the sender. Then came “Roller Coaster”…grade iii…up and down…left and right…water splashing from all sides…this is what was happening to the raft ahead of us…what happened to us I don’t know…as we entered into the rapid all I remember was that my captain shouting ‘forward’…and we screaming ‘cummon…yess…aaja…iskiiiiiiiiiii’ rest is censored. Somehow we crossed it. “Golf Course” was a similar experience and then “Club House” in which we didn’t have enough power to even shout. We arrived at the camp of the other four members of our raft…dropping them we rowed on.

For the next half hour we were all in the water including the captain this time…only KK was left on the raft. He was making videos and taking snaps. Then came the most daring rapid of all…the anonymous rapid…it seemed to be a very mild rapid but there is a hindi saying ‘Savdhani hati, durghatna ghati’…and so it happened. Ankur couldn’t entrap his leg in the raft for some reason. We were rowing forward…with him sitting on my left…suddenly…he was not there…he had accidentally misbalanced and fell down…and within seconds floated away from our raft…it still seemed ok because he was heading towards the other raft but he missed it and couldn’t catch it…he didn’t get any help because there was only the captain on that raft who was sitting on the opposite side…Ankur drowned…1…2…3...where did he go? Why isn’t he coming back up?...4…5 seconds over and he emerged out…sigh of relief. The rapid was over by then and he was easily pulled in. He was actually trapped in a whirlpool but the life jacket saved him. No rapids from there…slowly we moved forward…but the anabatic wind was hitting hard on the exhausted raft of ours…so we quit half km before our destination and bid goodbye to our captain Yogender.

Suddenly there was screaming somewhere around…and a lifeguard emerged out saving somebody. We were busy making a Shivling which we had to leave in an almost complete state because the police walas forced us to leave the bank.We took lunch and went back to the hotel…changed our clothes…took our bags and left for Dehradun. The meandering highway…green on both sides and the high trees didn’t allow the sun to torture us.

On the way we stopped to take some sugarcane energy and also some water but we couldn’t find the later…strange isn’t it?
Then we cruised on to stop at Lachhi Wala.

It’s an artificial stream flowing with different levels of deepness. Inside water again…and that too with a bed full of pebbles hurting the toe…too much now…so we left the place at 18:30 hrs and decided to go to Mussourie. Hilly road…dawn over…with no street lights…it was adventurous…and adventure is always risky. Ankur was riding, he followed an Alto…then I took over and followed the same…the Alto left us mid-way and we were on our own…then came an Ambassador and guided us through to Mussourie. At the starting of Maal road we met an agent who helped us get the room…much cheaper this time…just for 500 bucks. We took dinner with loads of chicken and slept concluding one long and memorable day.

Next morning we checked out the hotel at 10:00 hrs…had breakfast…and then climbed to the site seeing point by the trolley. It was cool there so we spent some time.We returned back to the hotel after having number of sessions of photography. Then we started the long journey back home. From Mussourie to Roorkee non-stop. At Roorkee we took lunch in a dhaba and drank lots of water. Relaxed for some time and even took a half bath under the hand pump. Then started again and kept on moving till we reached Ghaziabad. I could feel all my bones and nerves and so did they.
We were in a position that every km took a lifetime to pass…and the increasing traffic tested our patience. Left Ankur at Shipra and then moved on from Sector 62 to 37 and Amity Chowk with Nuts…then he diverged to Greater Noida and left me on my own from there to Malviya Nagar. At home when I first saw my face in the mirror it seemed as if I am coming from a coal mine. I took a long long bath and light dinner after which I had a deep deep sleep…I was actually floating in The Ganges again.