river wild !

I am not one of those 'travelogue' persons..i kinda like to live in the moment, when i m outdoors i.e. and feel it the best way i can..but i want all of u to try this, hence this attempt :)
(hope it inspires some of you !!)

I went 'white water rafting' today !!!! yipppeeee !!!
yeah i know it was on my list of fun things to do..and believe me it was much more than that! :)

{ i dont know how exactly u write these things, but m going to be random..like the rapids we faced today :D }

me with a group of friends decided to go for white water rafting at Kundalika River.. yeah i know rafting in this season and that too in the dry region like maharashtra !! but the place where we went is pretty interesting ! The river is fed by excess water from Tata's dams, mulshi and bhira project..the dam gates open early in the morning..the gushes form an ideal rafting route for beginners (class 2 - 4, just to give some jargon :D)

these facts and figures apart, the itinerary started on a pretty bad note..we were supposed to reach the starting point at 7.30am as the water ie released during that time..but r driver decided to make a fool of us (otherwise he was a decent fellow :)) and dint fill up diesel the earlier night and told bout tis crucial strategically important (!!!) fact when we were almost outta the city :x
patiently played the wait game till 7 am as petrol stations out of the city start selling petrol at 7 !!
after the bad start, it had to be a roller coaster ride to make it just in time..
being eons late to reach the starting point (1.5 hrs at least) somewhat heartbroken we carried on.. to r surprise, the dam people had opened 2 gates and that too an hour late than usual !!
yipppeeee... (TATA ke ghar der hai par andher nahi !!)

we were provided with the full rafting gear :) then followed a brief training session on rafting and pedaling basics,calls for drastic measures :D etc..the trainers were really interesting, experienced rafters, who have done rafting in major rivers across India..to top it with some strawberries, our team was really cool; addu,sunny,me,lee and vasu :) our trainer (yes, there's one trainer in every raft) was a bit strict guy, who insisted more on technique (which was best for beginners like us) which slightly reduced the fun quotient ! (i have realized lately, that, fun quotient depends on a lot many things, one being the company ur with :D)

Mann, the real fun started when we entered the waters..r entry into the first rapid was like a newly wed girl, all hesitant and scared..but it was no looking back once we got all enthu and all drenched :D
the maneuvering needed to steer the raft was a bit professional for amateurs like us (the rowing experience back during college days indeed helped !!!) so we left it for the trainer :D
the rapids that followed were damn sport ! they needed sufficient skill but r trainer saved the day and we just sailed under his guidance :)
the rapids had interesting names too :D like morning headache, jhatka (means a jerk !), ratrani (its a flower), bloody ****er (whoa !!!) etc.

in a particular rapid the raft s supposed to flip, but thanks (or no thanks) to almighty, we had hefty company in r raft and hence saved the trainers lot of energies (in saving us i say :P)
but the over enthu us wanted to try that out too, so came back to the same rapid thrice (yes u can do that but, of course, with a lot of effort as u have to peddle against the flow) and when we finally succeeded, the raft dint flip but 3 members just fell out (the weight quotient :D again) It was a sight, on the trainers face i mean! the 3 who fell must have had the time of their lives (i dint fall cos i had held the rope too tight..sigh..)
there was one stretch of continuous rapids for 20 mins which was thoda tiring, but after that the river kinda slowed down and we were left with swimming ka option..
this was again a wonderful experience (especially for people like us who have never swam beyond a square box of 50*5)
we swam. we peddled. we floated. we played silly pranks too.. tell u life was never so relaxed and satisfied !
it dint end there..we had to peddle almost 2 kms to reach steady banks and come back to the starting point (by vehicles of course !)

me says, everyone should try this as its not very risky and not very tiring! moreover its something totally different and new..
im planning to go again in monsoons, for the current then will be more exciting!
well, all said and done, it was a completely 'river wild' experience..had never been so close to the nature (rivers i mean !)
feels just incredible !
btw my next destination should be the 'ganges', wot say ??? ;)

P.S. u can find out more about the site here :).

lets get weirder !!

ahem..
life s been humdrum for the past few days..
before it takes its toll on me and i get sucked in the routine, here s my to do list to make things weird and after all altogether fun !!!

now on..
1. try various adventure sports.. first in line s 'white water rafting'
(if i come back alive, i want to try bungee-jumping next..rest can wait for their turn :P)
2. cook weird dishes (obviously when no one's around..i cant risk others lives, of course :D)
3. write poetry (heehuuhaaaa..obviously again it wont be published :P for reasons unknown..i have always thought there s this tender side of me, who can appreciate the nuances of life and give them words..i hope to fail myself :D)
4. learn kick boxing (the urge to kick people has been overwhelming lately :D)
5. write blogs in French :D (i appreciate ur concerns, but most of my fan club s hindi speaking, so wont give a damn bout the topics..though i will write on various grave issues the world's facing ranging from why cow milk s better for health, why saarukh bought a cricket club, why sarkozy is the way he is (French articles ought to have some related stuff :P) and all that..real serious issues u know.. :D)
6. learn bhangra :D
7. make collages (come on now..this is going to be fun..i am halfway through the first one!! :))

ahem (again).. these things will last for a long time me thinks..
till then..get weirder..
and if u have anything in mind, then u know how to get in touch with me or better else, just involve me in the fun activity...

P.S. my fun quotient follows a sinusoidal curve :D

we don need no education !!!!

some 20 years ago, in a remote village in India, a girl gets married at the age of 14..
she becomes mother of a child at the age of 16..
her husband dies in an accident when she s 18..
she s given the horrible treatment of a 'vidhawa' (widow) for the rest of her life..

appalling !! her life turns haywire in a matter of 4 years..
the tale becomes even more appalling when life comes a full circle..

after 14 years ....

her daughter gets married at the kacchha age of 16 (this must have been sometime in 1998)..
she s declared infertile after being not able to produce a child for 2 years..
her husband willingly (will of 'his' family i mean :-\) marries another girl who produces two kids in a span of 2 years and now his first wife takes care of all of them and they live together..

JUST PLAIN APPALLING !!!
a woman was not allowed to remarry when her entire life lay ahead of her and another's husband remarried just because she could not grow the family tree ahead .....
(other people were taking decisions for them and i felt like shouting at the top of my voice, 'wake up !!!!')

then a whirlwind of thought attacked my mind..
when are we going to treat people as 'individuals' and not some typecasted non sense 'male' or 'female' , 'aadmi' or 'aurat' per say??
Just because someone's 'gender' is masculine guarantees him unlimited freedom and bending of rules ??? and someone is feminine guarantees her a life full of sacrifices and commitments ???
i feel so sad for the mother, who even after facing a life full of 'not-by-her-own-wish' sacrifices, did not care enough to get her daughter married at such tender age ..

and then another thought came in my mind, that may be, when her husband died (and the times she was in..) the decision of staying with the family and being labeled as a 'vidhawa' must have been a safer option..and to get her daughter married at 16 by a family who looked after her orphan (not having a father is enough to term one as 'orphan' i guess ..) daughter must have been another safer option..
but when i think of her daughter, in the so called 'modern times' i feel utterly terrible !!
how helpless can one become ?? she let others take her own decisions which in these modern times is totally ridiculous..my other mind (i tell u its very soft :-/) said that dear not every woman is privileged enough to be on her own.. Indian women have to think of the society and family first before thinking of oneself !! this was again correct..

the 'educated' me thought the educated way.. may be education would have helped her case..helped her take just (or better !!@@) decisions !

and then i thought, i dont need a trip to Afghanistan to get to know the condition of women !
(after reading 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' i was moved beyond words !!)
its the same every where.. sigh ....

this is because, we dont motivate ourselves to take decisions for ourself.. we consider and reconsider people rather than thinking about what we want.. believe me the complications and dimensions of a problem become manageable when one really gives a thought to what one wants .. i really mean it..

P.S. on a broader perspective my observations can be generalized .. guys r u listening ?? :)