The next day, ie the day after the day after the first night out, suddenly i find myself at a monument with neha and shweta and her boyfriend. My direct conversation
with Neha had been minimalistic till now. A joint or two.Or three.
Strolling like strangers under the afternoon sun we finally came to a shady tree.I dont remember which one exactly. A foreign couple was already sitting there with
their baby.
The apparent mother was extremely fair with shiny emerald eyes and an admirable air of confidence about her. The apparent father was black. The girls took an
immidiate interest in the baby.
It is amazing how quickly women can emotionally attach themselves to things. Soon enough the baby was in Neha's arms with Shweta jealously looking on from behind.
The baby clung to her neck. I could not remember last when a sight had enthralled me so much.
The couple turned out to be pretty cool actually.The woman enquired us about the recent rape protests. They were surprised to learn that amongst us it was only the
girls who had gone to those protests. Me and shweta's boyfriend looked at each other in guilt. Proceeding to explain i let out a lecture about the indian system, the
faith we has a people have in our government, and some other administrative stuff which have nothing to do with a love story.
I spoke for about in excess of fifteen minutes with time for clarifications for the gentleman and the lady. By the end of it other people had formed a semicircle around
us. I shouldnt be going out high on pot all the time.
It was a glint of pride i thought i caught in her eyes. Nothing ever really makes perfect sense in these matters.
I learnt that she was an artist, a writer, a dancer,a storyteller, an actress and a rather oversmart girl. An amazing mix of the expected and the unexpected. A shade of
colour so unique that you had to see it to define it.
And so i was hooked.
Fast forward to 10 pm in the night the following friday. Shweta,Neha and me were relaxed on an old maroon sofa and another joint was on to its death.
We had arrived at the flat about an hour and a half ago,it belonged to one of their friends, and were just three hours away from embarking on our maiden trip to Rishikesh. The
mood was light, the ambience dull and the food minimum. We smoked up then , having nothing better to do. Neha's eyes were red due to extreme lack of sleep. Bereft of the
shackles of her makeup, her face lit up.
"Have you ever felt like being at one place for the rest of forever? i feel like that now"she asked shweta and answered herself.Anyways shweta herself did not appear
to be in any condition to answer.
One of the guys, look this is a rather comlplex group,but i'l try and make it sound as simple as possible. Shweta,Neha and two other girls, lets call them P and I
are classmates. The guys are L,A,K1,K2 and U, thats me. L is P's boyfriend. A is shweta's guy. K1 is L's brother and K2 is A's best friend. And theres me.
K1 comes over and tells me that we need to go and pick A and K2 up.Obliging, i get up ,pick those guys up and come back. On the road i try and make small talk with
everyone because K1 is meeting everyone here for the first time. But K1 is very cool and continues to text on his tab, while driving, while foot high bumpers are approaching
us at 80 kmph. I pray that i can atleast go river rafting before i die.Normally i am an atheist.
Coming back i scan the hall for her. She is in a mood shift, and needs her space. I roll up and sit down with A for his maiden smoke that night. She strolls in after
a while and is immidiately engaged by K2 in conversation. She is visibly happy chatting with him, while my mood darkens with each passing second. I am already feeling
jealous. Not a good sign.
Deciding to disengage from the discussion, I sit and brood in sullen silence till its time to leave and learn that neha,shweta, A, K2 and me are going to travel
in the first car. And finally find myself in the front seat beside the driver. Neha is sitting in the middle seat with K2. Fuck me.
We reach rishikesh at around 8 the next day. A 10 min detour under some bridge was all the delay we had on the way, and even that was voluntary. K2 was still the one
with the majority of neha's attention, and i had convinced myself that it was time to focus on making the most of the trip as an alternative to brooding my way through
it.As for neha she was in a t shirt and a salwar, and looked gorgeously simple in that.
Our rafting appointment was for 9 o clock and we still had an hour to spend. We decided to go hiking on a nearby waterfall trail.Now , A played football for some
local club and was a real athlete. So i joined up with him and together we flew. We climbed as fast as the others could catch up bare minimum and decided to follow our
own trail instead of the one marked for tourists. A few near 75degree climbs on eroding rocks and dry leaves and a total of 40 minutes of climbing we came face to face
with a table carved out of stone. It was surrounded by grey stone chairs and sat peacefully covered from the rest of humanity under some tree. A little water broke off
from the main waterfall and rushed under this arrangement down the hill. We decided to soak our feet. I found the farthest stone on the edge of the site and perched on
it.It was serenity.
We reached the rafting site after another three quarters of an hour.Neha sat opposite me the back seat of an open jeep on the drive there. So whether i looked
at her or anywhere else, the view was breathtaking. The ganges rushed beneath us in a green that had descended from the heavens.The white shores were the porcelien
through which the river mother made her artistic escape.
Given the basic life saving and rafting instructions by the boat wala "bhaiyya",who seemed a character in his own right, it so came to pass that me and K2
were to sit in front of the raft, to the left and the right respectively. The rest arranged themselves according to their own wish in the back of the raft.Neha had
a fear of water, and had made no secret of it.
We began with "still" water, which was the ganges at it's normal rishikesh speed. I began to grow tired within the first two minutes of rowing, my resolve to
keep rowing weakening with every second's delay from the first "rapid",but then the wait wasnt about to be too long.
The sudden splash of cold water cleared my mind of everything.The boat had dipped frontways almost vertically into the water before bouyancy propelled it up again.
Like a speeding car over a bumper, the boat was suspended through the air for a second before crashing into the gushing river again.
"FORWARD" yelled our captain, our boat wale bhaiyya , who was displaying questionable leadership skills at the moment. My hands needed an excuse to work. With all
my mind focused on this particular task, i rowed.
"REEELAXX" came the order.We lifted our oars. K2 was trying to be funny about it.Looking at him with utter disappointment bhaiyaji commented,
"Yahan , kuch log mazaak kar rahe hain aur main dekh raha hun"
K2's brain told him to say something funny,
"Yahan paani nahi lag raha"
"Toh ek kaam karo yahan peeche aake baith jao"
K2 rose,oblivious to the look of ridicule in bhaiyyaji's eyes.Bhaiyyaji opened his mouth to say something, and i felt i had to step in.
"Arrey ,Bhaiya is being sarcastic this time" i said in my best poor english accent.
The group burst out laughing. Getting the cue,K2 settled back into his position. Bhaiyyaji still did not stop believing in himself being a genius with words. We moved on.
A few more rapids later , i found myself sitting on a little cliff . The site was supposedly used for cliff jumping in normal times ,but apparently the silt had
accumulated too much recently and thus was unfit for its routine purpose. K2 and A came and sat down near me. Just the three of us, not saying a word,just listening to
the river.
Even neha had jumped into the river once, a splash which terrified her to the core. We reached our river bank camp.With A, I raced down the rather long mountain trail to
the shores where our tents were pitched. It was a long and windy trail of foot high steps covered in crumbling leaves and powdered stones.Slipping here and there once or twice
we reached a point about a 100 foot above our tent resort.
The view made me hold my breath.
Spread in order in perfect white sand were little black tents. A gradual slope later, pebbles in every shade between black and white lay scattered on the beach. The
river was a mystical green, a shade different than any we had seen it in earlier that day.And along the sands ran girls in shorts and tight t shirts.
I just stood there and absorbed it all in. The clean air filled my lungs. I closed my eyes. It was purity.
//edit:part 3 up next.
