13th June, 2009 – Rishikesh bus stand
8:00 AM

Finally after a night full of not so welcome adventure we reached Rishikesh bus stand. Stepping out of the bus fresh air of the hills filled our lungs and in an instant the weariness was gone. Re-energized, we loaded our bags back on our shoulders and left for the intrastate bus stand of risihkesh from where we would get out next bus to Gangotri. We asked the bus conductor about the distance of the intra state bus stand form where we were at that moment, he said “ jawaan launde ho aap log, paidal hi nikal jao, ye pada bas adda nazdeek hi, boodhe karte hai rickshaw aur auto toh” . Now it had become a matter of pride after listening that “ boodhe karte hai auto toh” sentence. So we left on foot and it wasn’t late when we finally realized that “DON’T EVER TAKE SUCH THINGS ON YOUR EGO”, the bus stand was nowhere nazdeek and it took us good 30 minutes to reach there.

Rahul and Anshul went to enquire about the buses that left for Gangotri while the three of us i.e. Me, Daksh and Jatin somehow found our way to the bus stand. As soon as we reached there Anshul welcomed us with a bad news that only one bus left for Gangotri and that left at 5 in the morning.

It was like a blessing in disguise for me as I was in no mood for another bus ride of 10 hours after the one that we had previous night. It was then decided that we stay in Rishikesh for a day and leave for Gangotri the next morning.

Then began the hunt for hotel. It was an unsaid rule that whenever only boys go on a trip we take the cheapest room that is in a good condition, reason being most of the time we are wandering outside and the hotel serves only one main purpose of safeguarding our luggage.

We found a lodge-cum-hotel within the premises of the intrastate bus stand. Checking into it the first thing that each one of us did was to take bath after that suffocating bus journey. All fresh, we charged our cell phone’s and digicam’s batteries. The weather was amazing (at least for us), standing in the balcony of our hotel we could feel the cool wind against our cheeks and it blended perfectly with the mild sunshine amidst lush green hills spreading unto the horizon, it was undoubtedly a welcome change from weather in Delhi- the region of extremes.

We were planning about what we would do in Rishikesh when a voice came from behind “ yar jo bhi karna hai karo lekin pehle khana khayenge, mujhe bahut tez bhook lagi hai” , it had to be Jatin. 30 seconds later another sentence distracted us “ yar yahan kahin aalu ke paranthe makkhan maar kmil jayenge??” e , no prizes for guessing, it had to be Daksh. So we quickly decided that first we shall have breakfast and then we shall go for rafting and some sight seeing.

But wait!! This can’t be us. How can we decide upon one thing so easily?? So it was, Mr. Anshul Jain’s mind works in a direction totally different from everyone else. We were just planning to move out of hotel when he said “yar Gangotri toh kabhi bhi ja sakte hai family ke sath , Pindari chalet hai.”, and I like the dumbest soul on the earth was ready in a moment. Every one stared at each other and then Daksh made the second mistake of showing interest in his plan. Jatin was the 4th one to say yes but it took a bit of our convincing powers to convince Rahul.

Finally we stepped out of the hotel with little modifications in our day’s plan. We were to have breakfast first then our wiz-kid would search of a cybercafé and check about how can we reach Pindari and then we shall go rafting.

This time we decided to take an auto to the main market of Rishikesh. Reaching there, it reminded me of sadar market of old Gurgaon where you have a 15 foot wide road which has been reduced to 10 feet by encroachments by the shop keepers and what ever space is left, on that, the HOLY COWS of India love to meditate in the middle of the afternoon. There we decided to look out for a good shop or restaurant to eat. We nearly found one when Daksh called us out of the place and said “ yar maine mame se poocha ki yahan ki sabse famous khane ki dukan kaunsi hai ?? usne kaha ki rajasthani ke naam se hai peeche, wahan chalte hai”. Jatin – “tune tere mama se poocha??” Daksh – “abe nahi roadie sale, chandigarh mien traffic police ko mama kehte hai”

30 minutes later each one of us was cursing mama for guiding us to that place. I bet that was the worst rajasthani food I’ve ever eaten in my life. Gulping down whatever we could we left the place with out taste buds going numb. Then began the search for a cybercafé. In Rishikesh you will find a temple every 500 meters but a cybercafé was a novelty. After half an hour of Rishikesh market tour we found a sify iway at a place so deep inside, that its location even Marco Polo could not have found. There we checked out the traveling details and showed Daksh some pictures which made him fall in love with that place.

Preparing the itinerary quickly, we divided the jobs. I and Anshul were to go to bus stand to enquire about the bus to Kathgodam and Haridwar while the other three left for the railway station to book tickets for journey from Haridwar to Kathgodam. We had left our cell phones in the hotel as we had to go for rafting directly from there; we decided to meet at railway station in 30 minutes.

But the best thing amidst all this was that wherever in Rishikesh we went, people looked at us at least once. Reason: - Daksh and Jatin were roaming in the middle of the main market of one of the most sacred cities in India in their BOXERS. Rather Daksh in his boxers and Jatin in his MICRO MINI “69” boxers. I had also bought a short from a shop near our hotel as rafting in jeans was not something I wanted to do and my shorts were though not as short as their boxers but were not very comfortable as heat and humidity in the market made me sweat like hell and the shorts stuck to my legs and it was actually looking very cheesy.

Moving on, I and Anshul arrived at the station as per decided, Rahul booked tickets for Haridwar to Kathgodam train and our bad luck continued as we did not get confirmed ticket but boys will be boys, we reached a conclusion that “ yar ho jayegi confirm aaram se nahi toh tc ko paise khila kar le lenge seat”, and then we left for rafting.

We took an auto from railway station to the place where most of rafting agencies are that was somewhere near raam jhula. Reaching there we realized that we were left with only 1750 rupees and unlucky as we are it was Saturday and weekend prices of rafting are more than those on weekdays. we decided not to pay more than 250 Rs per person for rafting. We checked out many rafting agencies but none of them would offer any thing below 450-500 Rs per person for a 16 km rafting route. Finally we reached one Gadhwal Adventure agency, the guy agreed for 350 rs per person and that totaled to the exact amount we had, we tried to negotiate by sayin that – “bhaiya students hai , students discount toh de do.. yar waapis hotel tak jaane ke paise bhinahi bach rahe , waapis kaise jayenge??” , but no avail, he neutralized the effect by saying that “ are yar kya bat karte ho, chalo auto ke paise mein de dunga auto wale ko, bas ab toh problem solve ho gayi..” , then we had nothing but to give in and wait for the car that would take us and our raft to the point of start.

While we were waiting there the rafting guy told us that we will be accompanied by a couple. He had just finished his sentence when Daksh who was still fighting his fears of drowning into water while rafting, popped up from his seat like a bread slice from a toaster. Suddenly his demons of drowning vanished and he was far more interested in knowing that where the couple is. After 30 minutes of wait the suv which was supposed to take us to the starting point arrived and we got into it, 2 minutes passed and then we finally saw the couple that was going with us. No prizes for guessing what happened next, boys will be boys, we concluded that the girl is quite outgoing and her guy was some one totally dumbass, she did not deserve an idiot like him.

The couple sat on the first seat besides the driver, followed by me, Anshul and Rahul in middle and Daksh and Jatin at the back. Everytime the girl put her hand around her guy’s shoulder or vice-a-versa 3 out of 5 of us ( this does not include me and rahul )were so deeply dejected as if she was their ex-girlfriend and she was romancing with her new guy in front of them to make them feel jealous. We covered a little distance in that car and then we were shifted to another one midway. After an hour of bumpy ride and daksh trying his level best to over come his drowning demons we reached the starting point of out rafting expedition.

Reaching there we posed for some pics while our rafting guide pumped in air into the rafts. All set we herd the instructions and jumped into the raft, it was then that we came to know that the couple who was rafting with us their names were : Neha and Chandan. I and jatin headed the raft followed by daksh and rahul in middle and anshul and chandan at the back, Neha was asked to sit in front. Our 16 km rafting included 8 major rapids. Starting was the cold water of ganges refreshed us all and everyone was pumped up and was rowing with full energy.

3 kilometers down the stream our guide told us that the water was calm and we can have a dip if we want. Moment later I, anshul, rahul and neha were washing away our sins in ganges. Jatin and chandan too joined in. and then finally daksh plunged in curbing his hydrophobicity. The life jackets kept us afloat and it was a life time experience swimming in depths of the most holy river in India. But alas how can I not lose anything in a trip, it wasn’t late when by spectacles glided smoothly off my nose and offered themselves to the holy ganges. Chalo, intentionally or unintentionally “ maine kuch toh daan kar hi diya gangaji ko” .

Enjoying the rapids and the thrill we reached the cliff jumping site, it’s a 30 feet high rock from where you have to take a plunge into the river. My excitement knew no bounds and as soon as we reached ashore I was the first one to jump out and run to the top. It was quite crowded but after a short wait my chance came. I looked down and it was a bit too high than I had expected but life is fun , I closed my eyes and 3 seconds later, SPLASH !! I loved it to the core.i wanted to do it again but I scratched my knee and torso while swimming back to the shore with a rock neatly hidden in water, so I had to drop the idea. Jatin was the second one amongst us to jump off. Then Mr. Anshul Jain gathered all his courage and went up to the top with Neha. We cheered them and filmed them. After 20 mins of filming and cheers neither of the two jumped. They would go to the edge and step back and allow other person to jump. Even the person incharge of the cliff jumping was irritated, finally after looting much footage in the film anshul was seen climbing down the rock waving his hand to acknowledge the crowd below as if he had won an award for being a “fattu”. Neha some how jumped.

One thing that was good was that we were bankrupt at that time and I and daksh were very very thirsty. We cheered neha and in return gulped down 2 pepsi pet bottles that her guy had got. We resumed out rafting and after that point of time everyone was tired so we rafted slowly n playfully. Chatting along I learnt that neha and chandan were not married or anything but were final year students of some medical college in meerut. Everyone became so relaxed that our raft guide had to scream at us to keep the raft going but eventually he too gave up and the raft was left at the will of the river to guide it to the end point.

Once we reached the endpoint all were relieved. Too tired to go back to the rafting agency and ask the owner to fulfill his promise of funding our return to hotel we hired an auto back to the hotel and took 50 rs from the hotel manager to pay him. We realized that we were getting late and we had to reach haridwar by 11 pm and it was already 7 pm. We quickly packed our bags and checked out. On the way to the bus stand we bought raincoats costing Rs 10 each so I need not mention how they would have been. We reached the bus stand in 20 minutes and each one of us had tea and parle g. moments later we were trying to squeeze ourselves into a jam packed bus and luckily rahul managed to grab 5 seats at the back. We were on our way to haridwar.


We reached haridwar in an hour and fifteen minutes or so and got down at har-ki-paudi. Hungry as each one of us was, we decided to have dinner and rahul and daksh suggested that you cannot find better aalu- poori anywhere than choti-wala of haridwar. We walked to the main place only to find that there was a choti-wala in every nook and corner of har-ki-paudi. We walked and walked till we reached the original one ( as per rahul and daksh he was the original and rest all were fake, but now I know that the original one is in rishikesh !!). The original choti-wala was so crowded that it was even difficult to see even the people inside the shop and more over it had no place to sit and eat so we decided against it and had dinner in a small restaurant. After dinner we were getting late for our train so we left for station. Rahul, anshul and jatin left while I and daksh stayed back for couple of minutes of take some Prasad, and then started for the railway staion.

We got the sad news that there was no change in our ticket status. Train arrived; we boarded, settled our luggage near the door and then began the hunt for the TTE. Daksh and jatin pleaded him but no avail. Finally the train started and we settled in daksh and rahul at one door of the compartment and the other 3 of us at the other door. I do not wish to go into the depths of our pitiful condition the photos speak for them selves.


P.S : the blog shall continue after 1st dec now.. :) after my cat exam !! :)