Among, other things, pressure, i am sure, ranks as one of the top catalysts of irrational behavior in humans. There are various other factors apart from pressure that support in ensuring that humans act irrationally almost always.
Back in 2002 or 2003, i don’t recollect, we had been working almost 24/7 for about 6 months and finally managed to deliver the software to our client. We had a lot of time in hand and nothing to do.The computer games that we smuggled into the company were getting boring. Delivering the software suddenly stopped all the madness and that did not make me feel good. The calmness was too much to take. Finally the pressure won over me and i decided to go white water rafting. I had no clue what a raft is nor did i know how to swim. I just decided that i have to do white water rafting. Sometimes it felt a stupid attempt on suicide. I managed to convince 4 of my friends (KK, MN, MS and A ) from the company that it (suicide??) is going to be a great thing to do.I tried convincing more people but the rest of them were smart and understood my hidden intentions. It was not bad to have 4 people sign up to join me in a suicide attempt.
I took the responsibility of bookings and planning for the trip. We had to go to Coorg for the rafting and we chose a few places that we wanted to see while we go there. I called Jungle lodges to check if people need to know swimming and what safety measures they had etc. The gentleman explained about the inflatable rafts, experienced guides and life jackets etc. I wanted to know how much weight a life jacket could handle. He was amused by the question but said anybody less than 110 kgs can go rafting. I asked him if they had life different life jackets for different weights and he said “why don't you come over to my office”. I went and introduced myself and he burst out laughing. He was heavier than i and he said “I thought you must be extremely fat the way you asked me 200 times about the life jacket”. Once he managed to stop laughing he gave us the gyan on rafting and also suggested an itinerary for us. I convinced my friends that we should rent a car and drive to the place. Only MN and I knew how to drive a car. MN refused to drive on highways and said she will help if i felt tired. I never told any of them that i had not driven a car beyond my street in Chennai.Incidentally one thing continues till date, if MN and i have to go out together, she will switch from the driver seat to passenger seat before i can blink and i (have to) drive.
The d-day arrived and we were all excited. Just 4 hours before our start time, John, our river rafting guide calls me to say that there were no rains in the last week and hence we cannot go rafting that weekend. I told John that it would be a huge disappointment and how much we had planned etc. John realized that i won’t stop whining unless he solved the problem and suggested that we go to River Sita at the foothills of Agumbe. He said some of his friends were running rafting programs there and he would inform his friends about our arrival. We scrambled back to the maps and sketched out the route etc. Finally I started driving and KK started eating bananas!
I am not sure if KK was nervous about rafting, my driving or did not like the car or thought rafting became easier if he ate bananas. Anytime you look at him he was eating bananas. When we returned to Bangalore (yes, we did) we found the price of bananas had increased by Rs 2/- due to shortage of supply. We were true friends, so we did not tell anybody who the culprit was.
We finally reached the base camp from where we should start just in time KK’s bananas supply ended. So, KK managed to replenish his supplies without complaining. We were greeted by 4 young men who were very nice and courteous. They introduced themselves and explained what activity they specialize in etc. During the conversation someone slowly slipped in a bomb “This is the first time we are doing commercial rafting, we were just training before today”. Reassuring, very reassuring. I knew John had taken his revenge for my whining. We smiled nervously and got ready for the rafting.
We were taken to the river and were given some basic instructions about life jackets and their buoyancy etc. We were told it would take 24 hours before the life jackets gave up. So i knew it was bad idea to commit suicide by doing river rafting. It seemed like slow and painful death.But the life jackets were fun, they taught us how to lie down with the jackets etc. It was all fun in shallow, knee deep water but at one point the guide made us walk up stream to a point where the river was gushing and said “Lie down”. I was like “Are you out of your mind? You think this is a bed” and by the time i looked for support, KK, MS and A were on their way floating already. I wasn’t even sure if they fell down or did it on their own will. The guide tried to convince MN and Me that it was okay and there was a raft waiting to pick us up downstream. I have no clue what came over MN she suddenly decided to lie down and go. Damn my male ego, i now had to go. At one point water was all over me and i thought it was all over but the life jacket did work and i came out within seconds. After i reached where river eased out, i saw someone coming after me. It was KK. Damn! now i know what the bananas did to him. He did that float the second time.
After a near death feeling (yeah, it surely was not a near death experience), we started rafting. Rafting was fun and exciting. Nowhere near suicidal as i imagined it to be, which was a big disappointment. We started our way back, saw Jog falls in its full glory and KK ate more bananas. And by the time we reached home Karnataka had a unusual shortage of bananas.
The last bit of excitement was when i had to return the rental car. All the driving and rafting had made me so tired that i crashed the car in to another car. Thankfully it was not when the others were in the car and the crash was not bad. Just small dents in both the cars. May be i should have eaten some bananas.
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