Uncanny Connection

 

Uncanny Connection

 

Genre – Fiction

Sub-genre – Road Trip

Length of blog – 1800 words

 

 

Part One: Mumbai Indians Chat

 

                One day Daphne entered her house after work.

                “I have been assigned to go to the US”, she said.

                “Oh! Congratulations”, her father-in-law said.

                “Good news comes to hardworking people. Let me put some sugar in your mouth”, her mother-in-law said and disappeared into the kitchen.

                Daphne entered the bedroom, where her husband was bent over his laptop.

                “I will be leaving in two weeks from now”, Daphne continued. She crunched the last of the sugar in her mouth, “Will you miss me?”

                “Of course, I will miss you”, Sam replied, “Personally and professionally too.”

                “I can test your modules from the US, you know”, Daphne said.

                “That is true, but there is a 12-hour time difference, you would be asleep at my testing times”, Sam said.

                “You mostly require me to test before you meet the client so that would be around my dinner time and I can do the tests from 8 to 10 p.m. before going to bed in the hotel”, she said.

                 Sam smiled at her and answered his ringing phone, while Daphne entered the bathroom to bathe.

                “That was Urav and Sankar, they called to invite me to one of their outings”, Sam said.

                “But I thought IPL season is done and dusted”, Daphne said.

                “Yes, they are not inviting to cheer any cricket team, but a trip to Kolad”, Sam continued, “And it’s planned for the same weekend that you are in the US.”

                “So, this time you have no excuse to stop you from going”, Daphne said.

                “Yes, I always miss out on the plans the two them make, either they coincide with our plans, or its bloody cricket”, Sam said.

                “You’ll went to the FIFA u-17 World cup, and to Sula Wine Fest and…” Daphne continued to count on her fingers, “even though you hate cricket, you went to the England v West Indies T20 World cup, that test match between India and Sri Lanka.”

                “I am surprised you remember every event in detail”, Sam said.

                “Its how much I missed you and read about the events while you were away”, Daphne said.

                “Hey, reading is your hobby”, Sam continued, “And, IPL, I said I hate IPL, I haven’t been for any IPL match, you know”

                “Bah! Only because I pointed out that we had other plans, else you were ready to join them last year”, Daphne said.

                “Only with Urav and Sankar. The fun is different with them, both setting a tradition with supporting their teams playing home and away matches. Like Sankar who is from Mumbai went to see the Delhi Vs Mumbai match in Delhi, they invited me for the reverse fixture, when Urav came all the way from Delhi to see his team play against Mumbai”, Sam continued, “Plus they are like encyclopedias of cricket and keep giving random facts. Especially Urav, he can tell you about any sport.
Did I tell you he went to Wimbledon to catch the Wimbledon Open.”

                “Yes, you showed me his picture with his doppelganger – Roger Federer”, Daphne said.

                “We teased him Arbaaz Khan in college, but someone also compared him to Roger Federer, and then there was no turning back”, Sam said.

                “You guys are not in college anymore, you know”, Daphne said.

                 “I will miss you a lot darling, and hence, I said yes to Kolad”, Sam continued, “Going there so that Urav and Sankar will divert my mind.”

                “River rafting is boring. Hmmm”, Daphne said.

                “The rapids at Kolad are rated 3 to 4 on a scale of 10. I will be just going through the motions”, Sam continued, “Plus, this will be my third time to Kolad, so no
fun there.”

 

Chapter Two : Kolad – White Water River Rafting

               

                Urav and Sankar had spread the word amongst their friends and Urav had turned up with three more friends on their Saturday outing at Kolad. Sankar and Sam arrived in another car from Mumbai. They had decided against booking an overnight stay at one of the many resorts at Kolad and opted for two secluded rooms for the lot of them.

                “We all are interested in drinking alcohol and not into adventure camping”, they said.

                Many of the tourists opted for adventure sports the previous night. The range of adventure sports varied from Archery to Ziplines. Few offered bungee jumping,
rock climbing, cycling to the river rafting start point followed by canoeing or kayaking. But the six of them had decided only to do the river-rafting bit.

                Urav’s friends were his office colleagues from his Pune branch office where he frequented. They were all north Indians.

                “Landlubbers”, Sam said.

                Yes, they all had agreed to never being in a waterbody larger than a swimming pool. While Sam and Sankar were from the coastal city of Mumbai and enjoyed the waves at the beach all too often.

                “Does the water continuously ripple in the sea, or only if there is a breeze”, one of them said.

                Sam laughed at the naïve question. All were merry men riding their high into their own corners to sleep. Sam had waited for his wife’s call before hitting the sack at 2. Next morning, they would be informed of the exact time to reach the starting point. This was dependent on the time when the dam water reached optimum level. And then the guides would predict a time to start the river-rafting exercises including the schedule of the many participants involved. Also, to reduce the waiting period for the river-rafting enthusiasts.

                After breakfast the two cars arrived at the starting point. They had carried no baggage; they were in their bare essentials ready to sit on the raft to start their rafting. But there was a minor hiccup – one car would have to be parked at the end point. The end point 15 or so kms away was common to all. They would have to go with both the cars so that the first car driver can come back to the starting point in the second car. Urav and Sankar were elected to drive the two cars.

                Sam was stuck with three unknown faces for an hour without cell phones. The three colleagues talked about their office life, while Sam made a note to tell Daphne how much he was bored.

                At long last the boat trip started, their guide showed the lot to their equipment, helmets, paddles, life vests, etc. He instructed them about the various ways he
would need them to stroke, his call for all of them to stroke, sometimes only the people on his left-hand side while sometimes the people on the right of the boat. He sat last – in the middle while three of them sat on his left and three on his right.

                Sam sat right in front – to gain more pleasure of this ongoing boring repetitive adventure. While, Urav and Sankar swapped places poking fun at each other’s weight.

                “Serious guys”, the instructor said.

                The boat was away, the water taking them downstream. A first set of rocks, led to water swirls, the water frothy and white. Their instructor bellowed commands; Sam followed with zest. Second set of rapids another set of commands, Sam syncing his paddle strokes with his front man on the left. The rest followed the
person in front of them. Sam stooped low, waist down, to hit the water hard with his paddle. All their legs anchored into the lining preinstalled on the rubber boat.

                As they hit the fourth rapids spot, they all looked at each other and smiled, the boat overturned. Sam did not realise if it was his mistake or anyone not doing
his job as zealously as him. But all were in the water. Sam had taken a deep breath of air and was observing the boat over him. He let the water take him down in slow motion knowing the life vest would do its job. He could hear his instructors faint voice, then as he rose, he joined his hands over his head and kicked with his feet. In one short moment he was onto the strap around the overturned dingy.

                He was calm and looked around, only then realising the shouts his instructor was giving. Not panic stricken but warning all.

                “Catch the rope. Jump on the boat”, he repeated.

                It hit Sam, the rest of his mates were less mindful of water and if panic set in, it would be the end. He did not want to return with one friend missing. He heard the instructor shout.

                “All on the boat.”

                It was not so simple getting out of the water onto a boat one feet above the water-level. Sam did it though. Once on top, Sam saw their guide was pulling
his mates onto the boat.

                “1, 2, 3, 4, 5…”, he counted.

                All were lying on top of each other. Sam thought of diving into the water for the sixth person, not yet onboard, but the instructor dived into the water. The
sixth person was pulled aboard, and Sam helped the instructor on. 

                Next they realised the paddleless boat was now entering into the mangroves on the side of the river, at speed.

                “Head down”, the guide screamed.

                Sam dived onto the pile of bodies. There was nothing to hold onto except each other and the rope more than half way down the outside of the raft. Their pile of weight, in the centre of what was a few moments ago the underside of the boat, held them in place. The low branches of the mangroves started to come towards them.
No defence except for their instructor kicking at them as much as he could to veer the boat away. They had all lost their paddles.

                The branches continued to poke the bumping boat, until the Kundalika river widened and the waterflow ebbed. They all gave a sigh as they could now getup from their huddle.

                “We now have to straighten the boat”, the instructor continued,” All slide into the water on one side and do not leave the strap on the boat’s side.

                 With all seven of them heaving from one side, the boat turned right side up. They all jumped back into the safety of the boat. All shared their experiences.

                Back in their lodge, they heard a person tell them about a boat mishap. It was their story being told to them. Sam checked his cell phone.

                There were 15-20 missed call alerts. A couple were from his home phone while the rest from a US number.

                “I had a bad feeling in my gut like some doom was impending and hence was calling to check on you”, Daphne said.

 

— THE END —