Mood: Excited
WOW…River Rafting…that too on the Hudson River of New York !!! man am I dreaming or what !!! (I remember my first few weeks at job…i was deputed to Chennai (Madras) for my first project…and that was the time i saw the movie ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’…(I am a big fan of SRK, Preity n Saif…) so KHNH was a dream…and to top it all, it was shot in NY city…while watching it, one of the things that went thru my mind was when will i be able to see this city…*sigh*…infact this land…kind of pull that spurs in every S/W engineers mind some time in his life…)
OOPS !!, but thts not the topic…well i scribed this coz after all those thoughts in my mind…today i was here on this land…seen most part of it….be it east or west…and then it was this ‘right-now’ time when i was goin for River Rafting…!!! something that i just kept drooling over on the idiot box several times…confused 
emotions…heavy heart beats…excitement…everything at-once !! me and 8 other friends were off for this adventure which was at a place called George Lake (at upstate NY)…nice scenic drive for around 4 hrs…
Will get straight to the day we went for it…initially the day was pretty sunny n bright…no sign of rains or even clouds for that matter…but as soon as we went uphill for the rafting arena…the rain Gods wanted us to have a complete heart-fill of adventure…so there we were, carrying our raft, wet in rain, getting into a quick-flowing RIVER !!! everyone must’ve prayed inside…definately!! i did…all 9 of us were first timers !! and to top it…just 2 of us knew swimming (that too pool swimming…this was RIVER…)…well the journey began, luckily we also had a guide with us…(for the ppl who know, the level of flow was 2,3,3+,4)…
The begining was great…everyone smiling, shouting, swearing, and again shouting…within few mins the river was at 3+ and we saw a cliff right in front of us and the guide shouted ‘FORWARD’ (means we are suppose to puch the paddle behind)…but all r efforts went down the drain as r raft hit the cliff head 
on !!!!!!! it went straight up and then tilted…luckily we all were still hanging on the raft and so went back in it just to know that one of r frnd is not in !!! and the next moment we saw him flowing down the river !!!!! panic all around in the raft…everyone shouting, minus smiling, and swearing…the guide asked us not to panic and let him handle the situation…he then pulled r frnd back into the raft and we heaved a sigh of relief…wow wht a way to begin !! then after paddling for some time…we saw another raft in front of us…ready with water guns and buckets filled wid water !! it was war time folks…and it was awesome 
we were all wet like hell and enjoying every part of this adventure…(smiling was back)…
Few minutes of this relaxation and then our guide instructed…gather ur selves guys…there are more 3+ and 4 to come !!!! fighting with every wave, hoping to be inside the raft every time it hits us…this time it was the turn for 3 of us to get defeated by the strength of these killer waves and lose our grip over the raft !!! 
water filling up every possible/visible inlet of our bodies and faint voices of ‘dont panic’ trying to fill our ears…’DONT PANIC’ !!! r u nuts !!!! i cant breathe, cant swim, cant see, cant touch any solid substance except ofcourse my self !!! n u say, ‘Stay Calm, Dont Panic’…!!!…well, after a feirce fight against mini-tsunami’s we all were saved and brought back on the raft
we went on for 5 miles to finally end up exhausted, wet, shivering (as the water was really cold), but but but…satisfied, shouting, smiling, and swearing… ) it was just pure real awesome fun…enjoyed every moment of it…Recomendation Rating: *****
get yourself up on ur feat and find out some rafting arena near you and be there…trust me…its really worth it !!!
