The Great Ganga Panga

The title of this blog comes from the trekking and rafting trip which all the new recruits of Mckinsey go through in India. We also had a similar experience last Sunday, when we decided to take on take on some Panga at Ganga - a 12 km white water rafting trip from Shivpuri to Rishikesh.

We had started off pretty late from Haridwar and were just lucky to have reached Shivpuri on time to be able to catch up with one of the last boats that was about to leave for the rafting trip. Since there were only 3 of us, we were clubbed with another group from ICICI Lombard into an inflated boat. In all, there were 11 of us in the boat including 2 guides.

The rafting expedition started off with the guide shouting out some instructions and giving us some practice to follow his commands. I got to man one of the oars, about which I was quite thrilled initially but regretted it later on. (you will get to understand the reason as you read on).

The stretch consists of calm waters as well as sections which are called "rapids". The rapids have been given names such as "Golf Course", "Tee Off", "Double Trouble" etc. The flow of water is quite high and undergoes tremendous turbulent motion (much more than the seas), probably due to undulations in the bed of the river. Therefore, when your raft passes through any of the rapids, one can expect it to undergo all sorts of motions and if luck isnt on your side, it could even topple. The experience is fun, adventurous, as well as exciting. One actually at times feels helpless as the rowing doesnt seem to help much in those kind of waters.

Anyways, the whole experience can also sap all your energy, as rowing is not an easy exercise. My whole body pained for almost till the whole of next day.

Anyways, hoping to go on such expeditions time and again. Gotta check out Mussourie and Dehradun, as well as places somewhat far off in the mountains. Hoping to make good use of my Sundays.