Bold is beautiful but not always....

by Ashima Kumar (India)

A leap into the unknown India

Rishikesh is pristine and mesmerising... the river Ganga can be intimadating and at the same time one can keep adoring it’s charm and gigantic aura.... I have always been adventurous, one of the kinds who literally believes ‘fate loves the fearless ‘ which I still very much do. After arriving at Rishikesh and hitting the river with our required wherewithal we decided to capture a river front and make it more like our beach... there was laughter, admiration for the place, happiness and thrill in the air till I decided to awaken my little adventurous kid yet again... just to give a little background to the ordeal I am a national level swimmer hence was I guess a bit overconfident in my shoes... the adventure was seen and predicted till the unforeseen unpredictability took place... Me and my cousin who is 5 years younger to me decided to swim in river Ganga and touch a huge stone which lay right in the middle of the river this was around 150 metres from the front where we stood... not much I know and that’s exactly what I thought?l and on the count of steady, go we both started to swim. Reached the stone and touching it obviously along with a few clicks by our friends still waiting for our successful return was an obvious fact... after spending 15 odd minutes, posing with the formidable stone and it’s beauty, it started to get chillier and we decided to swim back... now by this time the waters were fried and tested as well, hence fear whatever little bit had famished even... while on our way back, my Cousin happened to gather more energy and swim after than me, and I Cursed myself being 5 years older, grrrr, and suddenly I realised something that wasn’t quite right, something that demanded my oh yes bloody immediate attention, something that made rush and made me panic and that was when I lost nearly all controls over my legs... no matter how much or how hard I tried the under currents of the river in this 15 minutes had got so strong that I was helpless and couldn’t swim at all... panic started to set in and once realising that this actually will be it or else I should shout, I Yelled at the top of my voice, so far taking it as a joke my friends realised the fear in my Boyce and expressions started to run here n there but honestly there was nothing much they could have done anyways as they were fairly far away from me.. I took a deep breath and with all the force and power I had I tried to swim again but to no avail.. tears had started rolling already as I could see my death right in bring of my eyes... suddenly my cousin who swam safely to the front shouted and trust me his voice was no lesser than the angel calling, ‘grab that bloody stone in front’, and all I could see, feel and think of was that BLOODY stone.... being my last chance before I had hit the massive rapids, I grabbed the stone with my full faith, prayer and courage... of course if I am writing this then of course I am alive however in this ordeal I ended up hurting myself pretty bad with a fracture in my leg and a few nails broken ???? but the one lesson that I learnt was to be fearless but sensibly... after I was rescued from the stone I clinged to like I won’t even hug the hottest guy, we all were back to our hotel SAFELY.... my cousin opened the champagne and all was said was, ‘to the new chapter of our lives’, and the tag line for the same was ‘SENSIBLY FEARLESS ‘ ???????????? thanks for reading... keep smiling as life is short....