Day 171 of impactful experiences making you smile – Slithering from a bridge into the river and other adventures
Meet my girlfriend Mrinalini Rao, an IIM alumni, management professional, enthusiastic, tomboyish, (having grown up with five brothers), now content with her other roles as a wife and mother too!
So it was a pleasure to accompany her on an adventure camp at Jiyalgarh, She is ever ready to try out new experiences, we had no clue what at we would be doing – trekking, white water rafting, rappelling, jimmering, cliff jumping and even bridge slithering!
We started our whitewater rapids rafting at this place called Srinagar(in Uttarakhand) and went downstream rowing our paddles for 13 kms. We were 2 women leading the way for the 8 men on our raft! It was quite exciting to sit with her and go up and down the rapids as we tried to maneuver ourselves in the midst of the ice cold water. Whitewater rafting on the Ganges, we finally did it.
She boldly jumped from a high cliff to the cold river and I too got inspired by her. Yet I panicked with my cliff jumping adventure underwater (my helmet was loose over my eyes and I could barely see anything).
Then she ventured for another brave attempt…dangling in mid air after the bridge slithering activity, before crashing into the river… I followed her again. It was a sense of fulfillment to think that in spite of being terrified I actually went outside that rickety bridge and came down 30 feet on a rope…when I saw her in mid air, I couldn’t imagine how I be doing the same thing a few minutes later!
Somehow I managed to complete an ardous mountain trekking…up and down in exhaustion… with the continuous inspiration of Mrinalini and the support of the camp manager Ravat who pulled me throughout the way…
Gearing up my mental courage I watched her go down the 50 feet high rock face, soon I too did rappelling next (just as I had seen the other mountain climbers do in movies…)
Her energy was fantastic. After we went down the rock, she successfully climbed up an almost vertical rock…but this time I did NOT manage to follow her by doing gimmering UP the rock…this was only activity I gave up midway… as I was too exhausted to pull my body weight up that rope with the blue and red gimmer!
All this happened years before the area was ravaged by the 2013 floods. Yet I will always continue to be inspired by Mani- the girlfriend who taught me to take external action spite of the internal fear and produce amazing results in life!
So who are the people who made you feel you are never alone?
Please share the impactful experiences that made you smile.
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