DAS: bringing adventure sports to the Masses

I went rafting this weekend. I Bumped, flew out of my seat, hung onto handles for dear life, nearly fell out and barely escaped with my life. Whatever people tell you about White Water rafting let me give you my personal word that it cannot compare with Rocky Road Rafting.

So how does one go Rocky Road Rafting? Well first of all, you shouldn’t have a plan and definitely no tickets, plans and tickets are fatal to road rafting. What you need is a little bit of crazy and a burning desire to drop everything and run away (run anywhere…… but not Rajasthan, the roads are good in Rajasthan). Land up at ISBT, Delhi (that’s the inter state bus terminal for those of you who are jet-setters, and not bus-sitters out there) in the middle of the night, look for the rattiest public bus (the smellier the better) driven by the most enthusiastic looking driver (the smellier the better, though investigating this too closely is not recommended), into Uttar Pradesh (or Madhya Pradesh, the roads are terrible for driving ergo excellent for road rafting in these two states). Scramble on board elbowing out of your way the paan chewing dude, the 80 year old grandma, Bunty, Babli and their kids Chunnu and Munnu. Make for the back seat (you may sit in the middle or front if you have heart problems), secure your luggage, secure yourself and hang on for the ride of your life as your driver takes you 80 miles per hour over potholes 80 inches deep. If you did your research carefully and picked a craz- I mean experienced driver, you can be assured of the fact that not a single crack on the road will be missed (despite the fact that the busses headlights aren’t working) and if your driver is a real sport he’ll speed up as he approaches the really good pot holes.

If you reach your destination in one piece, thank god …………. profusely. Then proceed to take part in the nearest adventure sport available, Hang Gliding, River Rafting, Bungee Jumping, Mountain biking on narrow dirt roads or temple stampeding (the other less acknowledged but extremely popular Desi Adventure Sport (DAS)) trust me the experience, the thrills and the heart rate levels will fall way short of Rocky Road Rafting.

Books Versus Movies (No Contest)

I can’t sleep. So while I wait for the latest episode of “How I met Your Mother” to download, allow me to practice my Acceptance Speech for winning best adapted screenplay (preferably a Tamora Pierce Novel adaption) at the Oscars, on you.

“Well…… this is unexpected (audience laughs because I had all five nominations). I’d like to thank the two most beautiful women in the world (camera pans to my two beautiful sisters……. Audience gasps) for never letting me doubt my own beauty (audience snickers as Joke falls flat), my friends for encouraging me to follow my dreams and being true to myself (audience goes awwwwww……..) and lastly my parents for making me who I am.
Thank You for making me the Girl who thought books meant novels and only novels. That a book was not a book, unless it had a story, non-fiction and textbooks being in a category unto themselves. The Girl who did a double take because the text books outnumbered the fiction books in her senior school library. The girl who never understood the families who proudly displayed their entire book collection consisting of a row of untouched Encyclopaedias in their Drawing Rooms.
And Thank You most of all from teaching me to learn from stories. . Thank You for treating a good story with the respect it deserves no matter what the medium. For treating movies and books the same (Movie Making Audience Cheers), the stories they tell and the lessons you can learn from them being the important thing (Clapping Starts). For treating serious and frivolous alike – for you can always find something to be learnt.

I learnt everything from my Values to my Geography from Movies and Books. These Stories have served as the starting points of Deep Introspection into weighty issues like "Is True Love never Having to say Sorry?" and have jumpstarted Extensive Research on Trivial Bits of History such as "Schindlers List" which might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

This is the reason I do what I do (adapt screenplays) I’d like to thank the Academy for recognizing my genius at it. ( Orchestra starts playing, is drowned out by the Standing Ovation, somewhere in the audience George Clooney starts to fall in love with me)”

Thank you for your patience, I am off to learn How Ted Mosby met his Children's Mother.