Kayak with Vrooom and Co

"Vroooom.......Kkkkkkkkkkrrrrrr....Vroooooooom", The car was racing at its optimal speed. The banking of the roads on a sharp turn could not be banked at all and I was shitting in my pants sitting along side the driver, (PhD) Hari in his Hyundai. "That's just a James Bond demo for you !!!", quipped Hari nonchalantly suggesting he knew exactly what was happening. "Dude, What do you think? This is BMW or Ferrari??", Amit sounded concerned. Nandan was concerned too....speechlessness could be the sign. "I do not care man. When in my hands the bitch has to perform!!!", Hari was at his usual impulsive best. Hari is a doctoral researcher with a lot of enthu.....enthu* that is epidemic and overflows most of the times and probably in all situations. More often than not he reminds me of Vroom, a character in Chetan Bhagat's "One Night @ Call Centre". Everything of both characters is so very similar. But possibly, there are 2 distinct differences. One, Hari does not work in one of the Call Centres but a premiere research center, supposed to be doing state of the art research ahead of the Industry. Two, Hari is supposed to be happy with his job of growing and characterizing Carbon Nano Tubes (CNTs) for his PhD as opposed to Vroom who was too desperate for a nice break in Journalism.

Although, sitting alongside Hari in a car was an adventure (if not an ordeal), sitting back to him on a Kayak boat was a huge rejoicement. I mean there was no danger of drowning in the shallow waters here. Moreover, I know swimming to the extent that I can save myself and probably a partner. "Guruji!!!, Keep going Left....Left...Left!!! Right....Right....Right!!! Left...Right...Left....Right!!!!", we were screaming all the way as we were finding it extremely difficult to control our boat on a 21km Kayak trip in Lesse river. More than going straight along with the stream, our boat mostly preferred the zigzag route, maximizing the effort and value for money....truly Desi style.

To start with each of us had a short stint with Amit to get some funda about "How to go about Kayaking". Amit ofcourse was a seasonal with sea kayak experience under his belt and hence by default became the guide for all of us. After all permutation and combinations, me and Hari teamed up to be on the same boat with me on the back controlling the direction and Hari setting up the speed. The other team Amit and Nandan were kayaking like pros from the word go. The tutelage seemed to have worked for us too and it probably took us 20 of the total 21kms to get the Kayak basics right. Nevertheless, we really enjoyed the whole experience. Two spots on the route were most memorable. The view of the Castle on the hillock was splendid. It was unfortunate that none of us had the camera to take a shot. The other spot was an artificial slope where there was danger of toppling over. Fortunately, none of us toppled over but to enjoy others falling over in the water was fun....as always....yeah...as always. When you can't save others from falling over, you should do nothing but to enjoy the fall from the sidelines. We did just...

It was a very excellent outing and thanks to each one of you for making it memorable.

Amit: Thanks a ton dude!!! An excellent job in planning the trip as we did not even waste a second during the whole day....That's called a planner. I wish you plan PhD the same way. Btw, we should plan another Kayak trip, hopefully soon. I would like to see us improved.

Nandan: Thanks for being along side for both days. The Full Moon Hike and Kayak could not be avoided and had to fall on one day after the other. I know it was tough and I am sure you must have derived a similar degree of satisfaction after coming out unscathed through these challenging back to back trips.

Hari: Thanks for everything but more than everything thanks for introducing all of us to SUBWAY. I really loved the sandwich. After all the effort it was no less than ambrosia. Hope to visit the place many more times.

For all those interested in adventure sports in Belgium, Dinant (http://www.lessekayaks.be/ ) is the palace to go.
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*Here is an example of when Hari's enthu overflows:

I remember Hari had called me a week (may be 10 days) after joining his PhD in IMEC to enquire about the opportunities back in India after his PhD. He probably mistook me as one of the resourceful HR agents with plentiful opportunities at their disposal. I just could not control my laughter after about half an hour of telephonic conversation. Now, I myself do not know about my future after PhD. I still wonder if going for PhD has been a clever decision career wise or not. If anybody is sure about their next assignment, do let me know and I will kneel down in front of u for life time. "But Guruji, The point is (this is Hari's favorite slang. He emphasizes every point by saying But The point is).....One has to be proactive and not reactive :)" Hari was adamant to discuss further and further. I suppose he wanted me to extrapolate his case and predict which research group he would be heading/contributing after his PhD.....Isn't that daunting? I believe I could not stand up to his expectations but did try to offer some gyan through one of my favorite PhD comics: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1086