The life is so monotonous and tiring that it compels us to pause and redo our senses. We want to leave our job and retire to the greens in the Himalayas.The same moment came in my life when I was wading through the deep waters of the "Rogue Island". I was determined to do rafting in Rishikesh, but my friends were feared about the depth, the indomitable rapids, and the crocodiles in the Ganges.They tried everything to change my plans, but I was not going to give up.

The last day of the trip came and two of the four friends left for the "Rogue Island".I and another friend caught the bus to Rishikesh.We reached there in the night and the next night, we had to monitor the skies of the "Rogue Island". Early in the morning, we reached Ramjhula.We asked from a kiosk about the charges of rafting.My friend was very apprehensive about the safety in rafting.He was asking for the shortest possible distance.It was too early and there were no rafting groups.Finally, a open jipsy with 10-11 dudes from Delhi stopped before us.My friend took his steps back and said that he won't keep his life on stake as these dudes were determined to do 21 KM of adventure on the Ganges.The image of ferocious and indomitable rapids of the Ganges must have feared him and he decided to stay there in the kiosk.I jumped into the jipsy and I found myself out of place amidst the big dudes drinking and smoking.

The journey began to take us to the point from where we were supposed to take the control of the raft.The half broken bridge, small boulders slipping down the hill and the sharp turns of hilly roads were the things to capture.Within 20 odd minutes, we, the soldiers, to win over the cruel rapids of the Ganges, reached Shivpuri(the initiation point).Three groups were there to showcase their mettle and to nourish their senses.Everybody was given a proper training of teminologies and the use of rescue rope, and the risk factor involved.There was a big plump guy who was uncomfortable sitting on the sides of the raft as we were.Because it would have made the raft unstable and we would have found us lying on some sand beach beside the Ganges.So the plump guy was made to take the control of the front and enjoy the blunt of rapids on his face.

Two professionals were on-board to help us during mishaps.The raft was given a push through the shallow waters kissing the banks of the Ganges and all of us hopped on the raft and took control in our respective positions. The rapid was nothing to fear until I saw one.The gallons of water rose and rose high it tried to overpower the big dudes and turn the raft turtle.I can't explain how much exciting it was to face the splashes and at the same time my feet began to tremble.The professional rafters had a name for each rapid. They categorised the rapid as a minor one.Everybody on the raft shouted with excitement that they won't be able to go back.The three major rapids were waiting for us. I couldn't imagine how high would it be and how much gallons of water would it throw on us?Would it submerge the raft? Would the rescue rope come into the picture to save a drowning soldier? Where would I find myself if I fall over the edge of the raft?Would it be the bed of the Ganges, some beach on inside a whirlpool?

The wait was not so long and in a few seconds, we were going to hit the first major rapid. It was a continuum of four hemispheres which were dancing in all directions and were as powerful as hundreds of elephants.The guides shouted, "Be ready!!!! we are going to hit the black tornado(name of the rapid)".My legs were trembling and I was trying to push myself inside the raft.The raft stood straight as it hit the first hemisphere of the rapid.As it rose to the peak, all of us were thrown to the back of the raft and it unbalanced the raft.Now the raft was on the mercy of the black toranado.The guides encouraged us and to take the charge.As soon as we realized what happened, we fell into the hemisphere which was dancing in all the diractions and pushed us to the rocks beside the river.We were about to hit the rock and a big acident was waiting for us.Literally, I surrendered like everybody did.But the professionals who were with us during our journey rescued the raft and took the raft clear out of the black tornado.

It was the time to take some rest and drink some water as all of us were tired, although we hadn't done anything except sitting idle on the raft. A boy was selling Maggi and mineral water and few steps ahead, there was a jumping point. All of us took a holy jump into the Ganges and got ready to cover up the next half of our extravaganza.We hit three major rapids and 7-8 minor rapids in our journey.

The Laxaman Jhula was about to come.Few of us jumped into the Ganges using rescue rope and played with water.I could literally sleep on the river bed and it was feeling like a thing not to vanish. We all crossed the Laxman Jhula lying on the river bed.Suddenly, the guides shouted that final rapid is waiting for us. So, get in. All of us hurried up and the colleagues on board push us up.We crossed the rapid without any hitch and we looked up it was Ram Jhula showing its strength and courage as it had been showing for the ages.

Guess what was the name of the rapid.The name was "Thanks God!!!!".All of us shouted high facing sky, "Thanks Goddddddddddddddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The Rogue Island

Once there was a maverick boy who loved the telecom giant without any limits and always dreamt of being a part of this giant. After a strenuous and long fight of over 8 months, he got into his dream archipelago, the telecom giant. But he landed on a rogue island of this huge archipelago. The interesting fact was that he knew what he was going to do. But it was a long time struggling with over 30 interviews in different companies and still he was not able to get a so called "Engineering Job”. So he decided to join the inhabitants of that strange island where people don't have a Saturday or a Sunday and do not celebrate any festival and they get paid for not celebrating the festivals. The inhabitants don't have the right to sleep as well and they are paid judiciously for relinquishing their sleep.

Apartheid is also prevalent in the “Rogue Island”. The inhabitants are broadly divided into two categories on the basis of color. One are the "blue" colored nominal aristocrats, the others are the "red" colored forced dalits. The islanders live in very precarious condition anticipating aerial attack by the ferocious aliens. So their whole day spends in averting an attack. The islanders are so robust that they don't get tired and are monitoring the skies since the day of "Inception." The maverick boy got the visa of the “Rogue Island”. As per the law of the island, the boy was supposed to join the red class. It needs to be added that it was totally intentional on the boy’s part to join the islanders because the pressure was such big on him as to burst the head into thousands of pieces.

The first day in the “Rogue Island” was refreshing and interesting for the boy’s co-passengers who were just oblivious of the scenario, lifestyle, and the precarious situation of the “Rogue Island”. They all were laughing, enjoying and celebrating their universal success. But the boy was just circumnavigating the whole island devoid of even a speck of happiness on his face. The boy knew that he just got trapped but he had to start his life with what he got. He was reluctant to accept the islanders. He was reluctant to accept the lifestyle, the apartheid and the monitoring of skies till the doom. But he still had a very small hope left in some dark corner of his heart that the day would come when he would just fly off the island and join his friends on "the dream island".

The joy of the immigrants from different cities finished off soon and they needed to monitor the skies to sustain. The boy also wanted to sustain because he wanted a safe escape. The islanders are divided into the battalions so as to make it easy to fight the sulking aliens. The bureaucrats of the island arranged a meeting for all the new inhabitants (red creed).The agenda of the meeting was to allot battalion randomly. The boy was allotted the "Intelligent battalion" which was the most aspired one. The most heinous and powerful aliens were dealt with by the "Intelligent battalion". The bureaucrat said that the boy was given a responsibility that called for devotion. He added that the boy was the lucky one as nobody got there without a permanent citizenship of the “Rogue Island”. The boy was totally unmindful of what he was spewing and just ignored him. The co-passengers weren't so lucky and joined the other not-so-good battalions and they were signaled to join their respective battalions.

The journey wasn't just easy for the boy as he had a negative force bubbling inside him. He was introduced to the soldiers who were air-lifted in the past from their fantasies and dropped into the deep waters of the “Rogue Island”. The difference between others and he was that he came on his own terms but most of the citizens were just ignorant of what happened. There were just three members and they were eagerly waiting for newbie. They air-lifted two soldiers some 20 days before the boy landed on the “Rogue Island”. The two newbie were given the responsibility to make the boy a "CHEETAH", an honorable title, given to the soldiers irrespective of their color.

The sky was divided into the zone for the sake of simplicity in monitoring. The boy was allotted the most strategically significant zone which used to have fewer aerial attacks but all of them were deadly, killing millions of civilians and leaving a trace of devastation behind it. The boy’s training began and a small little girl was entrusted with task of training him. The boy had just spent two days in the island when he came to know that he could fly off the island through an illegal mean. He ditched the battalion and looked forward to the opportunity. With the end of the day, he realized that it was just another debacle. The most dangerous part was that he had to go through the island’s bureaucrats before he could leave the island forever. But according to the article 3, section17, the boy wasn't even eligible to think of an escape. So, he hurried and withdrew his name from the passenger list.

He had another opportunity waiting on the far end of the planet, but it was a daunting task to get there. But he was so desperate that he broke all the legal bindings and just flew to the unknown territory. He meandered his way through all the processes of becoming the citizen of "the dream island." The boy’s dreams shattered once again and when he came back to the "Rogue Island", he was court marshaled and was accused of infidelity. The bureaucrat was spewing the poison all over his face and he was standing in the middle of two emotions. One was not affecting the boy at all; the other was the feeling of satisfaction that he hadn't given up chasing the big dream. The bureaucrat labeled him as the most ignorant dalit of the "Rogue Island". He asked his commander-in-chief to take legal action against the boy. Surprisingly and disappointingly, the boy was not banished from the island and asked to continue with his job.

Some twenty days passed when he rebelled and submitted his petition to give him the escape. But the bureaucrat was stringent. He said that once you were trapped, you were obliged to serve here. He also offered to help the boy to become the permanent citizen of the island. The boy knew that the bureaucrat was diplomatic and wanted to save his pride. But he didn't know that the blue color was neither the temptation nor the dream of the maverick boy. The parents of the boy were upset on his decision to decline the citizenship. They wanted to support his decision, but were apprehensive about his future too. So, they employed some indirect ways to rescue him. Finally, he submitted to the indirect gesture of the parents and decided to continue his fight from there only.

The day came when he met the bureaucrat and took back his feet tactfully. He got 4-5 chances to escape in the future, but just couldn't make it. Meanwhile, the training was on full swing, the little girl had become his teacher and he was just ignoring her efforts and focusing on the ways to escape. The boy had a poor performance and was warned again and again. The boy was a rebel. He didn't pay any heed to the accusations.

The boy was devoid of confidence, battered by the bitter accusations in the island, isolated from the support he needed, but he had the last trace of hope left and tried to touch the brink of every single opportunity. He was criticized for this also.

Finally the tired, wounded boy sat back and tried to accept the "Rogue Island" as his home and dream. But the situation had got worsened up during all the happenings. The boy was accused of slow learning, incapability, in competency, infidelity, and obtuseness. The boy couldn't stand the accusations, but also couldn't reciprocate in defense. This was the time that the boy felt that he's just not good enough and relegated to the deepest region of despondency and was willing to stay there with the cherished memories of how he chased his dreams. He needed support but he got reprimand. He needed friends, but he got enemies. He thought of improving the situation, but it worsened up. Now he was also ready to monitor the skies, but he had lost the trust of the islanders. He wanted to get up and run again, but his injuries and bruises didn’t allow him, so he decided not to move forward. He just left everything on the destiny and time.

He got up in few days with revitalized confidence and tried to learn the strategic importance of the different zones, but, obviously, without any support of islanders. The time spent and his commander-in-chief changed and also the outlook of the islanders. They started showing a little trust in him. He volunteered to take responsibilities of different zones. Everything was going good, but another mammoth jolt was ambushing in the way to new journey. The stage was being architect-ed by God and the boy was totally unaware of the plot.

On the day of disaster, the most venomous, the most dreadful, the most powerful, the most competent and the most advanced aliens were sulking in the far end of sky and were waiting for the right time to attack and devastate the island into an eternal gloom. The "Intelligent Battalion" was the only resort to avert the devastation. The four soldiers of the "Intelligent Battalion" were on leave reducing their strength. A soldier of a friendly battalion joined as a ad-hoc commander-in-chief.

The boy was entrusted with the task of monitoring 6 zones and was asked to train 3 new soldiers. This was the trust which islanders showed in the boy who was once accused of obtuseness and incompetency.The job was daunting but the boy was determined to improve his tarnished image. He was doing well. He noticed a black speck early in the morning across the light orange sky. But the boy, unaware of the God's plot, ignored that speck which was a spaceship of the aliens which was waiting for the right moment. He trained the 3 soldiers and did his monitoring. He never knew that the time is going to take a full circle once again. The aliens attacked and devastated the "Rogue Island" leaving it to tatters. The boy was really unhappy of himself. He knew that he was not going to be spared for the ignorance and may have to leave the island with the burden of shame and guilt on his heart. The boy accepted that he hated the island for what it was, but he never ever thought of its devastation.

The only thing in his favor was that he had a very busy day and made a mistake in ignoring the speck in the distant sky. But the crime was the rarest of the rarest in the island. Every citizen of the island knew his name and he became infamous once again, but on the much broader terms. The boy was demoted and was thrown into a corner. The boy knew that the situation was not good and was condemning himself for accepting the huge load and to make thing worse, he also accepted the load of another soldier from the friendly battalion. The boy didn’t inform his parents about the happenings in the remote island and kept his emotions and pains buried deep inside.

The situation improved with time. He was spared and more soldiers were recruited to strengthen the "Intelligent Battalion”. The responsibilities were reduced to meager 25% of what he handled on that day. He, again, lost the trust and importance gained with so much reluctance and pain. He was relegated to a corner. The fables of the devastation day became famous and the maverick boy was the protagonist.

According to the article 420, section -2#, all forced dalits are eligible to the permanent citizenship, if they make a good impression on their commander-in-chief and the bureaucrats. There used to be special festival for changing the color of the citizen which lasted over one month. The dalits drink and dance in the hope of another universal success. They do everything, willingly or unwillingly, to change their color. They become more active in their monitoring; they try to please their commander-in-chives and the bureaucrats. The blue colored soldiers help the red creed in the hope of taking a sun bath. The boy again circumnavigated the island, analyzed red creed’s happiness and remained what he was on the very first day, totally uninterested.

The red dalits were enlisted and called for a face-off with the bureaucrats. The boy was also among the herd of 90 dalits, but he had totally different plans. He was just waiting outside for his turn to lock horns with bureaucrats and tell them his intentions explicitly. The time came and the boy flooded the bureaucrats with all the emotions he kept buried. It was a 50 minute face-off and the most memorable face-offs till date. He declined their offer to become permanent citizen of the "Rogue Island”. He also raised concern about the treacherous policies of apartheid, politics, and the boot-licking attitude of the islanders to gain the weight. The boy knew that he was doing another rebellion, but he wanted to explicitly define his goals. He didn't want to confuse himself anymore. The boy raised his concerns and was awarded judiciously for the "sacrilege".

The boy is again facing criticism for deliberately killing his chances for the permanent citizenship. The people said that his life would end because he had locked horns with the giant. But the boy wants to do what he likes and if he deserves something, he won't need a giant to insure his life. Actually, the giant is just the minute speck in this world and the life won't start or end on a giant.

-Ankit Kapoor