memories83’s blog

9 of us…all girls…the place for an ideal getaway was Panchgani…

I have had some of my best memories there..and the best stories too!

The chilling winter of 2009 and the greener pastures were outstanding for a jump in the valley. We booked our set of flyers and were all into sumos trailing across the wonderful mountains amongst wild flowers. Our jump-suits with our jumpers were our set of drivers too. This is that one moment I had been waiting for to check off from my to-do list. We got off at several places to check the wind and it was never visible as per the riders of the giant sky waves. The girls were howling mad on who would dare the go first as we managed to finally find a windy spot. And I without doubts was the one to willing give my life in the hands of a stranger.

 
The huge curtain was opened. It looked like it covered most of green land. A rider was busy strapping himself to the seat of the joy-ride, while I was preparing for my safety gears. The feel of the huge cloth waving happily against the winds and making a howling sound already took my excitement sky-high. And even before I could realize it, I was running the length of the mountain with my rider in full swing to jump off the mountain. He yelled out to me ‘Quick sit down’ and I was in the joy-ride seat, miles above the earth, in a valley with tall trees towering high, its tips almost touching my feet. I could see the village real tiny, kids running in the fields and pointing out amazingly at the gliders. I was in mid-drift when I heard a soft moan pass my glider’s mouth who was enthusiastically speaking about his past experiences at diving out of a mountain. Excitement was too high, but I managed to grasp his pause in story-telling to realize I wasn’t feeling the air through my face sweeping by. And all he said was ‘ Don’t panic, we need to do an emergency landing as we wont be able to get back to where we took off, the wind has stopped flowing and you are too heavy for me to maneuver back’. Well I definitely hadn’t panicked but really wild as the half-my-weight glider was blaming me for not landing safely. Well it wasn’t much use arguing in mid-air, least he might just drop me off the belt saying ‘goodbye’. And as we started to glide down towards the huge fields, the village kids ran across its length chasing us. Well they weren’t the only ones chasing our glider as I almost kicked a pack of dogs who were howling madly behind us all through the narrowing valley.

 
With a soft thud I landed in paddy fields with the huge curtain following us covering most of the field possible. I looked at the sky and the 7 minute ride, felt like I made an exit out of space and life. I can only envy the birds and bees for the most exquisite gift of their life, the ability to fly.

After landing I almost had a 100 kids and dogs around me, giggling, talking, barking and explaining how risky it gets for gliders and how they manage to rescue a few off the trees all blood-stained. After seeing my horror-struck face they managed to cool me off by telling me they were all ‘firangs’ trying stunts on their own. I then asked my glider ‘So how do we get back?’ And he said “We have landed kilometers away, would have to take an ST through the village to reach back in approx 2 hours”. This time my face never left the horror struck expression.

But what an experience it was!! Reaching the house where all the 8 girls were awaiting my return with ‘garam pohas and garam chai’ after my dare-devil adventure, I managed to fill them up with my story of the flight chased by dogs, to the ride across the Wai village with loads of white-caps who seemed like members of the panchayat in the bus, awed by little school children, the cattle and goats grazing in meadow, of the ladies carrying pots towards the well on the kachha roads…Oh!! India is just the same as mentioned in books hundreds of years ago…every little detail as I sat in the window of that bumpy ST, remembering my flight and hoping the seats of the ST were made of cotton!!!!!!

…Mana….Paragliding at Panchgani (its a must)