A morning escapade across the Riverbank at IIT Gandhinagar

Originating from the Aravali hills, Sabarmati is one of the biggest rivers in Gujarat. The view of river ravines from the IIT Gandhinagar campus is beautiful enough to keep viewers spellbound for hours. During summer and winter the river flows nearly 20-30 feet beneath ground level, but in rains the view from the top appears gigantic.

One fine winter morning we (a gang of six friends) started an expedition to find a way through the precipitous cliff down to the river bank. “It would be wonderful if we can catch some fish below” one of our friends joked, playing with a small ball of dough, thread, and some pins. It turned out that the narrow slippery pathways were surrounded by scorched, succulent plants and large abysses. Lumbering through the wildness around, finally we landed on the bank.

The cool breeze with morning sunshine made us feel rejuvenated. Our first encounter was with the dry river bed covered with cactus plants. Later, we came across a vast white bed of dry mud, creating an illusion of the ‘Great Rann of Kutch’. Then we found her. Snaking past the small hills of sand and glistening waves dancing on her surface was River Sabarmati. We sat on the river bank, and two of my friends made a fishing pole out of the pins, thread and dry twigs. The dough ball came in handy, as they had to put it on the fish hook as bait. Within a few minutes, our handmade fishing pole was ready. We dropped it into the water and waited for our luck to strike. Soon, we realized that our hard work was going to end in vain, as the fish weren’t biting.

On the other side of the bank, some fishermen were pulling out their nets out of the water. We waved at them. A teenaged boy responded and agreed to give us whatever he would get from fishing net. In few moments, he swam across the river holding a Rohu in his hand. We felt delighted having a single fish in our grasp. Although our fishing pole was a failure, a feeling of ‘mission-accomplished‘ spread through the group. Wrapping the fish in a polythene bag we returned.

Judging from below, climbing up felt like an impossible task. We were exhausted but soon we crossed the high slippery cliffs with each other’s help. It was almost noon. With a feeling of triumph we came back to hostel with a freshly caught fish to cook for lunch.

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