Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
rage from the east, the driver speeding in the fog. In those days, Sattar said, there was no
fence on the bridge. The driver had veered to avoid a pile of sand in the roadway, and the
bus skidded out of control and crashed over the downriver side of the barrage. It was seven-
fifteen in the morning.
“I dived in straight away,” he said, pointing at a spot of water twenty feet from the bank.
“Three boats charged, as well.” The men dove and dove into the cold water, pulling kids to
safety before going back to find more. Soon, they were finding only bodies.
“Now that I'm describing it to you, it's right there in front of me,” Sattar said. “Every-
where we put our hands, we found them. Under the seats. I pulled out the body of one boy,
and two others came with him.” Out of 130 children on the bus, nearly 30 died.
The Wazirabad crash was a huge news story in Delhi, and Sattar received an award from
the national government. There had been promises of money, too, but Sattar told us that
had just been the chatter of politicians trying to look generous. They had never followed
up.
But he didn't care. Lifeguarding was its own reward. He told us of one girl who had
survived the crash. In a television interview, she had said it was thanks to Sattar that she
was alive.
“I save lots of people,” he said. “I've gotten used to it. But when that girl said that, it
really touched me.”
He shook his head, still deep in the memory. He had been shivering for a week, he said.
The river had been very cold.
My original plan had been to find a canoe or a rowboat and run the Yamuna from Delhi to
Agra, a journey usually made by bus. My waterborne arrival at the Taj Mahal—likely to a
throng of local media—would open up an entirely new tourist route, and possibly lead to
economic development along the water, and a renewed campaign to restore the Yamuna.
You're welcome.
But my delusions faded fast. Just you try looking up
kayak
in the Delhi yellow pages.
And although there are scores of whitewater rafting companies in the foothills of the Him-
alayas, I soon realized it was hopeless to try to entice them out of the mountains. I didn't
have the money. Besides, they were
whitewater
rafters, not brown. Finally, there were all
those dams on the Yamuna, and diversions, and dry sections. How do you raft a river that's
not there?
