Suchitra's African nightmare

She’s been globe trotting with a vengeance after her trips to Bhutan, Chile, Peru and Argentina, when actress-author-entrepreneur Suchitra Krishnamoorthi recently set her sights on Africa, she never expected that white-water rafting down the Zambezi would be a life-changing experience.

The 4-day adventure trip a little over a month ago in Zambia almost ended in tragedy when the raft she was on flipped and she was pulled under by the overpowering current, but it’s only now that she’s gathered herself enough to talk about it. “I felt myself being sucked under the surface in an eddie. I struggled and thrashed and tried my best to rise to the surface running out of air in my lungs and water filled my body. I felt myself being sucked in deeper and deeper. My life flashed before my eyes,” she told your diarist. Suchitra said she was only thinking of her daughter Kaveri in those moments when she almost gave up hope, and it somehow filled her with one last surge of strength that pushed her to the surface. “I was so glad to be alive that I started to cry,” said Suchitra who still hasn’t shaken off the horror of the incident. “I hadn’t known the Zambezi is the roughest river in the world a grade 5 . Which in human speak means ‘extremely difficult long and violent rapids, big drops and pressure areas with exposed rocks under or above the water.

Beyond that, that is grade 6, is unrunnable even for the professionals. I’m just grateful, and blessed to be alive.” Amen.