Apun Ka Sapna

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Friday, 02 November 2007 19:14

She was looking perfectly at peace with her surroundings. Like a duck in water she was graciously moving around . I pushed myself hard to reach as near to her as possible. When I got her attention, I was desperately trying to hold my head high so that eye contact is not lost.

" Hi, you are surjeet ? "

"No.. I'm Suruchi."

"Su ?"
"Su Ru Chi."

"Aaah... Suruchi. Hi , I'm Sojish"

"Hai Sojish", she smiled, "Wrong place for an introduction, right ?"

Yeah .. ", I too smiled and quickly returned to where I had been.

Suruchi is a very beautiful and talented lady. She is a singer, guitarist, photographer, swimmer and adventurist. Its definitely nice to know such a talented person, but the time and place was not right. For now I just needed to get her name right, just incase I've to call out for help.

Like she said, we are in the wrong place. Both of us are floating in the Arabian Sea , 2 hours away from Indian mainland. Few others are floating around and a few are clinging on to the side of the boat while puking their intestines out. Rest .... have already gone underwater.

We are all doing a Scuba Diving Session.

I was always excited about Scuba diving after listening to the experiences of Kishore . Never thought it would materialise, and when Neeraj offered a chance I just jumped at it.

First days class in a hotel swimming pool near Murudeshwar ( NH-17 between Manglore and Goa ) was real fun . Its almost 7 years since I sat in a class room, so I was giggling non-stop during theory class. Ajay , our trainer , was explaining animatedly all the devices that will keep us alive underwater. We were asked to pay detailed attention as all of them are very important.

Goggles : You take it , spit inside and spread the saliva around the glass before you wear it ( Feeling yucky ? ) By the way, you wont get a personal goggles here. Share the same goggle someone else has already spat into.( feeling yuckier ?? ) They say , human saliva prevents fogging . So, dont think twice when you get a goggles. Spit , spread , dip in water and wear it. ( you have no right to feel yucky ) .
Fins : Wear it like a shoes and it'll propel you through water. I was able to do a 20 mtr stretch in just 15 seconds . Ofcourse that was in swimming pool.
BCD : Buoyancy Control Device ( BCD ) is a more sophisticated life-jacket that we use. It holds the oxygen cylinder in place and has four pipes that floats around. One has all meters required, one is for breathing device and another one for auxillary breathing device. The forth one connects the oxygen cylinder to BCD , which can be deflated/inflated as willed.
Weight Belt: It looks like bullet packed belts of old-time movie villains , but this is what takes you down. I thought weight-belts are only for teeny-weany guys like me , fact is everyone ought to wear it.

My mind was wandering around during the discourse and it snapped back to focus, when I saw Ajay standing up. He was giving his final words before we do our practicals. He said,

"I know that all of you guys are really tough and talented. All your life you might have done crazy things , because you listened to your heart.

But when underwater, you would listen to me and ONLY me. You will do only what I ask you to do.

When underwater I'm your GOD !!"

Ajay didnt have a faintest of smile when he said that. My giggles quickly drowned inside. I understood that I'm getting into something that requires assistance of none other than God himself.

Swimming pool practicals were quite easy. I went down with all gears, took some seconds to get used to breathing through mouth using BCD device and then it was real fun. Ajay had given us 5 exercises ( rather tests ) to do under water .

Inhale and exhale through mouth in slow deep breaths.
Remove breathing device from mouth, exhale completely and then fix it back.
Remove breathing device from mouth and throw it away . Collect it back in 1 quick action and fix it back in mouth.
Allow water to enter your goggles and then clear the water from inside the goggles without coming up.
Check the meter readings and then convey it to trainer.

I was able to do all the tests in one go as I did not get time to think about anything else underwater. I guess visualizing the excercises before doing it helped me a lot.

Next day , we were taken in a boat to outer sea. By the time we reached the shallow waters near an un-inhabited island few of us were already down with sea-sickness. I was excited but equally scared. So just pulled myself back when Ajay asked for 3 people go first. As the first 3 with Ajay went down, rest of us put on the life jackets and jumped to the sea. Sea water is thicker than fresh water , hence you tend to float easily. So they said , and I wanted to test it for the first time.

"Blum."

I went underwater.

Something was amiss. Something which I always had, is not there anymore. Oh shit , there is no place to put my feet on.

I started kicking ( i dont know why ) and searching for a foothold, when I suddenly felt fresh air in my face. The life-jacket has brought me back to the surface. I can breath easily now and I got my senses back . I realised that , unlike swimming pools sea does not have a floor to put your foots on. You have your life-jacket and that is enough to keep you afloat. I smiled .

I smiled again at nothing. I'm floating in the Arabian sea .

I am not a great swimmer . The last time I swam was during college days, and then i almost got myself drowned . The life jacket was making it a lot difficult to move my hands. 30 minutes later, i built enough courage to wander away from the boat and thats when I got introduced to Suruchi.

The water is salty and slimy , but its very clear. As I looked down with the snorkeling goggles I could see the sea bed way down with fishes moving around. In no time, I was at ease with the vastness of sea and the freakiness that nothingness brings.

Few hours later, it was my chance for Scuba. Neeraj, Suruchi and me put on the gear and dropped ourselves into water. Ajay deflated my BCD and I went down slowly. Time went so fast while underwater, and the best moments included the following.

1) My first step on the sea bed 10mtrs under sea level.

2) Mesmerizing effect of the dense group of fishes swimming around us. Reminded me of NatGeo.

3) Feeling weightless as we float just above the sea bed , checking out the shells and eels.

4) Taking sea cucumber in hand and patting it .

5) Losing control of BCD that pushed me up, while all others were going down. ( I was frantically kicking and moving to get the attention of God. I felt secure as God reached up and held my hands. He corrected the deflation of BCD and I was back with the group. )

6) While on my way back to surface, I looked up hoping to see sun through water. All I saw was someone puking right on the spot where I'll pop out on the surface. I did a last minute manoeuvring to avoid it , and I was successful. But as soon as I got out of water, the pressure difference gave a thrust inside the stomach and I joined the puke club.

I was dead tired and I slept all way back . 2 hours in boat and then 12 hours in bus.

Have you seen the HDFC ad which has a lot of kids with cricket balls and bat ? . It has a background score which goes like this .