Indians must take to scuba diving

First things first! Even as my friends and those in my age-group were pursuing interests in sports like cricket or zooming all over town on two and four-wheelers, I had a rather ‘bizarre’ passion, as I was often taunted by my friends.

My interest developed while I was watching programmes on Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Animal Planet. Yes, I was fascinated by underwater and what existed there. Perhaps, the fact that not much has been made known, has added to my craze to go underwater.

Learning to swim was the first step towards realising the dream. The next and most challenging task was to master scuba diving. Today, I am contended that I have become a qualified master. Incidentally, along the way I have also become an amateur wildlife photographer.

From experience I would like to exhort youngsters to think of adventures beyond land. Let me tell you it is awesomely incredible and something you won’t regret any day in the future.

I wish to narrate my recent experiences so that the apprehensions about perils could be discounted. A couple of months ago, I have successfully become a qualified PADI Dive master.

Professional Association of Diving Instructors, which is more popularly known as PADI, is the ultimate authority in the issue of such licenses and certifications.

For one who was attracted by the numerous natural wonders that the universe is endowed with, my thrill after taking the first scuba dive was so exhilarating that I felt like I had discovered something phenomenal.

I may not have made any scientific breakthrough but the inner joy I derived was nothing short of a euphoric bliss. The moment my new-found fancy for scuba diving was taking shape, the determination to embark on a major ‘exploration’ grew firmer.

My tryst with destiny was January 16 and the place of reckoning was the Persian Gulf Sea at United Arab Emirates (UAE). Let me tell you it was the ultimate adrenaline rush when I came face-to-face with jelly fish, turtles and lot of tropical fish species, some of which are deadlier than thought of.

Having taken the plunge and my energy in full steam, I went awaiting a spectacle that I never could fathom. What I experienced was an extraordinarily extreme high. The dive and the swim will remain never-to-be forgotten experiences.

I loved the serenity, the hypnotic sound of my breath and the quiet clicks of fish eating coral when I was deep under the blue waters when I was on a diving expedition along with a friend. As this was my third dive, I knew the drill.

I put on the gear and dived off the boat, slowly sinking to about 20m. I saw luminous corals, languorous turtles silhouetted in the deep blue of the ocean and hundreds of tropical fish.

After nearly 50 minutes, the sound of my breathing was drowned out by a low rumble like an engine, and I felt deep, powerful vibrations, as if a big boat with a propeller was passing overhead. I looked up but couldn't see anything.

I couldn't see my friend and the other divers. The situation felt sinister and dangerous. Then we were enveloped by clouds of white sand that mushroomed up around us, and I thought, could it be an underwater bomb?

A giant turtle raced past us and into the deep; they are normally slow movers, so this was very weird behavior. I could see waterfalls of sand pouring over the coral, and on the sea floor, a few meters below us, cracks began forming and the sand was sucked down.

That's when I realized it was an earthquake. The instructor and I held hands and looked into each other's eyes; I felt comforted although my heart was beating strong and fast.

I didn't panic, but my body felt on high alert, ready to react. I remember thinking, "I have no power over whatever this is. We are going to have to stay very still and very close, and let it do whatever it's going to do."

And that is the beauty of being under the sea. From experience I recommend young Indians to go for scuba diving along the coastlines spread over more than a thousand kilometers tanht cover Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal.

The ideal places would beGoa, Havelock, Netrani islands, Lakshwadeep.(The writer is a Hyderabadi NRI working as an Engineer in Abu Dhabi)