Finally my dream came true last weekend – wish fulfilled, done, happy in life… Went scuba diving in Arabian sea off the coast of Netrani island. What a wonderful, fantastic and colorful experience it was. Ofcourse it had a lot of hitches too – I guess that’s what made the trip so realistic and memorable.
We went through BMC (Bangalore Mountaineering Club – www.bmcindia.org) – had heard a lot about them – so thought why not two birds in one shot when they announced the scuba diving weekend. First disappointment was when they did not come to the pick up point on time – we were there on dot by 8 – and that was after quite a few back and forth words (pls read heated tempers and arguments) with hubby and sis – who were taking an eternity (according to me) to get ready and not even helping in the packing, and closing up the kitchen, but they kept reminding me time and again that they were coming only for my sake. We even finished our dinner infront of Lifestyle (oh yes, sitting on the katte on a Friday evening ) and finally we saw that our tour vehicle was actually a cramped tempo traveler – which was a shocker considering that it was an overnight drive.
After couple of long breaks, we reached Murdeshwar around 7 in the morning, freshened up, breakfast – and it was time for the practice sessions in the stimulated environs of the swimming pool. Gosh all of us were quite excited. BMC has a tie up with Dreamzdiving (www.dreamzdiving.com) - the instructor – Mr. Gobor from Hungary patiently gave us the theory and then it was time for the practicals. It was totally cool to put on the gear – fins, face mask, jacket, weight belt, air cylinder, breathing apparatus – the works – wow – all of us looked kewl – really. And one by one, we got into the deep end of the pool and got the feel of the stuff. How to avoid glasses getting foggy, what to do if water enters mask, not to panic if breathing apparatus slips – etc etc. was practiced time and again – till all of us felt confident. The rest of the day was just spent lazing around murdeshwar – temple, beach, ice cream, water scooter, sunset and a walk on the sands. Our horribly tanned (despite layers of sunscreen lotion – you know I think they are just ‘talk talk talk’) bodies was creaking by end of the day - Dead tired – we just crashed.
Left early morning the next day after a little heavy breakfast (I guess that was my first mistake – knowing fully well that there was a 2 hour boat ride to the island – and I get horribly seasick). By the end of 1 hour, I was queasy, another 20 minutes and I was clutching my tummy (inspite of taking motion sickness tablet) and another 10 – reached the peak and fed the fishes!!!!!. When we reached the island – another shocker – we were marooned on the waters – there was no way we could get on the land – it was just rocks – that’s when I realized that I had to spend the entire day either in the water or in the boat getting seasick!! Water obviously was a better choice and I just jumped in – did some swimming and snorkeling – shoals of fish and I was just waiting for my chance to get into the deep waters. 4 instructors – and 1 person for each. So we could just go in batches of 4. I went in third batch – put on the gear, little tensed, dived in – yes, its always a back dive – because of the weight of the cylinder. Oh my god – what an out of the world experience. The instructor took me deeper and deeper. Till that point I was like – if you cant reach the floor, any depth of water is the same. But I was sadly mistaken. As we went deeper, ears started hissing in pain because of the pressure. I realized by trial and error that my limit was 10.5 mtrs. Just before I got in the instructor said ‘Enjoy the show’ and what a show it was – all shapes and sizes of fishes – and all colors too. Any combination with yellow – including ‘mera wala yellow’ and any combination with blue – amazing colors – pastel, bright, dark, deep, fascinating – big fish, small, smoky ones, sea anemones, jelly fish everything – and we were going right in the middle of them. Such gentle creatures - and they are as inquisitive about us, as we are about them. They were swirling around us – hazy, lovely, divine, blindingly colorful…. Totally regret that i did not have an underwater camera :( Though it was extremely tempting – I stuck to the instructions – no touching. We saw some nice corals as well. 40 minutes of pure bliss – I just wanted to float behind those fish – but unfortunately my instructor as well as my ears did not agree. However, there was a baby fish – light blue and dark blue stripes – which kept following us everywhere. An escape to freedom, an escape from reality, an escape into the arms of the nature – that is what it was.
Highly recommended for water babes and nature lovers. Will provide more information if required. Getting back to Bangalore was another experience – best saved for a separate blog – we actually had dinner at a shady bar and restaurant – since everything was closed – it being a Sunday!!!! Though my ambition of getting PADI certified – went down the drain – because of my stomach and ears, I am still a little optimistic – so lets c. Will keep you folks posted. Despite everything - totally worth the money, time and effort. The experience will be cherished for a lifetime. Though I hope and wish that this is just the beginning of more such scuba diving expeditions.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
What a Thrilling Experience…
The moment my nephew told that he had bought the tickets for the RCB vs MI match at Blore – I was totally excited with the prospect of seeing the IPL match live in the stadium. Since we had bought the tickets online, we had to get the actual tickets at the venue. The million dollar question was the logistics – cos we knew that parking would be a nightmare. Since I am no longer in Wipro, we could not bank on the Wipro parking on mgrd either. After dilly dallying quite a bit, we thought we would just risk it and went in the car itself – luckily for us, we found a slot on rest house road. Btw, only people who have done extremely good karma in their previous birth have got houses on that road!!!
The crowd had already started to gather. We decided to split due cut short our waiting time. Me and nephew at the entrance queue – gate 11 while sis and hubby went to collect the tickets. All of us went through the gate without much hassle. As expected, the police were frisking all bags etc and edibles were not allowed. We could see red red red everywhere – tshirts, caps, flags, bandanas, face painting….. Slowly the players started coming out - and the screaming of the names just went on and on, till the player was forced to look at us and wave. Hats off (literally) to Utappa, who did the customary hat bow to the crowd as soon as he came to the ground. And for me it was just pure ecstasy as I saw the most handsome hunks on the ground Simon Toufel and KP as well as the local heroes Anil Kumble, Manish Pandey, Utappa, Vinay Kumar and Dravid. There was a unified scream of pure adulation when Sachin made his entry for the net practice. Just as we settled down we heard a loud blast – which we conveniently dismissed as someone doing a dry run for cracker bursting later on – how naïve!!! But the players just vanished inside within minutes and that’s when the smss started pouring in – generator burst, bomb hoax, bomb blast / blasts– variations. Siddarth Mallaya (my god, he is so fair) and senior Mallaya too did the rounds when things started getting a little chaotic. But all of us stayed put – despite the large screen proclaiming that the match was delayed. It was just as well, that they did not make an official announcement – avoided a certain stampede and loss of lives. Imagine a crowd of 30K trying to get out of the damn stadium with another 10K already there who were trying to get in!!!
Finally, when it was time for the toss, the stadium was reverberating with the shouts of RCB. And guess who got the highest decibel applause – it was the cheer leaders – 6 sets of 3 each running around the stadium waving at the crowd. The guys were just openly drooling. On the sidelines, Deepika was as ever looking stunning and again crazy screaming when she was focused on the big screen. It was truly thrilling to watch the match amidst a strong crowd of 40K. The stadium jockey – or the anchor – or MC or whatever they call him, was just superb, making the crowd go alive and bursting every now and then. The constant chant of RCB and the music and the kannada songs made the crowd go crazy. But when the play started, we realized to our dismay that there was a generous splattering of MI supporters. As well as, the RCB supporters who crossed the border and cheered the sixers and the fours from the MI team– just for the love of the game. The shoddy fielding, the dropped catches and the full toss bowling – was just too much to bear during the MI onslaught. But when our batting began and the parade of the batsmen started it was just total frustration. When Utappa left the crease, it was just a question of time before our total doom. Yes, Virat tried to do his bit – but too little too late.
After the 13th over, the exodus from the stadium started slowly though – but built up quite fast. By the time we were at AK circle, we could see reds everywhere again – very disappointed though. But all in all – it was truly a very very thrilling experience to watch the IPL match live in a stadium.
The crowd had already started to gather. We decided to split due cut short our waiting time. Me and nephew at the entrance queue – gate 11 while sis and hubby went to collect the tickets. All of us went through the gate without much hassle. As expected, the police were frisking all bags etc and edibles were not allowed. We could see red red red everywhere – tshirts, caps, flags, bandanas, face painting….. Slowly the players started coming out - and the screaming of the names just went on and on, till the player was forced to look at us and wave. Hats off (literally) to Utappa, who did the customary hat bow to the crowd as soon as he came to the ground. And for me it was just pure ecstasy as I saw the most handsome hunks on the ground Simon Toufel and KP as well as the local heroes Anil Kumble, Manish Pandey, Utappa, Vinay Kumar and Dravid. There was a unified scream of pure adulation when Sachin made his entry for the net practice. Just as we settled down we heard a loud blast – which we conveniently dismissed as someone doing a dry run for cracker bursting later on – how naïve!!! But the players just vanished inside within minutes and that’s when the smss started pouring in – generator burst, bomb hoax, bomb blast / blasts– variations. Siddarth Mallaya (my god, he is so fair) and senior Mallaya too did the rounds when things started getting a little chaotic. But all of us stayed put – despite the large screen proclaiming that the match was delayed. It was just as well, that they did not make an official announcement – avoided a certain stampede and loss of lives. Imagine a crowd of 30K trying to get out of the damn stadium with another 10K already there who were trying to get in!!!
Finally, when it was time for the toss, the stadium was reverberating with the shouts of RCB. And guess who got the highest decibel applause – it was the cheer leaders – 6 sets of 3 each running around the stadium waving at the crowd. The guys were just openly drooling. On the sidelines, Deepika was as ever looking stunning and again crazy screaming when she was focused on the big screen. It was truly thrilling to watch the match amidst a strong crowd of 40K. The stadium jockey – or the anchor – or MC or whatever they call him, was just superb, making the crowd go alive and bursting every now and then. The constant chant of RCB and the music and the kannada songs made the crowd go crazy. But when the play started, we realized to our dismay that there was a generous splattering of MI supporters. As well as, the RCB supporters who crossed the border and cheered the sixers and the fours from the MI team– just for the love of the game. The shoddy fielding, the dropped catches and the full toss bowling – was just too much to bear during the MI onslaught. But when our batting began and the parade of the batsmen started it was just total frustration. When Utappa left the crease, it was just a question of time before our total doom. Yes, Virat tried to do his bit – but too little too late.
After the 13th over, the exodus from the stadium started slowly though – but built up quite fast. By the time we were at AK circle, we could see reds everywhere again – very disappointed though. But all in all – it was truly a very very thrilling experience to watch the IPL match live in a stadium.
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