Water Water everywhere...

I am born Aquarian and hence have a natural affinity for water. At any given point in time, water is my favourite drink – the only thing that quenches my thirst.

I can quite identify with the characteristics of water as if it were a personality – its ability to take the shape of the container it is hosted in, its ability to quench thirst, its ability to support life, its ability to keep you afloat and drown you at the same time, its ability to cover the vast expanse of this universe….

Though I can't swim, I had no fear of water per se… Probably I had not faced its magnanimity, voracity and outrageous self before 26 July 2005. That was the floods that nearly posted me to heaven and threw me back to life in a matter of few hours.  After that, anything to do with water would make me have 'butterflies-in-stomach'. Not so literally, but yes there is a feeble 'fear of death' that I can't do away with.

Last weekend, I had a radically different experience. I happened to be at Nagaon beach near Alibaug with a group of friends. It is nearly 130 kms away from Mumbai. We were totally enjoying the elements of uncertainty about what we intended to do there, where would we stay there etc. The beach beckoned us…

While I was totally ignorant of the presence of water sports at the beach, my friends expressed interest in one or more of those water-based adventures. I blissfully succumbed to peer pressure soon and assured my attendance for 2 of them.

I find it worth a blog as this was my first such experience in life. Quiet synonymous with my high energy levels at that point in time was the speed boat. There was an option of doing it singly or with another friend. I safely chose the 2^nd one. So my experience is that of the backbencher and not of the driver, nevertheless pretty thrilling. One almost feels like sitting on a scooter which doesn't have its clutch and accelerator co-ordinated, in the initial stretch. Gradually the spirited waves surround you. My friend, as instructed by the boatman sped up as if we had to go touch the horizon in a matter of nanoseconds. While I exclaimed, 'Oh man, this is crazy!' She screamed back 'Rhituparna, hang on!' Truly, a friend in need is a friend indeed. J

As we went bouncing up and down on the waves, trying to reach for the sky and take the waves along on our voyage of joy, the crescendos of the moment were rapturous. On this voyage, I realized that if you pat the waves, they pat you back gently, if you slap them hard, they can almost send a chill down the spine with its retort. Well, God taught the 'tit-for-tat' policy to everything/everyone he created. J

Our laughter echoed along with the roaring waves as the water embraced our ecstasy from all sides.

The 2^nd one in question was the banana ride. While I had heard about it a lot, I was just not able to picture this. The moot question was – who wants to go? While 2 of us were quite gung-ho, 3 had reasons like 'I have a bad throat', 'The water is dirty here'. 'I have done this before in Goa', 'I don't know swimming' – After jumping for a few minutes on the horns of dilemma, I decided to get body-washed than brainwashed and 3 of us took the plunge!

After the speed boat, this tube like banana boat with a group of 6-7 people feels quite comfortable and easy until they take you in the middle of the sea. Then lo and behold, while we are still counting moments before the impending thrill, we realize we are deep down in the middle of the sea without any swimming skills. That was quite close to death, if we didn't have the life jacket. J Even while I write about this, I feel choked for a few moments. 360 degrees upside down inside water and tossed over like a particle!

In a matter of a few seconds, we surfaced with our heads popping above the sea level and I find them laaaaauuughing and abusing – 'What the hell!', 'What the f***'! I swear I wouldn't have enjoyed the moment without them – an exceptional one when humour overtook fear head-on. Priceless, whatsoever! I failed to adopt any technique as guided by the boatman and was nearly gulped down by every passing wave. Every sense organ was saturated with saline water, an add-on on my already congested respiratory tract. The vocal chords could not even move to cause coughing! While my friends learnt the art of staying afloat rather quickly, I was still dependant on the mercy of the boatman. He almost gave me yeoman's service that moment! I already commanded him to put me back on the boat first. ;-) Even while doing that, the law of floatation wasn't allowing me to climb back onto the boat so easily – they had to grab me by my jacket and pull me up like a sack of grain!

The next few moments I actually enjoyed watching the other survivors, some cool and some tensed. Some climbing on to the boat victorious and others making failed attempts and floating away from the boat again!

The next deemed question was where would they drop us next! The boatman assured us that it will be closer to the shore this time. While we were racing towards the beach, I uttered 'Itne kam paani me gira ke kya maaza hai!' Oh man! I was in deep sea again, unable to identify myself or even recall my name! I sank and swam, sank and swam some 6 times until I lost memory and grabbed the boatman, my support system there! Forget swimming, I couldn't even manage to stay afloat in 5 feet 4 inches of water!! The trick was to keep the legs down but some buoyant force would continuously make them horizontal. I could see my friends floating towards me, with a beaming smile on their faces and the sun rays blessing them.

Very very gradually, my cerebrum decided to adjust to the fact that I could now move towards the shore with my feet perched on the sands below. Every millimeter of water level going down was a welcome respite. J

We were welcomed by our friends on the beach like heroes of the war! We too had a million words to experience the wonder of a few seconds.  One of them looked at me and said 'Her face has turned pink!' 'Her lips have turned white!' Some picture was clicked apparently which I am not yet in possession of. My feet were totally numb, head was heavy, senses were choked but the heart was flying in the air!

I express gratitude with my entire self to those 2 friends whose insistence to accompany them made me experience this thrill! It is till beyond my vocabulary...