Swimming With the Fishes

by Vikas Chakravarthy (India)

A leap into the unknown India

We all have some items in the bucket list. Travelling the world, jumping off a cliff, flying a plane and so on. I dream of all of them, almost every day. But it’s not always easy to tick them off. That’s probably why they call it the bucket list. One such activity that I was very fascinated by, in the recent past was scuba diving. Recently my sister got married and they honeymooned in Maldives. They kept raving about how beautiful the islands were, how blue the waters were, white sandy beaches and the water sports and entertainment they experienced. Being the close-knit family that we are, I used to receive random pictures and video clips of all the fun times they were having. And one such picture that she sent was a picture of them, underwater in the ocean, posing behind a school of brightly colored fishes. And that got the ball rolling. Now, seeing those pictures, I desperately wanted to do it too. I wouldn’t say I was envious. It was more of a feeling where, to me, they looked like they were having so much fun. And I wanted to be able to experience it for myself too. But Maldives seemed unaffordable. Lucky for me, I live in India. And India is a huge country. There are about a million places one can visit to get almost any and all experiences from around the world. You have the mountains in the north, where you have got snow clad peaks, the ocean surrounding three sides of the country, deserts and sand dunes to the west, untouched forests to the east, a variety animals and birds dotted all around the country. It’s just spectacular. And apart from the mainland, there are two cluster of islands on either side of the peninsula. So, this time, I chose to visit the Lakshadweep islands – which are a group of minimally inhabited and mostly untouched islands to the west of the mainland. Reaching the islands requires a special permit even for Indians and let alone foreigners. And the tourism is controlled primarily by the government of India. And for any of you, who are interested – here is the link. https://samudram.utl.gov.in/sprt_Packages.aspx The government of India only allows a small window for tourists and the permits and tours can be arranged only from the above-mentioned website. There are very limited seats available for the tours and the tickets sell out almost instantaneously. So, for one to reach Lakshadweep Islands, it requires religious dedication to check the website everyday, waiting for the next set off tickets to open and booking them at the earliest opportunity. And that’s what I did. Luckily, I got a slot for the first week of February (2020). 5 days, 4 nights, 3 people, 2 families and 1 most awaited vacation – a trip to Lakshadweep materialized. The package was completely managed and planned by the tour operators. We start from the port of Cochin (Kerala), sail to 3 islands of Lakshadweep (Minicoy, Kalpeni and Kavaratti) and end back at Cochin. And it was a definitely a trip of firsts for me! The islands were out of the world. It was as picturesque as I imagined it to be. And it’s hard for me to describe the beauty of the various shades of blue of the sea. I was in awe. But as much as the beauty of the islands captivated me, I had only one agenda in mind. As soon as the ship docked, I was among the first tourists to run towards the organizers to enlist as a candidate for scuba diving. Please note: having never dived before, I was only offered the beginners 'TRI-dive' – which is an assisted program, serving only the basic purpose of giving people a taste of what scuba diving was. But that was enough for me. We were trained for about 15 minutes about how to use the oxygen tanks, the various hand gestures underwater etc and we were then taken in to the water with my diving instructor guiding my every step. And as I swam with the fishes - "PURE BLISS". And I happily ticked one off my bucket list. Now, on to my next!