Sea beckons

Imagine this.

Source : Google Images

A place where you are cocooned by silence and diffused bluish grey lighting. Once you are in that place of silence, you cannot open your mouth. You cannot breathe through your nose. You can only breathe using your mouth into a little device which is attached to an air tank, which means the air supply is pretty limited. The only loud sound heard is the Darth Vader-ish sound of breathing. Communication is very, very limited and through hand signals. With several feet away from the surface, it's easy to feel the pressure of water on you & the ears get blocked. With visibility restricted to a only a few metres, not knowing what is out there and with the fear of drowning ever present in the forefront of one's mind, it is so so very easy to panic. Thoughts like-what if I have to sneeze, what if I have to cough, what if I have to burp, what if water gets into my mask & makes its way into the nose, run amok in your mind. It's sheer terror. And how! And the worst part is, you cannot even open your mouth to scream!

Source : Google Images

But then, somehow you steel yourself, will yourself to regulate your breathing,  get used to the surroundings, the deep breathing sounds and gradually relax. It certainly helps that you are clutching the hand of the dive master for dear life. That assurance is a game changer for you. You are assured that you are not alone. You are assured that he will take care of you in case anything happens. That's when the panic passes over. The breathing rhythm settles down. You equalise your ear pressure constantly. And you calm down. That's exactly when the magic begins.

David Doubilet (Source :Google Images)

A sense of peace and timelessness slowly pervades your entire being. You begin to look around you. You really look around, taking in your surroundings, of what is happening around you. You start noticing and sensing the slow movement of water around you. You notice the air bubbles flowing upwards from your fellow divers. You become aware of how your flippers are moving, how you yourself are moving. You become aware that you are sort of suspended & floating at the same time. You get the sense of being in a completely different world, a world far removed from the one that you are familiar with.

Christmas Trees
 (Source : Google Images)

You start to notice the play of light and shadows, on the water, on the sea bed and on the creatures that exist in that realm. You see several varieties of corals beneath you - some colourful, some very plain and dull, some giving you bruises when you pass too close to them. You see the christmas trees which pull in & vanish in an instant when something goes very close to them. Suddenly out of the blue, you see some rainbow fish flitting a couple of feet away from you their scales shining with different colours in that diffused light. Then, a baby black-tipped shark puts in an appearance looking very busy. There are big clams with colourful insides which open and shut, strewn here and there. Then there are sea cucumbers in big numbers lying on the sea bed. You also see little clown fish flitting in and out of the corals, then little fish with a myriad of colours including bluish purple make an appearance and so on. There is always something to see, to observe, to be aware of, to marvel at.

Source : Google Images

Time and space take on a different meaning here. The raw beauty of the underwater world as well as it's denizens, is so captivating that the experience remains etched in your mind forever. One learns to appreciate the severe limitations of the human kind in such an environment. More importantly, one learns to admire and respect the elements.

Scuba (Open water) diving, a truly enriching experience, makes it worth the while. Once you do it and enjoy it, you fall for it hook, line and sinker.

The sea casts its spell and keeps beckoning.

For A-Z Challenge 2014