SCUBA diving in Havelock

Pradeep was already up by 7.30am when I got up the next morning. He was nice enough get me tea. With tea in my belly, I walked down to the beach behind Gold India. It was nice - small but nice. There were only some dogs around. Next, we went to the neighboring shack for breakfast - omelette and toast. Joy the taxi driver showed up early and asked what we were planning to do. We said we wanted to scuba dive. He said he knows exactly the right place and would make all the "arrangements." After our rather slow-breakfast which involved playing with a kitten, we headed to Village 1 (close to the Jetty) to find scuba diving place.

At the scuba diving place, we met Adi and his wife Vanessa who had just taken over 2.5 weeks ago. They moved to Andamans six months ago. Adi is a professional scuba diver and has been diving for six years in Goa, Bangkok and elsewhere in Thailand. He was very knowledgeable and took us through everything in a systematic manner, explaining and answering all our questions. The whole experience was novel. For example, it was an aha for me to learn how to breath through my mouth from a 15 kg cylinder while my nose was shut inside a mask throughout. Very novel!

It's a beautiful world underwater. No amount of images on Discovery or National Geographic can ever make up for the real thing. I just couldn't believe that I was seeing fish above my head, next to me, below me. I couldn't believe the kinds of colors and corals I saw, the plants inside water. I hesitated but ended up touching several corals. The purple colored clams that closed shut when they saw us approaching - just amazing! Once we reached the bed of the sea, I picked up the soft sand. It was so interesting to see my hands touching all this. I just felt one with Nature and very complete. In the muddy dust, I saw a clam embedded into the surface. You wouldn't realize it until you approach it - it quickly opens and shuts when you do. I saw a plant - a lightish brown one with white spots (I don't know the biological names). I touched it with both my hands and felt the softness. It was more moist than merely being wet. It was like swimming in a forest. Imagine an exotic forest filled with water and you floating through it and figuring it out, looking up and down trees and the living things on them. In some other ways, you feel as though you are inside an aquarium. There were a zillion things, breathing, moving about, just living - I mean, all this stuff right next to us occupying three-forths of the planet and somehow, we have this perception that we are the only ones here and our lives are the only things that matter. We on earth are indeed very naive.