Pondicherry: A spiritual temple experience

 

Along a nondescript residential lane in Pondicherry, close to the railway station, there exists a strange residence. As you enter the gate expecting to see the family car blocking the porch, what you come across instead is neoprene suits and compressed air cylinders.

There are strange looking dudes, walking about and a large water tank with masked men and women immersed therein, undergoing animated training sessions.

Inside the house is a large atrium with a spiral staircase from which goras/goris seem to keep coming down. There is an office looking table with a housecat sleeping under the computer screen. The decoration in the drawing room consists of diving gear hanging on display and neat looking stuff like underwater torches and notebooks in the display cases. The whole thing looks surreal. Welcome to the headquarters of M/S Temple Adventures.

Well this is the “Pondicherry spiritual temple experience” that Divya and Rohan selected for us on our first visit to their house after they made JIPMER their new home. None of that customary visit to the beach or Ashram for us. This is the real stuff guys. We had enrolled with what has been described by many as the best “diving experience providers” on mainland India.

We were met and guided through the paperwork by Khush Kabraji, a ruggedly handsome man, who got us into the training tank and patiently explained everything including skills such as removing the regulator from the mouth while still underwater!!. That done we were told to be back next morning at 6:30 AM sharp. After a quick breakfast (I don’t think anyone had much of an appetite) we were loaded into the trucks and headed out to the harbour.

(We did file a formal clearance with the coast guard). The boat that took us to the dive site was captained by Ravi who headed out into the open sea for about half an hour and then stopped. As if by black magic he knew that the dive site was under us. There was no buoy or marking of any sort in this patch of the high seas. Then just for confirmation, he switched on the GPS and true enough we were right on the spot.

The “dive site” has been created by the company with the help of a cage weighed down by rocks with addition of palm trees etc to create an artificial habitat. The fish incidentally are very happy for this sanctuary and seem to flock in large numbers.  

Inspite of whatever training that we went through, there was no getting around the moment of truth.. and the emotions that accompany any moment of truth. Sheer undiluted panic.!!

We were expected to sit with the back to the sea on the edge of the boat, and just flip over backwards. Why on earth did I sign up for this. What was I thinking…

I was being helped by our captain of the boat cum assistant to make that leap of faith. Finally the only thing that worked, as they show in the skydiving/parajumping movies, was the friendly shove and in an instant, it was over.

Slowly the physics and physiology took over. The water was cold, but not freezing. I had a neoprene suit in place. For some reason I was not sinking. Remember yesterdays lesson. I was wearing a buoyancy control device. The inflated jacket basically..but I was also wearing a belt with lead weights around my waist… Of course I was also clutching to every part of the instructor … which must have helped.

After a few practice breaths, the panic eased out a bit. As I tried to breathe through the regulator, and it wasn’t tough at all, the first thing that I realized was that being in the open sea was much calmer than being in the rocking boat. After a few minutes of bobbing around on the surface, I decided that the time had come. One look downward through my mask and I was convinced that we had not come here in vain. Firstly I could see. Even at the surface there was this layer of plankton floating around (the first stage of the food chain of the universe, the primordial soup as it were). Then as we tried to descend, I realized what the instructor meant the previous day. You have to do only three things. The rest we will do. Remember to breathe. (I was managing), equalize (the valsalva) and that seemed to really be a problem right now. No amount of anticipation could have prepared me for the crushing pressure on the ears. And that precisely was preventing me from doing the third thing as instructed. Have fun. 

I tried all the tricks, used the soft shell of the mask around the nose to pinch and blow out but the equalization took its time coming. And after a few minutes of pain in the ears, came the stuff that dreams are made of.

Suddenly everything was calm around me. All manner and colour of fish were swimming around. I could only hear my own breathing. (The exhalation is quite loud by the way.) It was truly the ZNMD moment when Hritik has conquered all his demons. One could see large schools of colourful fish (puffers, silvermunis, barracudas etc) swimming all around. There were large and small jellyfish too. Every time one extended the hand out to catch them, they seemed to be out of grasp (It is an optical illusion; things are 30% farther than what they seem). The description of awe and amazement can go on and on. We reached the ocean floor, about 12 metres deep, a couple of times. The thirty minute dive seemed like straight out of Alice in Wonderland….

Getting back up was easy enough (no bends) and once on the boat one seemed to be at a loss of words. It was enough to silently bob up and down in the boat and reflect upon what had just transpired over the past 24 hours.

Everyone completed their dives and enjoyed thoroughly. As expected Sangeeta and Divya puked their guts out before the  dive. We were told it was a good thing!!. Shivani started hyperventilating, as expected, but had been pushed over before she could make much of a scene. Her -3 prescription mask had leaked a bit and so she had to surface once, but had a good time thereafter. The instructors kept clicking away with their waterproof cameras and we managed some nice pics of the dives. As the PADI (professional association of diving instructors) motto says. Don’t take anything but memories and don’t leave anything but bubbles.

Later in the day we celebrated with friends as we made short work of the famous 1/2 metre, charcoal fired pizza at Xtasi off J N Road.

Factfile:

Temple Adventures operates out of Pondicherry. The packages are clearly mentioned on the website and there are no hidden charges. The equipment used is first class. The instructors are fabulous and complete safety is ensured throughout the experience. Most importantly the whole thing is made to seem like fun, even if its real serious business.

If you were to compare the prices with those mentioned on the packages ex Port Blair, this does seem more expensive. Someone who has done both may be able to compare!!