Underwater in Gilli

As we were planning our friends' summer'24 trip to Bali I expressed scuba diving as something i was truly looking forward to in the trip. My friends expressed serious reservations in doing it but I knew they would come around. While researching i found out that Gilli T islands where we were visiting for 2 days was the best destination or scuba in Indonesia. These are a group of 3 very tiny islands located about 3 hours away from Bali via a ferry. Nusa Penida comes on the way (at 1/3rd the distance/ time). One of my office friends had done scuba in Gilli just last year, I took some references from her. And I was so gald I did. I messaged the Manta dive people much before my trip and secured the reservation for exploratory dive.

We reached Gilli and on the same day visited the office of Manta dive, we were briefed by them about the basic nuances of diving, we filled out some forms and health checklists and prepared for the big dive tomorrow.

We woke up early the next day, had some heavy breakfast and cycled to the office of Manta. We were introduced to our instructors and we immediately plunged into the swimming pool for our training. The instructors did a wonderful job in making us apprised of all the basics about diving- how it works, sign language and some tricks for establishing equilibrium under water. The biggest challenge we face under water is the mismatched pressures outside and inside our body, which leads to discomfort and headaches. Your body is in protest.

A 100 million years of evolution teaches you that you cannot breathe under water.

Hence, i felt this training that we had was essential.

I have a relatively higher power of eyes and I was worried how will I be able to see stuff underwater, I was carrying contact lenses with me but had some inhibitions about using it. My instructor encouraged me to use them, he himself was using contact lenses under water.

The first time after wearing the mask and oxygen tank when we went under water in the pool, i felt so much discomfort and uneasiness that i cursed myself to even attempt this! I felt why can’t i simply rest in my hotel room??

What is going through so much of discomfort going to fetch me? It’s definitely not worth it to put myself through such unnecessary experience. My feeling continued for the 1st 4-5 times we went under water.

On possibly the 6th time when we went below water i finally started being comfortable with the act of inhaling through mouth. That act was just so unnatural. Your nose is completely shut off by the mask and the only way to breathe is to inhale through the nozzle through your mouth. It sounds very basic at first but its a very tedious and difficult thing to do continuously. I had some new found respect for the process of breathing which ideally we don’t even realise.

The pool where we practised was as deep as 3m at some points. We did a quick round of the pool with the fins attached on legs which help you move underwater and after about 2 hours of training we ready to take on the ocean!!

We helped our instructors in loading up the equipment in the boat and we were off. Our dive spot was about 15-20 mins away from the shore. As with all diving places we were told to do a reverse flip into the ocean. Imagine sitting on the edge of the boat with your back facing the water and then release your body into water in the same position.

Me entering the sea

While laying on the water with my head facing directly the sun my instructor told me just turn around and get a sneak peak of what you are going to see. I did just that. And in a moment i was awestruck, such beautiful scenes like I have never seen before. All the fear that i was feeling seemed to have gone out of my body through osmosis with the beatiful sea.

Then the process of descent started slowly. The instructors do so by adjusting the pressure of the jacket which is strapped on to us. The first few minutes were difficult but i was eventually able to brave up and start to be awestruck with the beauty underneath.

It felt so peaceful, i was able to feel my each and every breath. How often does that happen? How often outside of water do we realise the value and passing by of every breath? Almost never. It is in these times that we start valuing the time we have. At every 0.5m my instructor was making sure I equalise the pressures by pinching my nose and blowing the air out from my ears.

Just minutes inside the water and we started seeing so many beautiful schools of fishes, magnificent and huge turtles and untouched corals. It was surreal.

We also saw the wreckage of a boat which had drowned here several years ago, it was all rusty yet beautiful. We went until 12m below water and we were there for about 40mins (overall scuba time).

Achieving peace below water

We clicked several pictures below water and when it was time to come up, i didn’t even realise how we ended up reaching the shore so quickly.

After coming up from the most exotic experience on my life, while on the boat preparing to go back to the shore, much like Farhan Akhtar from ZNMD I decided to pen my thoughts and came up with this.

शोर, चहल पहल और फिर एकदम एक्टुक सन्नाटा ।

ऐसा दृश्य जो रंगीनीयत से भरा हुआ हो, जीवों से भरा हुआ हो, शांति से भरा हुआ हो, सौंदर्य से भरा हुआ हो ।।

पल में ही ऐसे सौंदर्य का खुमार होगा ।

जो तुम्हारे दिल को चुरा कर फ़रार होगा ।।

एक एक क्षण का , श्वास का एहसास होगा ।

समुद्र के भीतर के प्रतीम प्रभास का एहसास होगा ।।

मच्छलियों की दुनिया में मच्छली जैसे घुमोगे ।

बाहरी दुनिया का अस्तित्व भी भूलोगे ।।

मन दंग रह जाएगा प्रकृति के इतने रंग देखकर ।

पानी संग चलोगे मच्छलियों का ढंग सीखकर ।।

उस शांत और संतुष्ट दुनिया का अनुभव कर ।

प्रतीत होगा कि तुम हो ब्रह्मा के उद्धव पर ।।

आभास ऐसा होगा जैसे विष्णु ने पलक झपकायी होगि ।

वास्तव में किंतु चार युगों ने अपनी झलक दिखलायी होगी ।।

पानी से बाहर आकर अपनी ये दुनिया छलिया सी लगेगी ।

पानी के भीतर की शांति और एकांतता इश्किया सी लगेगी ।।

पानी के वह कुछ मिनट सदा रह जाएँगे स्मृति में ।

मन सदा विलीन रहेगा प्रकृति के इस अप्रतिम कृति में ।।

Ending my thoughts on the recommendation that everyone should try out scuba diving atleast once in their life, it is a must do!

You will realise so many things and if not that it is still the most treasured experience that you can have.

We all with the oceanic turtle