Could Have Been Worse

Bungalow we stayed at

I rushed to the Bungalow and shut the bathroom door. With the clothes on I put the shower on. As the thin and dead force of water from shower ran down my face I looked in the mirror in disbelieve. I didn't believe I was alive. I looked at my face in the mirror. It looked like a separate body, full of human feature but without soul. I left a piece of me at that lake.
On Holi 2010 when me and my other three friends planned a time away from family and friend turned out to be the most dreaded day of our life.
I was tired so I chose to take pictures and record video of my other three friends playing in the lake. As I watched Hanika through the lens I shouted and admired the cute expression on her face. But then she vanished. So did Amit. He was trying hard to communicate from inside the water. He certainly looked harrowed. Within a split second I had Sooh shouting at them with fear in her voice and pleading them to stop acting and put an end to it. But it was far from what I took time to realize. They were drowning !
My knees felt weightless. All of a sudden my body felt so warm from inside with tremble in my posture. I sat down on the shore. I could see Hanika and Amit drowning and I could hear Sooh shouting for help. And I had lost the ability to speak or shout.

That Kalmuha lake

I crawled towards the water in hope of extending help. But they were far from my reach. As I tried harder I fell right in the lake, the deep part of the lake. The shallow shore was no more under my feet. Soon I was being pulled in the deep still lake. Our only savior was panic stricken frail Sooh. As she approached us she got pulled too. So four of us, all in the isolated lake of Kamsheth, drowning.

This lake was covered with only mountains and a slight glimpse of our Bungalow. As we struggled for our lives trying hard with every possible force to stay afloat it all seemed futile. We were all drowning and it was a reality. Matter of minutes the scene had changed. The smiles were gone and the expression  on our face suggested - Death.
I kept looking at the quickly disappearing world. It almost felt like the curtains were closing on me. The movie was over. I looked all around. It was so quite and peaceful. I didn't see a single leaves move or a bird fly by. My whole life story was in-front of my eyes. From the time I remember my life till this day when I was drowning. I also saw the expression on our parents faces when they would see their childrens bloated dead bodies. I saw our room in the Bungalow being inspected by the police. I saw so much in the that short span of time. I told myself - this is it Navin. U were suppose to die drowning. This is how it was planned for you. 

I looked behind Hanika was already far away being pulled further inside. She was the one who was struggling the longest. Soon Amit vanished too. It was Sooh and me struggling harder to live.

Morning. Before hanika arrived

As we all sat in the car that evening to go back home from Kamsheth to Mumbai we all looked out of the car. I remember looking to the furthest my eyes could see. We joked, we cried. But the best part we were talking. It was in all sense an accident. We are matured and responsible individual to be quoted as being frivolous for what had happened to us that afternoon. The incident kept flashing infront of me. While struggling in the water I realized we all certainly panic stricken. Despite being a trained swimmer and having learnt buddy swimming back in 2005 I never knew I would have actually required it one day. A numb mind thought swimming was the last option to save my life. Glad I realized I could swim. As I started swimming towards the shore Sooh held my right shoulder. I put my hand in the water to look for Amits. His hand still extending upwards from inside the brown coloured water expecting for a miracle to happen. I blindly looked for his hand inside water and got hold of him. Every stroke towards the water were harder for life. 

When I finally felt the land underneath my foot I screamed - Breath guys. We are saved.

At the shore

Hanika says that really pulled her out of the shock. They all sat on the shore and I rushed to the Bungalow. I did not want to waste a single second close to the bloody lake.

Four of us look back at that time and smile. We all have tackled it in our different ways. This certainly is a 2nd lease of life.  I have shared this experience with close friends and family. And my friends certainly know how to lighten it up for me. We always laugh on how Hanika still believes that God pulled her out from the water. Poor Amit never gets his due. haha. Jokes apart this incident certainly thought me to value life better and cherish these rest three morons more. Hence even when I would be on the biggest ego trip I would choose my friendship with them over anything.



Cheers to life !!!