This is something that I have yearned for the longest. I have always wanted to dive properly, get certified, and
obtain that freedom to dive wherever I go. A certified Open Water Diver is what I am now. It feels good, amazing, blissful, grateful, extremely lucky, and free. Free from the age long constraints that I have had put on me.

I finally feel that I am free. I finally felt that I was free. In the water, I felt natural. Much more natural than on land. Walking will be probably be a developed taste for me. Swimming in the ocean felt second nature to me. Graduated with almost no mistakes made, no negative feedback that I got from my instructor. Just improve need to improve my SAC. But the feeling of being in the water and moving as you please. Oh man! Nothing can really beat it. I feel extremely off knowing now that I won’t be able to dive for a long time. Possibly months before I take my next dive. It makes me feel extremely sad. I loved diving. I don’t think I have loved a lot of things recently this much. There is an ache, a familiar one, that I get when I see the sea. There, I am finally free…of everything. Writing this does make me tear up slightly. My feelings are something that I have no control over. And they have finally shown me what I am, what I like. I am not a tech guy. I am not as pro development as I thought I would be. I don’t love tall skyscrapers, huge LED boards, tech innovations just for the sake of it. What I love is more grounded. Grounded in nature. Nature. Prospering unfettered nature. Undisturbed areas that are still up for exploring, not up for grab.

We got 5 dives in our OWC. Started with a very simple dive at Nemos reef on our 2nd day of the course in Havelock. Followed up with 2 shore dives exploring Nemos both sides and finally 2 boat dives around the Wall and the Slope on the final day. All of these dives are a little amalgamated now. Bits and pieces of each dive have been mixed so as to make each one almost impossible to separate out, like a good glass of masala chai. However, there are components and fishes that I remember from each of the dives. These are individual bits and pieces that stick out and let me know what I loved about each of the dive.

Dive 1

The first dive at Nemos was extremely forgettable. A very ‘skill-focussed’ dive where me and my buddies (3 of us + instructor) were focussed on getting a handle on our buoyancy and controlling our movements in the water along with completing multiple skills at the start and end. The surface was sandy, we might have touched around 8 meters in depth and could easily, and did too, crash on the surface multiple times. We had our first encounter with the jeep and Indian idols placed in the water for coral restoration. Fish could be seen swimming in schools around both these objects but did not venture too close.

Dives 2 and 3

The next day we had two dives at Nemo and both of the dives focussed on different areas of the fringing reef. We ended up swimming along the reef exploring it and its surrounding objects, corals, rocks, and rubble. The dives were pretty. We got to see 5 different types of anemonefish including the famed ’nemo’. These peeps were pretty, small, and looked delicate. I got bit by a ‘whitish/yellowish damsel’. Apparently, that’s the oceans way of saying “Good job! You are a part of us”. We saw butterflyfish, a huge grouper resting on a coral waiting to ambush other fish, rabbitfish, and parrotfish among others. One of the most memorable moments was seeing the cleaner wrasse cleaning what I think was a rabbitfish, moving into its gills and in and around its mouth. Also saw a sling-jaw wrasse open its mouth in the most interesting way to gobble up something that I didn’t catch a glimpse of (oops).

Saw a couple of huge barrel corals which were extremely interesting objects to view underwater. Pictures don’t justify their glamour. Amazing creatures. The freckled goatfish filter feeding across the floor was an amazing sight. So were the fusiliers and cardinalfish roaming around in huge schools. It was beautiful to know that you could swim around, and almost into, such creatures. We also had a very murky sighting of a couple of humphead wrasses. They are huge, beautiful (beauty is in the eyes of the beholder), and a little scary. Moorish idols were pretty af, we saw a lot of them on all of our dives. Tube worms were a very interesting sight. Pipefish was the cringiest and among the cutest creatures that I have come across underwater. It gives a very interesting, almost like saying ‘aree naa baba’ reaction when you move your hand towards it. Distances a little and shakes rapidly in a very weird jittery manner. Triggerfish, surgeonfish, snappers (checkered I remember ‘acche se’), and sea cucumbers were a common sight.

Dives 4 and 5

Our next two dives were in the beautiful patch of sea between Havelock Island’s lighthouse and the Island facing it. These both were gorgeous sights with active marine life. These sites were way deeper and we saw many more fish. These are called the Wall and the Slope. Both these sites are found on a deep ridge found between Havelock and the other island. One side of this ridge is the deep drop called the Wall while the other is a gradual slope called the Slope.

We descended at the Wall using a line descent. That started out a little clumsily but as soon as we let it go and started venturing out into the ocean, we were greeted by huge chunks of coral along with a huge array of all sorts of fish. There were large AF Trevallys roaming around together, a beautiful school of Fusiliers, and multiple trigger and parrotfish. The more interesting sightings included the single humphead wrasse which appears intimidating just because of its large size. A couple of beautiful AF Angelfish that reintroduce you to beauty in colors and in patterns. A pretty yet camouflaged scorpionfish that, while being very poisonous, was just chilling out by itself on the reef. Finally, a partially occluded lionfish was something that I spotted but couldn’t tell my diving buddies about in the water. This was one of those moments when the beauty of diving struck me. You could be so close to an extremely deadly creature without any extra precautions and half-naked. Yet feel safe and observe whatever you wanted to.

Next up was the slope. We had a free descent into the water and a minute or two after the descent spotted a beautiful octopus partially hidden but more or less observed. The biggest barrel sponge I have ever seen was here. About 2-3 feet in its diameter. Beautiful piece of work by organisms much more ’trivial’ than us. Soon after we also spotted two cuttlefish feeding on the floor and chilling out. Undisturbed by our presence they continued to do whatever they were doing. We spotted one later that we swam with, at a distance of 7ish feet from us. But just the feeling of it moving with us was sublime. Almost like there was a very trivial, yet existent, bond. A huge number of sea starts exist at this site. Long, big, and colorful, they are an interesting sight. There were two yellow boxfish that we spotted and, my God, were those peeps cute AF. When we spotted the second boxfish Sahil told me to go check it out on my own (bit of an independent detour from the group). Went close to it, swam between pillars, saw it, and felt…blessed. Again, one of the coolest things ever that we saw was a huge portion of the reef where sergeant majors had laid eggs. Now these are purple blotches on the corals, that’s how you could identify them. You had a couple of majors roaming around their eggs and fiercely protecting them, forming almost a circle of partial protection, a laxman rekha. OTOH of the food cycle, you had moon wrasse attacking the eggs, taking in a quick bite or two and getting their share of their food. This was a constant process that kept happening and a beautiful sight to behold. Amazing to just see a small part of the food chain in action.

All in All

The last two dives were dives which I will probably remember for a long time simply because of their role in my future diving journey and also the experiences that they awarded (albeit for a not a lot of mehnat). Now I feel blessed, I feel a lot of gratitude, and I feel slightly overwhelmed whenever I see the ocean. I want to go back in. I want to see these fish for a longer time. I want to observe one or two fish for a longer time, just stay with them, and become a part of the environment. Funnily enough though the expereince of IDing fish was amazing, what I love the most was being in water and just fully being myself and a part of the enivornment I was in. Fully separated from whatever BS goes on around me, above me, and maybe under me. I was a fully functional independent unit for those 40 minutes or so and I yearn to be that again.

However, with my current traj. there is no expectation of a next diving trip. Who knows when it will be, where it will be, and how much of this feeling will still be there with me then. I just wish, as of now, that it comes quickly because I miss it a lot.