My First Tandem Skydive

September 8 2016. I performed my first tandem skydive at Pennridge Skydiving in Philadelphia during my maiden visit to the United States.

Couple weeks before my holidays I suggested my friend and host, Deepak, that skydiving would be a good idea as neither of us had experienced it and both had been trying since a year. I had almost planned it last year with a group of friends but had to stay back at the last moment because their group was full. Deepak had some discount coupons bought off Groupon a year ago which were still unused because the last time they traveled all the way, the activity was canceled due to poor weather. So it felt like now or never.

Fast forward to today. Our appointment was at 1 PM and we had to drive about 88 miles for that. We were doing fine as we left home but with each passing mile our anxiety snowballed. About 10 miles away from destination we had stopped talking. One of us would occasionally hint at our heebie-jeebies but then the both of us would share a light moment or something nonsensical and laugh it off while knowing perfectly well that our throats were going dry because all the water formed beads of sweat on our foreheads.

When we reached the place we were told by the guy at the desk that we "are so late I cannot guarantee that we can have you dive today" (sic). We were easily about 40 minutes into 1 PM so he was not exaggerating about us being late. Anyway he handed us forms to fill and there begun the (in)famous paperwork. For the record, it's so exhaustive that they would continue to be in business no matter how many mishaps take place. There wasn't enough time to read everything. Nor did we want to do that because it would have given us clear idea on what we were agreeing to which was definitely not what we wanted at that juncture. Again, even if something felt unfair we didn't have the option to not agree to a certain bullet. At a certain point we may have wished for a soft version of the paperwork so we could go Next... Next... Next... Finish. Though we tried our best to keep up with the time by ignoring the details and acknowledging all clauses with our initials yet the line "I AGREE THAT THIS ACTIVITY CAN CAUSE SERIOUS INJURIES OR EVEN DEATH" was so bold (pun intended) that it appeared to rise up from the plane of the paper and float up straight towards our eyes all the while saying "only fools would agree to something like this".

Nevertheless, we got all the paperwork done just in time to escape the wrath of the guy in charge of administration. We were then made to watch a safety video showing some bearded fellow who apparently invented tandem diving. Meanwhile groups of people who had left for diving had started coming back with all high voices of "woohoo" reverberating in the air. We realized we both had to pee because of the restlessness. Unfortunately the place only had port-a-potties lined up outside. The sight of poop floating in aqueous waste was just the thing that we wanted to see. Worked wonders for our nausea.

Our wait time was plummeting as if it was diving without a chute. We emptied our pockets and stuffed everything inside a locker. We chose the 'professional video shooting' add-on that would give a third person perspective of our dive. At that time we just wanted to get it over with so although we were spending an awful lot of money yet that was the least of our concerns. Our photographers and tandems had gone up with the penultimate group. When we saw the photographers hitting the ground at tremendous speed we wondered if that was how we would touchdown. But then moments later the tandem divers swooped down in a relaxed fashion piggybacking upon divers like us who appeared jubilant after their dive.

OK so it was our turn next. It was getting increasingly difficult to be able to say "ok I have decided not to dive because I'm too nervous". At that time it was hard to decide what needed more balls - to go ahead and dive from 10000 feet or to embarrass ourselves by deciding not to dive and of course losing all that money for nothing. Our coupons were rainchecked so coming down all the way to the airport, redeeming a raincheck offer, completing all formalities and then backing out seemed like a huge deal of embarrassment that would have been difficult to live with. So, turning a deaf ear to our pounding hearts we said to ourselves there was no looking back.

When the divers came back they were informed by the guy that we were the last ones waiting with the professional video add-on which meant that it needed the four divers to go up once again. The photographers walked up to us and took the add-on form while breaking the ice. They were soon joined in by our tandem divers. Mine was called Matt, a long haired blonde, who sounded really friendly. I think being friendly is a must for them because most of the divers are first-timers who would have reached extreme adrenaline levels by the time they are introduced to their tandems. So it's important that they try to keep the divers' spirit up as much as they can. Needless to say nobody likes to dive with a relatively rookie tandem despite their unbroken record. So experience is key. Matt said he has been in the business for close to a decade with couple thousand dives up his sleeve. Such a statistic ought to give a first-timer some confidence and assurance. Deepak's diver had over ten thousand dives as I came to know later. He was his 10328th. Our guys presently started fastening the harnesses onto us while giving brief instructions on diving body language.

The engine of the small Cessna plane made a loud whirring noise as it prepped to take us into the clouds. The shooters started recording our interviews as part of their standard video template. We tried our best to smile at the cameras. I felt another urge to pee but I knew that was my adrenaline fooling me. Fight or flight after all. We were captured on camera as we walked the distance to the plane. It was an odd mix of excitement, supreme anxiety and trust on our tandems' experiences.

The plane started taxing towards the runway and soon it took off. We were made to sit on a bench with our backs facing our tandems as they began fastening our harnesses with theirs and examining the interlocking. Meanwhile the shooters interviewed us a little more asking us to share feelings. Our anxiety was directly proportional to the reading on the altimeter. Half way up they kept capturing our reaction. However I tried I couldn't be anything better than a 'half-empty' kind of guy. In the next 2-3 minutes we will have jumped off the plane.

What seemed like a microsecond later Matt said that the time had arrived. I realized that I was diving first and the look on Deepak's face was an exact replica of mine. I think it was a tad worse for him because he had to see me diving first. I tried to pity him but I had run out of pity by then. I rehearsed my body language one last time as we slid towards the door. The wind was cold, the wind was fierce. A light signal at the door flashed green indicating that it was the opportune moment.

Before I realized I was floating in air. Oh my God! My free fall had started and all I could feel was as if I was floating amidst the clouds. My cheek muscles seemed to disengage my body. I tried a high voiced "wooooo" but even that sounded too feeble to my ears. I had no idea which way my pal had gone. For all I knew he might have had floated into space. My brain wasn't exactly the logical kind it normally tries to be. Our chute opened up seconds later and we were sucked up several hundred feet because of the buoyancy. I think that's how it works. I cried out as much as I could in a jubilant manner because now I knew I survived. I cried out again. And again. And again. I started blabbering. "Omg this is so beautiful... This is so amazing... Everything looks so tiny from up here...". Poor Matt!

Matt performed some heroics by spinning the chute rapidly. I felt a little nauseous but I kept enjoying. A little later he informed me that we were "about a mile" away from Earth. It was hard imagining distance vertically. He then let me use the two toggles of the parachute. Pulling one down helps maneuver the chute in that direction. Pulling both down together acts like a brake and slows down the chute. This is especially useful when landing. I felt more nauseous gliding through the air by pulling down one of the toggles as opposed to descending vertically but it was worth doing it myself. I was about a thousand feet above when I saw my friend landing safely. I waved at him from the distance and it was fun to know that I had stayed longer than him. As the ground approached closer and closer it felt like I was descending pretty rapidly enough to cause a jerky landing but then about fifty feet away he firmly pulled down the toggles and I bent my knee and lifted my legs forward as we swooshed down to make the perfect textbook landing!

So there I was - went to the clouds by plane and came floating back - in one piece without any casualties. I couldn't be any more thrilled. My photographer came running with his camera as Matt disentangled our harnesses and I got up to stand. He asked me emphatically "how was that, my man?" and I shouted out an equally emphatic "amazing!". This was such contrast to about half hour ago when, at that same spot, I had felt my insides shivering with anxiety. And so this moment was worth living, every second of it. I saw my friend at a distance shedding off his harness in all smiles. I ran up to him and hugged him to celebrate what seemed too good to be true an hour ago. It was the perfect skydive!

As we collected our stuff from the locker our diver friends suggested that we take something sweet to cool off as apparently our bodies had released enough adrenaline equivalent to several days of secretion. And they also pointed out that diving with an empty stomach is a mistake most first-timers do; it induces more nausea. We checked our phones and laughed. We had left text messages earlier for our close friends informing them about our dive and giving them emergency contact numbers in case something happened. We had received hilarious replies from them. One of them said "Yeah sure... Good job trying to sabotage your wedding plans but don't worry we got your back!". Suddenly it seemed like we were unnecessarily worried and nothing was ever going to happen. But then, being scared is part of the fun - this is what makes skydiving an extreme sport.

I thanked the divers once again for a fine job and merrily wondered if I should go for the 13500-feet dive the next time. To which one of them said "hey you were almost there, we actually took you up to 12000 feet. You had a full minute of free fall!"

Here's the link to my video: https://youtu.be/mQTe2VnQIWw 

When An Indian Meets A Pakistani

Yesterday I came across a question on Quora asking about the feeling of an Indian when they meet a Pakistani citizen in person.

I immediately felt moved to answer this question because I had an experience to share. This was my answer:

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It was the 28th of January 2014 and the time was about 21:05 Central European Time. I had set foot in Amsterdam Schiphol Airport after having traveled for about 20 hours starting my journey from Hyderabad, India. It was the first time I had ever left my country so you can guess I was totally bewildered not knowing where to go but at the same time feeling all the more excited to finally be in Europe.

Everything was so new to me - the people, the language, the feeling. I kept following the herd that came out of the Emirates EK149 flight from Dubai - the same flight I was in. I had tried my best to remember the faces of some co-passengers who I presumed would go through the same set of landing formalities and eventually out of the airport in perhaps the same train that my friend had asked me to board. God! I was so naive! Anyway, the immigration formalities completed real quick and then I had to scurry to the designated conveyor belt to gather my baggage.

After what seemed like a good half hour of careful peeking I finally got hold of my bags and started to walk towards the exit. To my horror, I couldn't find any of those 'remembered faces' anywhere. I had finally descended into reality. Quite perplexed, my eyes started scanning the place for any brown-skinned person whom I could approach and ask for help. And that's when I found him!

He was a frail, young man in plain clothes that resembled the workaday Indian attire. Moreover his appearance put him in one of the four countries and since roughly 3 out of 4 South Asians are Indians I had to think of him as one (In reality, I assumed in panic!). So I ran up to him and greeted him. I had huge expectations that he'd be acquainted to the place. Alas! he turned out to be exactly like me. And guess what, he was also in the same flight as me.

We exchanged casual hellos but spared the names. His accent was very similar to regional North Indian accents. Once I knew he was in the same waters, I had no other business but to casually continue the conversation without much obligation. It was then I asked him where he comes from (while asking within my mind "which part of India do you come from?"). The reply was clearly unprecedented and unexpected. When he said "I am from Xyz, Pakistan", I was clearly a little shaken from within. A voice in my head might have told me to "steer clear of him". But it was not until he replied to my next question that I actually found myself at a loss of words.

After acknowledging his reply I said to him in a cannot-go-wrong sort of way "then we can switch to Hindi. isn't it!?". With a puzzling look on his face he replied, "I don't know Hindi. I speak only Urdu". I stared at him with blank eyes and then a moment later I said "but they are very similar to each other you know like..." and then I stopped. I figured if I start giving examples then it will be a prolonged conversation and would serve no purpose as clearly he seemed to have no knowledge about India beyond the most obvious.

We had got our train tickets. Our trains were different but from adjacent platforms. He seemed to have some trouble reading the ticket and he could tell from the look in my face that I knew what I had to do next. So he was reluctant to let me go. He insisted me to stay until he boarded his train. Suddenly I had become the experienced one! Much as I wanted to stay back and help him, the timings on the display suggested that my train was going to arrive before his. So I showed him his train on the list and picked up my bags to walk. We shook hands and wished each other the best.

Before I boarded my train we waved each other a final goodbye. Perhaps we had exchanged names eventually but I don't remember anymore. To me, he will always be 'The first "Indian guy" I met in Amsterdam'.

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So is there a point in all of this you might ask. There certainly is. It's us who have marked borders and built fences around our countries. The reasons are historic and geopolitical. But what makes us who we are is our inner being. And it really doesn't matter who comes from where as long as you're connected with them through your inner being. All it takes is a smile and a little effort to break the ice with a stranger and you never know that stranger might turn out to be the best companion you've ever had in your life. And if you're cheated or betrayed, you'll know better.

Love thyself. Love thy neighbors.

Happy New Year 2016!

Life Is A Chemical Change

November 12 2014. I was listlessly surfing the web when suddenly a thought came to my mind. It was about 'Life' - perhaps the most dramatic topic in the world. The thought said to me that Life is like a Chemical Change - the latter is a topic in Chemistry that I had learnt in junior high a long time ago. Simply speaking, a chemical change is any change around us that is permanent and irreversible. For starters, burning of paper could be an example. I don't know why this thought suddenly sprang up in my mind. But it made me glad. Because Chemistry had been my favorite subject back then and I still kind of like it. After an undying love for about nine years, it has now completely left my life. But that didn't deter me from sharing my thought on social media. More so because I had not come across an explanation of life in terms of Chemistry before.

So, in the next 15 minutes, I'd posted my status on Facebook. This is how it went:

From a strict Chemistry standpoint, Life is a Chemical Change. Because:-

1. It involves making and breaking of bonds.
2. It often results in creation of a new stable product after several years.
3. It undergoes a complex (=complicated) reaction catalyzed by good times and slowed down otherwise.
4. Most importantly, the change (=journey) is irreversible.

I felt elated after posting. Not only it was my first thought-provoking post in years but also it brought back memories of my favorite subject. And if that was not enough, I decided to compose a blog post by the same name and put some more thoughts into the topic. So here I am, typing just whatever's coming to my mind. The only thing that is premeditated here is the outline. I've decided to delve a little deeper into each of the above points. Feel free to stop wherever this post beats the brains out of you!

1. It involves making and breaking of bonds.

A stunning start, isn't it? Who would possibly deny? Not me, not you. Needless to say, this is pretty much what everyone does in their lifetime. We keep meeting people; Then a time comes when they no longer seem vital for our survival -  that's when we tend to ignore them or, let me make this a little subtle, we lessen touch with them. Meanwhile, we would have had some more people barge into our lives. Of course, some don't barge - they creep in nicely, slowly and gradually. This almost simultaneously happens alongside we doing something similar in other people's lives.

It's strange how we humans deal with our relationships. Sometimes people are just too indispensable for us to let go of, while at other times we just don't bother remembering them maybe because they were despicable or too stubborn or maybe just 'not our type'. And there could be some more analogy with Chemistry here. Even human bonds could be ionic or covalent. We are into an ionic bond with someone when we give our all to them without expecting anything. There cannot be a better example of this than the relationship between a mother and her child. A mother gives her all and the child takes it all. The result of this is a bond that, most often than not, lasts for a full lifetime. Mother's love! It's been the best thing on this planet all these millions of years and I still don't find an able contender to it.

Now coming to covalent bond - a shared relationship between two elements - this is rather a common kind that we see every now and then. Selfish, seeking mutual benefit, relationship with expectations - sound familiar, isn't it? Well, this is how I would describe a covalent relationship. No please don't frown at me, I am not making it sound bad. In its essence, such a bond is known to possess these attributes. The most common example here could be a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Not that I am against it, but this is the underlying truth. Things are shared between a couple - love, happiness, grief, togetherness, (sex, money, presents, bitterness, frustration, encouragement to live, motivation to die) etc. but it's always a two-way street. What goes around, comes around! Some make it to the zenith and Chemistry tells us they have a formed 'a stable compound'. On the other hand, some others feel the conditions just aren't right for them. Perhaps heaven could only bring such people together, perhaps the compound is meant to be stable only at absolute zero!

Well now it makes to me more sense when I think in retrospection about the common phrase that people use - "they indeed have a great chemistry!" or "their chemistry is pathetic!". They obviously mean the bond. Sigh! And I thought I was among a few that had a fair grasp on the subject.

2. It often results in creation of a new stable product after several years.

A 'stable product', could mean an offspring - a child; an heir. A couple often feels desirous of starting a family when they are of and above a particular age. When two individuals attempt to consummate their marriage, they undergo a chemical change, in order to give birth to a new life. Of course instead of 'undergoing' the change in their life, they could simply adopt a child in which case this analogy doesn't work out that well.

But another way to look at a stable product in this regard is by referring to the phase in everyone's life when they attain physical and emotional maturity. Our maturity is a stable product that stays with us and only increases in volume until it finally decays along with our bodies. And attaining this maturity indeed involves a complex physiological as well as hormonal 'change'. And in cases where someone doesn't show the right judgement or maturity or has an unstable mental state; or if I may say, the product isn't as stable as it was meant or hoped to be, it's fair to assume that the conditions were not conducive to the change. In other words, the change occurred under unfavorable circumstances giving the 'product' the incorrect set of attributes and causing instability.

3. It undergoes a complex (=complicated) reaction catalyzed by good times and slowed down otherwise.

At the end of all happy times, we often say "Oh I wish time hadn't moved this fast" or "Wish we had some more time together". Again during tough strides or simply during a boring lecture, we turn to our friends and say "Hey, looks like my watch has stopped working. What's the time?" or "It seems like ages since this class started. Is it ever going to end in this lifetime?". So this whole 'reaction' that we undergo our whole life has its periods of speed as well as perceivable slowness.

Every other day brings about a change in us. The change ranges from being a memory fragment, good or bad, that sticks itself firmly to the mind, to being a lesson learnt that one would want to remember until death, to being a wound that leaves a permanent scar, to an achievement that stays the best until a future one would overwrite it, to making a friend who would go to any lengths in the future to either preserve the bond or destroy it or maybe to being a road taken that would go on to change one's course of life entirely. None of these changes could ever be revisited and stopped from happening or made better by alteration; not at least until this time as I compose this piece!

Some of these changes really boost us forward and give a positive meaning to our lives. That's the catalyst I talked about. They give us the classic 'life is a bed of roses' feeling and we invariably tend to say something like this to ourselves "Some more of these and my life would just sail past smoothly over the years and then I'd die a happy death". The love of our parents; a bunch of awesome buddies; a wonderful partner; a road trip; an excursion; a roller-coaster ride; a treat of our favorite recipe; an unexpected present from someone; a semester with the best grades; a birthday bash - all these and many more constitute those changes in our life that provide a mighty push forward and give us a reason to live. We keep thanking our God and everything in life just seems damn doable. A catalyst for sure, eh?

The other side of the story is the dull side -  the painful and the miserable. These have to go hand-in-hand with the good ones because that's what life is: a mixed bag! These changes, or happenings, almost about strangle our hopes to live. They make us go "Why does it always have to be me? Why am I the only one walking down this hellhole?". An injury to a part of our body; a period of being grounded by our parents; a friend who goes behind our back; a lover parting ways because of a misunderstanding; an exam of our most-hated subject; a failure at getting that final score in a sport when everyone depended on us - such events squeeze out whatever motivation we would have garnered until that point in time; making our lives, temporarily, a living hell. We spend a lot of our time retrospecting on the things that led to the unfortunate event and feel an unsuppressed desire to go back in time and prevent the mishap. Go back in time?! That sure is a negative catalyst don't you think?

4. Most importantly, the change (=journey) is irreversible.

If only I'd written this article earlier this year it wouldn't have been the lone entry in 2014. Wish I could go back...



Happy New Year 2015! :)