1st Skydiving Experience in India was ‘Superfantabulousticallyawesome’!!!

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Imagine the extreme adventure of free-falling from an altitude of 10,000ft; that too at a speed of 200km/hr! - Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Well, this past weekend I had experienced the same thing at the 1st ever Commercial Skydiving Camp in India at a place called Sagar, in Madhya Pradesh, India. And boy, it was an experience which I can't describe in words. But I'll try to.

Well... I began my journey on Friday Noon in the Kamayani Express from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai and had reached Sagar Railway Station by crack of dawn on Saturday. I could’ve taken a flight as my mode of transport, but I firmly believe that to truly experience traveling, one has to travel by train.
The adventure begins right there on the berth of the train.

I quickly managed to hire a cab - a white ambassador, in order to reach the Dhana Airstrip. I was traveling lite with just a haversack, a few pair of clothing, my portable music & my camera. Within just an hour I was standing in front of my final destination - Dhana Airstrip. After settling the monetary issue with the cabbie, I sprinted in, through the gate as it was 0705 hrs, the reporting time was 0700 hrs; as usual time was running ahead of me. I managed to reach just in time for the training session. Phew!
Prior to the beginning of the training session, a brief introduction took place between the instructors and the participants. The instructors who were to help us with our skydiving jump were Air Cmde TK Rath (VSM), Santosh Nagraj, Ajay Kumar Sharma and Gadi Mohan Rao. All of these instructors had a collective experience of almost 100 years in this field with more than 8500 jumps to their credit. Even though I am a wanderer, my list of experiences falls short in front of their experiences.

The excitement begun as the Chief Instructor, Air Cmde TK Rath took over to begin the training sessions. The session included topics such as Aerodynamics, Area of flight, Knowledge regarding the equipments used, Parachute Packing, Emergency Protocols, Exit Procedures and the final part i.e Safe Landing. At about 2-3 pm, the diving experience was made available via a suspended harness, stimulating the entire sequence of the dive, later followed by a written exam.

Time to take the leap has come. Excitement, anxiety and nervousness creeps in even when I had the faith to take the leap. Butterflies started to flutter in my belly as I am among the chosen 2 to take off for a tandem skydiving experience along with instructor Santosh Nagraj. The Cessna Aircraft is on the runway. The Cessna airplanes are smaller planes with 3 person carrying capacity. A last check on the gears & equipments and off we go. As the plane takes off the ground, the velocity of the wind rises & you feel its punch in your face. After about 25-30 minutes, we reached the desired altitude of 10000 ft. The view below was amazing, it felt as if I was in a virtual 3D version of Google Earth. We stood up and went near the door. Flashes of my life began to roll in front of my eye... Yes I was scared! Shit Scared!! What did you expect? I am a Wanderer, not a Conqueror. 3... 2... 1... JUMP!!!

I had taken the leap into the air, the only thing I could hear was me screaming at the top of my lungs. As I was free falling from an altitude of 10000 ft, I had no feelings of remorse, hatred or envy. I was loving every second of the 45 seconds that I had to free-fall. During those few seconds, the meaning of freedom was redefined for me. Time seemed to have flew by, as my tandem instructor pulled off the cord that in turn would release the canopy of the parachute. I felt a smooth jerk, as my body got pulled off against the gravitational force for a fraction of time. Things started to get calmer as I floated around, gliding like a bird. As I started to descend the altitude, the world seems to get bigger, kinda using superzoom function. My instructor Santosh Nagraj was saying something about landing, I couldn’t figure out the details and did not bother to ask him. Now, I was able to see people down below, who were anxiously awaiting the landing. As we touched the ground, I had to keep running as it would help me decelerate my body, and bring me to a halt without a jerk. But you see this was the information that I had missed, as mentioned earlier. So instead of a safe landing, I tripped along with my instructor onto the tarmac air-strip, suffering a minor bruise on my knee and arm. Now looking back at these bruises... (Yes they are yet to heal!), it seems they are the medals of honour for indulging in such a sport.

After the avoidable mini mishap, I unhook myself off the harnesses with the help of attendee and did a quick recap of sequences that had happened in the past half hour. The feeling of experiencing skydiving had yet to sink in. Although all the excitement and energy had replaced with exhaustion and fatigue, I picked up myself and started walking towards the exit with ‘Eye of the Tiger’ playing as the background score 😊

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