My first skydiving experience

Me with my friends Yomesh, Bhavin, and Mahesh

 Me and my friends went to the Poconos resort town of Tannersville PA for the July 4th long weekend. Our friends had skydiving on the top of their list of the activities during the stay. But I was not sure if I was going to do it till the end because my wife was not there with me and I knew she would love to do it as well. I was a bit hesitant to jump from a plane at 13000 feet and knew not all my friends would go for it. To my surprise, many of my friends and their wives were planning to dive and were very excited about it. One of my friends who had come with his parents and his months old baby did not plan to dive. So we started to make our own plans to spend the time when the other folks were skydiving. Unfortunately, none of our plans worked out and in the end we decided to go with the rest of the group to the airfield and hoped to go somewhere near during their skydive. With no proper alternate plan to do and seeing the rest of my friends geared up and excited, I gave in and signed up for skydiving.

The 'Air Bus'

At the skydiving center, we were first asked to watch a video which started with a short briefing of the risks involved in the act and the details of the disclaimer form were were going to sign. The guy in the video basically said that we can not sue the company in the event of any accident even if it was their fault due to the trainer's negligence or faulty equipment provide by them and I was giving up my legal rights by signing the disclaimer document. I had made up my mind to jump anyways and it did not mean anything to me. Though  I quickly googled up to read the risks of skydiving and was reassured by the fact that the chances of death during skydiving was roughly the same as a woman dying because of child labor. Roughly 1 in 100,000.

The Jump

I met with the instructor with whom I was going to tandem-jump and the photographer who was gonna shoot my jump. If jumping out of an airplane is crazy.. think of the people who do it for a living... They both were very playful and seems to have a good understanding among themselves. Well lets say all this worked out very well to make my experience memorable.

We boarded a plane which looked like a half a century old city bus that runs in Chennai. All this while I was expecting to feel tensed but it did not happen. The plane took us up for a good 15 minutes which felt like ages. I should say they took us quite high (about 13000 feet). All this while I was expecting to feel tensed/ scared but I felt OK. I just kept saying to myself that I have to remember this whole experience clearly and have to enjoy myself to the fullest extent. The doors of planes opened after the lights on the door turned from red to amber to green. I felt the chill air and the sight of the ground below gave me a little scare. The guys in front of me started jumping and the were out of my sight in no time... I tried to calm my nerves and when my turn came, I jumped with out thinking much (or did my instructor push me? ) and then began the most exhilarating experience in my life.

Superman..

It took a few seconds for me to regain my senses and realize what had just happened. After that I started enjoying my first "flight". Yes, I felt like flying and the view was just stunning. The photographer came near us and we did a short spin. That guy could just maneuver himself like a bird and boy what a great job he did with the video and pics... We dove for a minute and a half and in what felt like no time, the instructor pulled the parachute. I felt a the straps tighten up my thighs, the parachute opened up and dive was over.  After that I made myself comfortable with the parachute straps and started enjoying the descent. It felt almost like an airplane landing from then on. I joked something about a roller coaster to my instructor and I don't know if that offended him. He then started to do these spins with the parachute which I enjoyed very much. In no time, we were near the ground and we had a smooth landing on the grass below.

Free fall's over :(..

I have to tell those who are planning to sky dive that while this experience was nothing close to anything I had experienced before.. I never felt scared at all during the whole drop. I never felt uncomfortable either (I always thought my stomach would churn like it happens when we ride a giant wheel but I felt no churning). The only discomfort was when the parachute opened up that the straps were pressing on my thighs.  It is a very different experience and it is nowhere near those rides in an amusement park.  Just close your eyes and jump.. Just kidding.. you don't want to miss out on the amazing view when you jump.

 I found my friend Bhavin had just landed near me and we both did a 'high five' and were walking together towards the hanger just like Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum in the movie Independence day.  Too bad we did not find a cigar ;)

Please click here  for more pictures.

Video

Telangana

As a person born in Guntur, I am for a united Andhra Pradesh. I think regions speaking non hindi language in India should stay united. I also believe that the number of MP seats in a state gives a lot of bargaining power with the Center to implement developmental projects in the state. However these are my opinions only and I think the wishes of the the people of Telangana region should be respected.

Regarding KCR and TRS, my opinion is that there is a new trend in Indian politics. Small parties like MNS, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike, PMK, TRS can never come to power on its own because the political space in their respective states are full with strong ruling and opposition parties. So, they try to divide people with parochial ideologies based on caste, religion or region hoping to make themselves relevant in politics in their respective states or try to create new states so that they can have a shot at capturing the power. I believe TRS is of the later catagory. This guy KCR was a union minister in UPA 1 and when asked what he did for developing telangana region, we get a dumb response that he was fighting for seperate telangana(This response was from KCR's son in Barkha Dutt's "We the People").

People of Telangana if they wish for a seperate state should ponder this point before they decide: They should think if their leaders who did not work for their development all these years in power can be trusted to bring development to Telangana region. They should think if creating a new state will ensure development or create one more CM post and a group of ministers. Development of a region depends on the leaders from that region and not on others. I highly doubt the capabilities of these leaders.

One should not get mislead by the so called bandhs and agitations that are going on in Telangana or Andhra regions. Any political leader with enough money power can "organize" such agitations with goondaas for money. I strongly believe Bandhs do not reflect the wishes of the people as they can be forced to observe bandh by politically backed hooligans. The Union Government should not capitulate for such blackmail from Telangana or Andhra regions. I strongly believe the below solution is the ideal one for the Telangana imbroglio.

A referendum should be held in the Telangana region giving them a choice to go with United Andhra, Seperate Telangana or Union Territory status at each district level. We can also record each person's first choice and second choice. We can also explore the possibility of creating an autonomous regional council for the Telangana region with the Central Government directly allocating funds for the region and this choice can also be included in the referendum. By referedum we can know for sure the wishes of the people of Telangana with out any doubt. I do not think the people of Andhra should be included in the referendum because, we can not impose their will/wish on the people of telangana. If a husband and wife do not get along well and the wife seeks a divorce, even if the husband does not agree, a divorce should be granted if the wife wishes so. So I am all for having a referendum in Telangana and it will solve the problem once in for all and help in bringing the situation to normal in the region which is adversely affecting businesses there.