Actually I am not very keen to share my latest experience with the world. But a call from my daughter prodded me to this… Also this blog is meant to serve a purpose. My experience may give some one some where courage to dare and to actually strive to make a dream come true.

I will surely tell you why I am not very keen ……later.

Water bodies have always attracted me. We had a well at home while we were growing up in the quarters of Bhilai Steel plant… and one of our favourite past time in summer days was jumping into the well even when we couldn’t swim. The memory of the dare brings a smile on to me now.. we had few neighbours who had devices to help us young ones to jump into the water and continued this escapade safely for years.

Few years ago I read about scuba diving and realised there is a world under water which we can only see if we dive under the water.. I read about Tarkarli, Goa, where we get to do Scuba Diving in supervised time slot. But the mention of diving under water brought shock waves at home.. and the project got shelved. I brought it up again for my 25th wedding anniversary but the plan was rejected outright. Husband said “Mae toh mar hi jaaonga paani ke ander bina saas ke” 😦

Recently after my husband took voluntary retirement, he suddenly brought up a trip to Andaman to celebrate his freedom from the service of Railways. This was actually supported by our children enthusiastically. I was a bit doubtful as I felt, the best Andaman had to offer was the Cellular Jail and was not very excited. Then my son forwarded a blog written by Avantika about her Andaman and Neil Stay (https://www.instagram.com/waywardwayfarer_/) and it bowled me over. I have been her ardent follower since.

@waywardwayfarer Avantika – you gave us a great gift .. our Andaman trip ! Family of four – all adults, children aged 27 & 30, quickly agreed and we booked our tickets too and fro Chennai – Port Blair. Children to reach Chennai from Bangalore and us parents to travel from Bhilai to Chennai and then fly to Port Blair for a small vacation, was our plan.

I quickly found a home stay with @Aqua Horizon at Port Blair for a day and the Manager Ashish was most easy to deal with. He booked our ferry tickets to and fro Neil Island which seemed a herculean task sitting here in India !! Advance booking of Ferry tickets is a must. There is lot of you tube info on this matter. My daughter booked stay at a 5-star property for a day, as a treat to us, at Neil Island and for next two days we booked another budget stay.

We decided we will not run around like a tourist beach to beach and made our own package. Our itinerary didn’t include Havelock Island – which tourists flock. Our major attraction was scuba diving, and chilling away from the crowd – hence the three days stay at Neil Island. I combed the net for all videos on Neil Island on you tube and counted my days. Meanwhile a friend Dr. Haresh Shah was vacationing in Neil Island and gave me the contact info of @Dive India. So we got our initial formalities like an NOC from our local Doctor in a prescribed format, and the scuba package finalised with payment for basic course, a week before our trip. Dr. Shah is a certified scuba diver, he calmed my nerves when he said under water most people do not need the regular specs ( I wear progressive lens ) as visibility is enhanced under water. Thanks Dr. Shah!!! I did try all exercises to better my eyesight for months ;-D because we cannot wear specs with the scuba gear.

Our checklist – print out of

• Flight Tickets
• Stay at Port Blair, Neil
• Ferry tickets to and for Neil Island
• Vaccine certificates for each
• Aadhar
• Cash
• NOC from our Doctor for Scuba diving

Our train journey to Chennai was eventful as the train arrived four hours late and all through the journey we kept planning how much of running we have to do from the railway station to Chennai airport – didn’t want to miss the flight! Railway’s man monitored the train each hour with the app …………… and assured me, “pahuch jayenge “.

We knocked on children’s room at 3.30 am, slept with children for 30 minutes, and had sufficient time to bathe and get ready to catch the 8 am flight to Port Blair. We had to take two cars to reach Airport due to luggage (budget travel 😀 ). Miyaji and myself reached Domestic terminal and kept waiting for children to reach.. “Kahan ho ji” they didn’t pick the calls !Couldn’t find them for nearly 20 minutes. Their cab driver had left them at Chennai International terminal !!! “Phone uthane ka time hi nai h “.. A kind Car-wala gave them lift as they were running towards Domestic terminal and then reached domestic terminal! Phew!!!

to be continued ….