“Dude, see you after our vacation….” Taunted Mahesh. Already feeling miserable, I watched my friends pack their clothes for a trip to Udupi and Gokharna while I struggled with the syllabus book. I had exams. They did not. My torture was as simple as that. “Yaar, can I borrow your cap? I don’t have a spare one” enquired my roommate Satyakaam. “Yes, yes it might rain, carry one Satya..” piped in Prithvi, their tour guide. I gave it to him, reluctantly. It was not that I was attached to it, but that I was not joining them on their jaunt. “I am coming!” I declared all out of the blue; “preparation can wait, I shall drop you guys to Majestic and come back. That’ll settle me down” I said. “OK bro,” conceded Mahesh with an I – can – understand – sort of smile across his gleeful face.

We took an auto-rick, in a true student budget style and shared the bill among us 4. Upon reaching half way to the bus station, I get a text from our class representative: “Sarath, our exams got postponed by a month. Please intimate it to our classmates” Aha! A sudden change in winds… Snap goes my mobile, turned off and secure in my pocket. “Screw you guys, I’m going too!” I yell, to the surprise of our poor autowala. Thus began our trip to Manipal and Gokharna. The trip that was pure bliss packed in 7 days and where I brushed closely with death.

Let me skip to the part where we went to Gokharna. Manipal was fun, but nothing in comparision to the sunny beaches. We waved goodbye to Prithvi’s twin brother- awesome chap- at Tiger circle and got onto a bus. Reaching Gokharna, an autowala hailed us (pun intended) and riding over the ravine, gave us the first glimpse of our promised land. The Aum beach, adjacent to the more secluded kudle beach. Ahoy went the 4 wayfarers, with a skip in our feet, sand and salt on our faces. Aum beach was calling.

We went to one of the many exotic looking cafés’. Had a heavy continental breakfast for lunch and found our magnetic course towards the sea. Elementary physics classes of buoyancy came to our minds and we started playing ‘catches’ with a pepsi bottle that was floating in the salty waters. Bored from this mundane activity, Prithvi suggests: “whoever touched that big rock in the middle gets a free dinner!” Sport AND treat… what can stop us? Prithvi was a disadvantage here. He was new to water and beaches, hailing from Rajasthan, the official sand exporter for real estate. I on the other hand, being from coastal India had no such obstacles. My esoteric knowledge of walking in shallow waters landed me first in the race, closely followed by Mahesh and Satyakaam. We could hear Prithvi’s yells and banter but that was it.

This is where my mental notes on laws of elementary physics flipped a few pages more. Here is a note from Shri Sarath Chandra ji’s guide to unnatural observations: “If you are to put your foot in the beach waters, sand around it would erode away. Not what would happen if the same concept is to be applied to the big rock ahead of us?”

All this processing happened in no more than a flash of a second. I turned back to warn my friends of my new-found brilliance and avert their certain doom; only did I realise that it was a bit too late. Mahesh apparently registered the terror in my eyes – through my glasses, that were soggy with saline water- and warned Satyakaam and Prithvi to stay back. I was sucked into the sea.

So what actually happened was, the sand around our trophy rock got washed away, courtesy the incessant waves. I was pulled into a vortex the void has created. My awesome swimming skills that comprised of the dead man’s float in a perfectly still swimming pool came of no help. Kicked and I kicked the salty water, had it heed a guy, it would have retaliated. But no avail. The 12 foot water level was a pacific ocean for my height. The more I struggled, the farther I went away from my friends. My minimal sight impeded the situation further. I conceded with fate and stopped it all, hoping for something miraculous to happen.

And it did.

I hit the rock’s bottom. And kicked an almighty kick.

Only if my school football coach was there to watch the pressure I kicked with. I was afloat. Not so much to breathe and cheer, but to get a glimpse of my buddies. That was sufficient like a manna potion to an arcade gamer in agony. I could make out that my friends were making a human chain structure to pull me onto firm footing and eventually, ashore. I sank back.

The silence was absolute. I had never reached this state of mind, which a few claim to have reached in heights of their meditation. The roaring sea, slapping viciously over our trophy rock was suddenly put onto MUTE. My yelling friends went distant and calm. I could see bright start in the dark waters. And that was when I felt Satyakaam sharply tugging onto my hair.

Pulled out of my reverie, I surfaced, coughing and cursing. Then I realised that Satya,- with his mighty long arms- was delegated the job to pull me up. He was afloat, with his left hand reaching out to me, and the right firmly clasped to Mahesh and Prithvi. When I feel hopeful and glad for having a friend like him, the bugger takes back his hand and screams “hold onto my back”.

It must have been my fluent curses that made him proffer his left arm once more. I can’t remember. All I can remember is his stunned look after, like “dude, you can swear like a hag!”. I digress. So here we are, being pulled, one by one onto the blessed sands and we reach to safety.

Moral of the lesson? Physics is good. Remember it well, and know how to swear. A bit of swearing always comes in handy :-D