Calangute Beach, Goa, August 13th
Spent a nice afternoon playing fuzzy duck (getting drunk…needless to say) and eating muscles and authentic goan masala fish on calangute beach …played Frisbee against the wind more like a boomerang… and ended up taking a plunge in the waves…
Tired of the taste of the salty water and being thrown away by the waves came and sat with a friend of mine on the beach, while the others continued to play in the sea…
A while later we saw the coast guards gesturing to our friends to come out of the water… as we were bored waiting we thought let it be… but one by one the entire sea became empty … everybody came out of the water… and stood on the beach…
… slowly as rumour picked up… it seemed someone had drowned ( reaction 1: disbelief and a shrug… nah not possible)…as of all of us followed the direction of everyone’s gaze… we saw a lifeguard with his board move towards a guy struggling by the waves… (reaction 2: anxitey) … the lifeguard struggled and got the person back… the person seemed to be ok…
… by the time the rescue was happening, some people’s attention had moved to another black blob ( a human head) floating on the other side ( reaction 3: blankness and silence)… the lifeguard ran to the rescue… while this rescue was going on…some people spotted another head…
some of my friends ran to help carry the person whose body was rescued… (reaction 4: fear tending towards numbness)… then amidst confusion I remember two of us running to help carry a body… as we approached the people running with this body we saw the head moving up an down… I tried to carry one of the legs…and take it from one of the other helpers who was exhausted and shouting for help… could not as it was heavy… ended up supporting the head… (reaction 5: no reaction)… just remember holding the head… running for a few meters with it in my hand… all I could see was that the lips were blue and I kept trying to support the head.. (I am told later hat the eyes had turned over… I don’t remember..) all I remember was that innocent looking face with a youthful body…
a while later we put him on the beach…someone came forward to give him cpr… we were all praying in our own way… we saw his stomach move up and then some water coming out of his mouth… some hope… but after about 5 minutes of looking at the stomach mechanically move up and down and no sign of life … we started looking at the other directions where another head was spotted…
The whole thing looked completely surreal … none of us could believe what was happening… or more didn’t want to believe … but it was happening in front of our eyes … these are things one reads about… they cant happen to us… well it did..
Later that evening we found out that 4 people had drowned and two were critical in the hospital… we don’t know if the one we tried to help made it or not… hoping against hope that he did (I am told today that there were more people and so far none have made it…
… sitting on baga beach late in the night we were discussing that the 23 year old boy from del/lucknow would have had a few drinks and went out to chill in the sea... playfully battling the waves just to get that extra kick…
we were doing the same things.. it could have been one of us… I guess it probably hit us more coz he was our age.. same background…I get a shiver down my spine writing this…his face and body keep flashing in front of my eyes…
…more booze…. more trance…life for us carried on… but something had changed…
I could and probably should comment on the lack of infrastructure… but just read on the net that there was a strike of lifeguards…what more to say…
Tired of the taste of the salty water and being thrown away by the waves came and sat with a friend of mine on the beach, while the others continued to play in the sea…
A while later we saw the coast guards gesturing to our friends to come out of the water… as we were bored waiting we thought let it be… but one by one the entire sea became empty … everybody came out of the water… and stood on the beach…
… slowly as rumour picked up… it seemed someone had drowned ( reaction 1: disbelief and a shrug… nah not possible)…as of all of us followed the direction of everyone’s gaze… we saw a lifeguard with his board move towards a guy struggling by the waves… (reaction 2: anxitey) … the lifeguard struggled and got the person back… the person seemed to be ok…
… by the time the rescue was happening, some people’s attention had moved to another black blob ( a human head) floating on the other side ( reaction 3: blankness and silence)… the lifeguard ran to the rescue… while this rescue was going on…some people spotted another head…
some of my friends ran to help carry the person whose body was rescued… (reaction 4: fear tending towards numbness)… then amidst confusion I remember two of us running to help carry a body… as we approached the people running with this body we saw the head moving up an down… I tried to carry one of the legs…and take it from one of the other helpers who was exhausted and shouting for help… could not as it was heavy… ended up supporting the head… (reaction 5: no reaction)… just remember holding the head… running for a few meters with it in my hand… all I could see was that the lips were blue and I kept trying to support the head.. (I am told later hat the eyes had turned over… I don’t remember..) all I remember was that innocent looking face with a youthful body…
a while later we put him on the beach…someone came forward to give him cpr… we were all praying in our own way… we saw his stomach move up and then some water coming out of his mouth… some hope… but after about 5 minutes of looking at the stomach mechanically move up and down and no sign of life … we started looking at the other directions where another head was spotted…
The whole thing looked completely surreal … none of us could believe what was happening… or more didn’t want to believe … but it was happening in front of our eyes … these are things one reads about… they cant happen to us… well it did..
Later that evening we found out that 4 people had drowned and two were critical in the hospital… we don’t know if the one we tried to help made it or not… hoping against hope that he did (I am told today that there were more people and so far none have made it…
… sitting on baga beach late in the night we were discussing that the 23 year old boy from del/lucknow would have had a few drinks and went out to chill in the sea... playfully battling the waves just to get that extra kick…
we were doing the same things.. it could have been one of us… I guess it probably hit us more coz he was our age.. same background…I get a shiver down my spine writing this…his face and body keep flashing in front of my eyes…
…more booze…. more trance…life for us carried on… but something had changed…
I could and probably should comment on the lack of infrastructure… but just read on the net that there was a strike of lifeguards…what more to say…
posted by the vestige at
11:07 AM
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