Bunjee Jumping !

I had always been scared of heights. Hence,in a vain attempt to overcome it , I had decided that i had to do stuff which will make me overcome the fear of heights. I had since then done many aerosport adventure activities and been particularly looking forward to do bunjee jumping at the next given opportunity.

Hence, when I got a mail from CARE India that they are organising bunjee jumping on 10-12 April, I had decided that i would attend the same as I was there in Blore for the week anyways.

On 10th, Sumith, Reddy and self drove down to the site and reached there by 11.00 ish. We met RP, Abhijit and two of their friends there; and all of us registered for the event. A doctor was present to check our pressure and weight and then we paid the money to register.We were 68th in line whereas currently at that time 28th was doing the bungee jump.

As per the plan , they are supposed to do 10 jumps an hour , with a 1 hour lunch break. A quick back of the envelope calculation said that our turn will come only at 6.00 ish. As it would be too late and dark , we decided that we would come tommorrow first thing in the morning and finish our turn. RP & friends did their turn at 6.30 ish and called to inform that they had enjoied it.

The next day morning we were there at 8.30 and we were marked for 10th slot.Suddenly, we were asked to go first. As sumith was padding up , an organiser decided to go first and did her jump.Sumith went next and went on smoothly and was smiling and giving me the thumbs up to go next.

There was a crane with a winch, at the end of which a cage was hung. There was Sachin (event organiser) inside the cage and along with the participant , the cage was hoisted at a height of 130 feet. Their was a rudimentary net hoisted on few poles beneath the crane to act as a safety precaution.A harness will be tied around your torso and your ankles will be strapped together. You have to hop into the cage and face the instructor. As the cage slowly goes upwards the instrcutor gives you instructions.

Though I was scared of heights, seeing so many ahead of me, which included girls, I thought this would be a cakewalk. I had decided to jump quickly and get over with it. But , trust me, nothing prepared me for the feeling when the instructer told me to turn and face out. It was scary and I wondered for a second what have i got myself into ! But , luckily, I never looked down and when he told me to lean forward and jump , I did so without hesitating. I had kept my eyes open and I when i saw the ground when i leant forward , I got shit scared. For the first 2 seconds, where it is a freefall, my face was contorted with fear as I could see the ground rushing up to meet me. Nothing had prepared me for this !! When , atlast, i sensed the pull of the cord in my hip, i cried out in excitement and then i recoiled. There would been 4 recoils and i enjoied it thoroughly . I still get goosebumps thinking of the ground rushing up to meet me !!

I was then lowered to the ground and i felt elated as I had successfully completed it.

The adrenalin rush kept me in high spirits till the end of the day !!

However, there was a sad news to keep things in perspective. At 2.30 p.m a chennai person died while attempting "reverse bunjee" or "catapult". In this, a person will be stretched to the ground and then left so that he will be thrown upwards. In this case, the harness gave away and he fell from 100 feet , while coming back to the ground.

Guess, yesterday was not my day yet !!! I pray for the guy's soul to rest in peace .

While enough has been said in the print about this incident, notwithstanding the fact that adventure sports in India does not give much importance to the safety precautions, this accident took place due to the greed of the operators. The reverse bungee event was never supposed to be there in the first place ! It was a last minute event that was planned on Friday night and am sure that this has got to do with the shoddy preparations .

Though, in no way, this will curb my interest in my outdoor activites, I do not think I will do any more aero related adventure stuff in India. But, what the hell, if a thing has to go wrong it will, ain't it !!