Remember that panic sets in when water threatens to engulf you. There is no greater feeling of helplessness and terror than the feeling that you cannot breathe
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If one thought that this season's drowning tragedies were restricted to a certain demographic — children entering deceptively placid waters for a lark, or lovestruck couples looking for romance on tetrapods and rocks and getting into trouble, as the monsoon currents swept them away — you need to do a rethink. On Sunday, three men and a teenager were saved from drowning at Aksa beach. A tragedy was narrowly averted as lifeguards rescued them.
Reports state that the four were at the beach on a picnic. After swimming, while they were playing 'catch' with a ball in the water, one of them went in a little further to fetch the ball and that is when the trouble started. As he started to go under, his friends tried to rescue him, but they, too, panicked and were in peril pulling each other underwater. Soon, lifeguards were alerted and they saved them.
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It is astonishing how people seem to lose perspective in the water. Do not get carried away trying to fish out mobiles, or go deep into the water when playing a game. This game could have been played safely on land. Lifeguards tell us about how people go deeper in the water, trying to fish out a mobile phone that fell from their hands. They are desperate and could not care less how deep they go in their bid to find the phone. There is the we-are-taking-a-selfie-and-oblivious-to-the-world syndrome that overtakes people in the water, trying to take a perfect picture for posterity.
Remember that panic sets in when water threatens to engulf you. There is no greater feeling of helplessness and terror than the feeling that you cannot breathe. Keep your games, whether it is 'frisbee' or 'catch' or 'cricket', too, out of the water. Do not hare after balls that may have been tossed in the sea while playing. One can get back the game equipment, phones, precious belongings, but you cannot get back a life.
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