Maldives - By Nikhil Chinapa

I’d been itching to do it for a while. It’s just one of those things that gets into your head and doesn’t get out. I started to dream about it and began to have guilty thoughts. I even told my wife about it.. and that I had to do it – she didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she said I should go ahead and get it out of my system.

I needed to go diving.

It had been over 6 months since my last scuba dive – my 49th … and I needed to get the @#$% out of Bombay and head to the Maldives. My friend and dive buddy Shaff had been talking to me about doing a dive safari – seven days on a boat with the boys – and all we did was dive.. I was sold; bought my tickets and dug out my scuba gear.

“Sunny Maldives” , I thought to myself; with a song in my heart as I boarded my flight in Mumbai, switching off my cellphone for a week and forgetting about things like television, newspapers and the internet.

Except someone in the Maldives forgot to order the sun. I landed to overcast skies, a drizzle and feeling silly that I hadn’t carried anything warm. It sounds like a bad joke – “carry something warm to the Maldives in March” – but there you have it… nature’s having the last laugh at my expense.

Still, I’m met at the airport by my buddy Shaff, transfer to a speedboat and head to Male to pick up another friend – Riya. We pack in Riya, half a dozen fire extinguishers, and a large roll of serious looking rope that looked like it could anchor a battleship.
In half an hour we rendezvous with the Atoll Cruiser, my home for a week in the Maldives. There’s already a group of 15 Italian divers on board and we’ve just added to the party.