Thursday, February 13, 2014

Why did he jump into the sea?

Why did he jump into the sea? I would never know. Was it a very normal and simple act for him? Again, I would never know.

Eleven of us were on a yacht miles off the coast of Goa high on the heady mix of sea, wind, beer, music and exhilaration. We were lapping up the beauty and the might of the vastness all around us. There was much merriment on the deck with everyone letting one's hair down in the unbound atmosphere. Amidst all the singing and dancing, suddenly the captain's cap flew off and fell in the ocean. All went oh! the cap! and before we knew, one of the crew members on the yacht jumped into the sea. He had no life jacket on; there were no lifeguards on the yacht and he didn't look like a trained guy too. Yet he jumped.
Was it part of his job? I don't think any job role entails that. It looked more like an act of desperation -- putting one's life at risk to survive. If your boss' cap falls, you pick it up irrespective of the given situation. Maybe I am hyping it up. Maybe it's just as simple as we stopping a vehicle on the road to pick something that fell off. Maybe for him sea is no more than land.
However, I will never forget the incident nor the look on that man's face when he was in the water and when he got back on the yacht. He looked shaken and I don't know why, but I felt that this was not something he had ever done before.
Sometimes, in fact many a time, a man's life can be worth much less than a cap.

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