As soon as the instructor yelled, “JUMP”, at an altitude of 12,500 feet, all of us jumped out of the plane without a second thought. My stomach started rolling, soon I realised that the ground is missing beneath my legs…. and a sudden gush of wind took me as high as 15000 feet; extending my free fall to 75 seconds from the usual 60. I had no idea of the directions but one thing I knew for sure was that, I was moving south with gravity. Before I could gather control over my mind and body, I had already taken three-four somersaults in the air. This was my first skydiving experience.

It’s ironical, that even with 35 pounds of equipment on my body I felt completely weightless, because my body was floating in the atmosphere. Furious winds were pushing me from one side to another. While I was still getting in terms with this roller coaster, I heard one of my fellow skydiver and friend, Gaurav, screaming out loud “Raaaaaaaaaaghav”. …Why is he calling me?  Can’t he just relax at such a height? Anyway, once he got my attention he shouted again “make a SWAN”. I recalled all my trainings, revised all the lessons but it took me few seconds to realise that he wants me to make the simplest of all flat poses in the free fall of sky diving.  Gaining more control over my body I flattened my torso and straightened my legs together in the layout position. Finally, I got my first pose right in the middle of air; it felt good with every passing second as I gained more confidence. We were five divers – one was Gaurav and others were Ashutosh, Abhijeet and Peeyush.–Moving with the wind we came closer to each other to make a star pattern… it was a thrilling experience! And then with well choreographed moves we dispersed.

Being a first timer, I tried some flat poses while descending to the ground, but my dear co-divers tried everything from the seated posses to the more complex compass moves. It is like a compass illusioned by rotating the torso a whole 180 degree, while trying to keeping both legs stationary. It was all very inspiring and my conviction to do more next time was growing.

Soon it was time for us to touch the ground, ‘so far so good! At about 2,500 feet, all of us prepared to land. My heart was pounding hard – at this moment. I felt probably jumping in air was easier but not landing on the ground. For Gaurav and Peeyush it seemed like a cake walk, they treated it like any other sport; they were so perfect at this adventure sport. I remember them doing some of the toughest stunts in some of the events held recently.  Peeyush was best at free fall; his lean body helped him fall with ease. While Abhijeet was a veteran, Ashutosh (Ashu) and me were rookies; it was his fifth and mine ‘the very first; fall from the sky. Good thing with Ashu is that he is very quick at learning.

As expected Gaurav, Peeyush and Abhijeet were first to hit the ‘Release Pin’ and they did it comfortably. It was a sight to behold for a first timer like me – a bridle (nylon webbing) came out first, and then unfolded a Pilot Chute from the deployment bag. Now, they were sailing with the air. Ashu who exactly mirrored the previous actions followed them. Then it was my turn, I reached my Pilot Chute bag, pressed on the Release Pin. But at the same moment a bird flew above me, I panicked and my hand got stuck in the bridle due to which chute did not open properly. Now, I was spinning like a Top- my body turned upside down, blood was rushing into my brain. I could see hazy images of my friends who were watching me helplessly.

I felt my left ear being twisted to 360 degrees, it was paining now and I heard the voice of my Instructor again

“get up, Mr. Raghav, you have a class at 9:00 am, don’t you need to go to college?”

I opened my eyes; mummy was standing over my head. I said “Thank you for waking me up, otherwise I would have been dead today”. I was late for the class, already; I rushed but had to stand outside the class because professor did not allow me to get in. I had company outside the classroom as, Gaurav, Peeyush, Abhijeet and Ashutosh were already there, they too had come late for the class. I smiled at them and five of us standing in the corridor, smiled at each other. Peeyush then said “Hey! There’s a paragliding event set to happen in the city – want to visit?” I took a long breath and looked at the sky. It was rightly said by Leonardo DaVinci, “Who has been in the sky, will always walk looking at it, wishing to go back”.

Though for me it was limited for dreaming ‘only!

Do you re-collect any of your special dream, which you would like to share with other readers. Just write a comment to share your unique dream……… in the mean time you could read another short fiction story .