Excuse me, while I kiss the sky!

I know what you are thinking. Where is ‘the Georgia Tech day’? If you aren’t, then shame on you. You are not amongst my elite hysterical-refresh-button-clicking fans who make my life so awesome. The ones that are, here’s the scoop. My life at Georgia Tech so far can considered to be one long ass day (or so it seems). In a week, I will be celebrating my one year anniversary in the United States without getting into the police records or being red-flagged by the DHS (not that there is a reason for any of that to happen in the first place. I like to include some drama in my stories, however irrelevant). I have finished two semesters so far, Fall 2009 and Spring 2010. I managed to make good friends, travel a bit,  get decent grades, get funding, win an iPad, and in an overall sense, not embarrass myself. Currently I am in the beautiful state of California, working as an intern, being totally pampered and spoilt.

So why have I gone Jimi Hendrix on you? That is because a few days back I decided to jump of a plane. Ok, correction: Coupla days back, I jumped off a plane. Ok now, let me try a little more honesty here:  Coupla days back, I was strapped to a guy who jumped off a plane with a backpack. Now if you think being strapped to a guy who jumps off a plane that’s at 13,000 feet in the air is not a big deal, think again. As a wannabe comedian, I kept wondering what if a few cans and books ended up flying out of the backpack when the guy opens it. Not a pleasant thought.

Let me start at the inception (Ha! How clever am I?) of the idea. I was talking to my roommate about skydiving and he said San Diego would be a good place to do it. I looked at my intern events calendar which said we would all be there on the weekend of July 16th. A few phone calls and Outlook invitations got me nine other people who thought throwing yourself out of a plane was an awesome idea. A few more phone calls later we were all a go! We reached San Diego on Thursday night. I will not go into all the boring details of how San Diego is filled with pretty women and has tons of places to get pissed drunk and act silly. You can be rest assured that other than this suicidal jump, I spent my catching up on research papers.

Our skydiving appointment was on Sunday. We went to an airfield where Pacific Coast Skydiving was housed in a hangar. This place is run by a guy called Andy and his wife along with a bunch of licensed skydivers.  That’s where I found this little fella!

This was little Nathan, Andy’s 9 month old son. Happy little tyke!

After a while it was time to parasuit-up! (HIMYM lovers bow down to me here)

Do the walk…

I forgot to invite “Goose” to skydiving, also forgot my helmet, aviator glasses and the nice looks. Otherwise everything about this picture is “Top Gun”ny.

And off we go…

Oh did I forget to mention there is a video of this incredible feat? Scroll down if you would like to skip an extremely exaggerated version of the rest of the story and just see the video. For the ones who actually like good writing, let me continue. At the risk of stating the obvious, I am gonna go ahead and say that actually jumping out the plane is the most difficult part. Human beings are just not meant to do stuff like this. This is also the exact reason why it feels so exhilarating.

So how did I do it?  There were two factors. If you were in that rickety old WWII era plane, you would have probably felt that staying in the plane was much more dangerous than actually jumping out. It’s amazing how that thing managed to stay in the air. Secondly, if you are strapped to a guy who says to the pilot “Yo, we are out” and slides out of the open door without you knowing, trust me when I say you ain’t got much of choice.

How was it? It’s one of the most difficult things to explain. Free fall is something you cannot explain or will do a lousy job explaining. Once you hit maximum velocity, you hit a constant. It’s almost like you are stationary with a lot of wind blowing into your face. The fun is till you hit that velocity. Its like (10% of) taking a vertical plunge on a really fast rollercoaster. You might look at the video and wonder why I wasn’t screaming like a little girl. The fact is I don’t know. I was somehow completely at peace the moment I jumped (was dragged) out. Once I landed the feeling persisted. While the rest of my friends were feeling the adrenaline I mellowed down completely. Even today, couple days after the dive, I can still feel its effect. All I can say is that in some way this experience has affected me emotionally and spiritually. I am still trying to understand what it means and how it will impact my life. I am sure as hell doing it again. I am seriously considering going pro, time, place and money being the only concern.

Should you do it? I am gonna say “Hell, yeah!” to that. Just have faith in the instructor. These guys are professionals with around 4000-5000 jumps to their credit. Just so that you know, it takes only training and 24 jumps to get a license. They obsess about every little thing that is safety related. It’s almost an OCD kinda thing for them. At the end of it, it is really simple: you jump out of a plane and open a backpack.

Now, its showtime. Lights out!

The whole gang:

Standing Left to Right: Vikram, Srini, Ani, Edwin, Sebastian, Serban. Sitting Left to Right: Sangy, Manasa, Jenny