Kissing a corpse and other stories

Well, my Indian Easter Sunday is not going to be forgotten in a hurry. This morning everything was going the usual way - got up early, went for a dip in the azure sea, played in the tumbling rolling tube waves, basked for an hour or so in the hot sun - lovely. Then gradually retreat from the beach as the Indian day trippers arrive. Its Indian summer holidays at the moment, and every day at about 10am, coachloads arrive to the beach,tip out and spend a couple of hours walking on the beach, serving huge indian style picinics, or frolicking in the sea- of course in groups of all men (in brown pants) or all ladies(in full sari's or salwar suits). Its common for the Indian people to get into trouble in the sea, as they are non swimmers, and if they get out of thier depth on such highdays and holidays, they tend to panic - so its not unusual to have a situation where a tourist assists an Indian in trouble in the water. I wasnt surprised, or even unduly worried when the shout of "Help Help" went up, and several worried Indians came into our restaurant looking for help. My friends and I went to investigate, and at first glance it seemed that there were three Indian men in out of thier depth. The furthest one had a Westerner near him already, and was the most panicked and the furthest out. The Western guy was shouting for further assistance, and frantically waving. My friends went into the water without thinking, and swam out to the first two men - who with a little help could be brought in, and another Isreali guy went to help the men far out in the water. Noone could go near him for fear of being taken down with him. At this stage it was obvious that the Indian further out was not faring well. He was panicking like hell, and eventually sank. The plucky Isreali guy dived down and dragged the unconcious man to the surface. Then, I swam out to them and helped them bring in the man. We then laid him on the sand, and it was obvious he would need CPR. About 30 Indians started grabbing him and imitating things they had seen on TV, but not knowing what they were doing. They pushed his stomach in and out and pretended to check the pulse. It was obvious something better had to be done. I shouted for someone to bring fresh water, and then made them lie him in a proper position for CPR. Then, another man came out of the crowd who knew CPR and we commenced proper artificial breathing and heart pumping. Luckily, once it was obvious we knew what we were doing, the big group of Indians and Western rubberneckers moved back and gave us some space. When we started pumping, lots of foam and water kept coming out of his mouth and nose, we were rolling him and draining his passages all the time, yet he was not really responding in any way. I got his friend to shout at him in his own language "breathe. just try to breathe, you are safe, come back to us" but not a flicker. When I was giving mouth to mouth, I kept catching glances of his open eyes - they were such a beautiful light brown colour - and so alive looking. The poor guy had CPR for over 40 minutes without showing any sign of life at all - there was a moment when I thought he was breathing of his own accord, but he wasnt. As there was no medical help for miles around, we decided to cease CPR after 50 minutes, as he was a lost cause. His friends put him on a beach mat and carried him off to the bus he arrived in. They thanked us for trying hard, and, touchingly they said - its Gods will to take him today - the Indian Karma. He was a healthy looking 24 year old man - so much potential.

After the event, I think it all hit me really hard - the after effect of shock. The rest of today I have been sleeping. My partner in CPR turned out to be a Casualty nurse from Holland - he was a cool older guy. He said I should go into nursing/emergancy care! I think you never know how you could react - im sure every time is different - I was lucky to have a clear head today.

Anyway, aside from the drama's of today, life on the beach has been just that - remember the 80's slogan - "lifes a beach". Biggest things that have happened have been two poor dead Turtles washing up on the beach, and a small whale washing up on the beach next door. Its not all doom and gloom though - a few mornings ago, I was treated with a 20 minute swim with a beautiful 2 nearly 3 metre Bottlenose Dolphin, which was swimming really near to the shore.

We have made another rash route descision - we have decided to attend the "Big Chill Goa" which is happening in a few days time - this means heading North again to Arambol in the topmost part of Goa for a few days before finally descending South to Kerala - where the temperatures will be starting to BOIL! The festival should be really great if the UK version is anything to go by. Looking forward to that.