Five Minutes after Drowning : The Young India

Kartikey Sehgal

“I held his hand for a few seconds but the waves pulled him inside”, says Siddharth Patil, a lifeguard at Mumbai’s Aksa Beach at Mudh Island, where Supujan Radhesyam Soni (age:14) lost his life while swimming in high tide waves at around 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 26.

Siddharth was tired and angry after his attempt. “I had warned them twice to not go into the water but people here are like animals; they don’t pay any heed to safety.” Siddharth claims that this is the first drowning in six months at the beach that is known for death by drowning.

The seniormost lifeguard at the beach echoes Siddharth’s views. “They have no value for life. We plead and beg the people to stay away from water but you can see that they come in hundreds and defy every advice”, says Rajanikant S Mashelkar, who is in his eleventh year of duty at Aksa.

“It is easy to blame the lifeguards. You can see for your self the sensitivity of these people. They are in the water again”, says Rajanikant referring to the beach goers who were in the water five minutes after the drowning.

Siddharth seems appalled by this attitude. “Many of them pick fights with me when I stop them. They say that it doesn’t matter to them that other people die. And then we are blamed for ineffectiveness”.

The three kilometre stretch of the beach is patrolled by three lifeguards at any given time. “I have two swimmers in the morning and three in the evening”, says Rajanikant as he runs to shout at some boys who have gone deep into the water.

Aksa has no boat facility for rescue operations. This writer found five life jackets in the lifeguard’s cabin.

“There was no time to go for the lifejacket”, says a local sandwich-seller who has seen some drownings in the past. He continues, “The lifeguards may be ill-equipped, but larger part of the blame goes to the people who don’t listen to any warning given to them by the Police and the lifeguards.”

In some time two police constables arrived but they are unable to move everybody out of water. Finally, Rajanikant picks up the clothes and valuables littered on the beach. And then some people come out of the water. “It’s a tried and tested technique, sir”.

Also published in DNA (Link)

On entering the beach: The Spectators

The lifeguard comes back but without the boy

Tried but couldn't save the boy

The senior lifeguard at Aksa Beach

Five minutes after the drowning, people are back in the water

Five minutes after the drowning, people are back in water

The senior Lifeguard tells the people to move out of water.

The drowning doesn't have much effect on people. "Many of them pick fights with me when I stop them. They say that it doesn't matter to them that other people die".