Karma Tshering is an investment banker with Citibank, and alumnus of IIT Bombay & IIM Ahmedabad, Karma balances his corporate life with his love for the outdoors. Most of his vacations are planned around diving/ surfing/ skiing.
AP Quick 4-
1. The first place you dived - Bangaram Atoll, Lakshadweep
2. Your go-to dive place - Anywhere with good marine bio diversity
3. Your diving bucket list destination- The Great Blue Hole, Belize
4. Your favourite Instagram account for diving-
PADI
AP: What got you first interested in diving?
Karma: I got exposed to it during a family vacation.
AP: How did you start off? Your first experience.
Karma: I started out with an assisted dive in Lakshadweep - discover scuba. We went to explore an underwater cliff. Before we reached the cliff we descended from the boat to a grassy meadow underwater. I was amazed at the similarities between land and water and yet there was a whole world underwater that I just didn’t know about.
That fascination is what stuck to me. That and the fact that I saw a few people learning how to scuba, and I thought “hey that’s fantastic, I wanna do that”.
AP: Who do you usually go diving with?
Karma: Friends and family, who ever is up for it
AP: What changed in your life after you got into it?
Karma: So you know how there is a difference between knowing and feeling. I always knew that a large part of marine life is in danger but never really felt. Diving changed that.
AP: What are some of your favourite moments while diving?
Karma: I remember going hammerhead shark spotting in Sipadan, Borneo. We went around 250m from the island where we started. Round about 200m we were in open water. On my left and right was just endless blue water. I was around 20m from the surface so the light wasn’t as bright and you could only see the faint glimmer of the sun. While below me was endless ocean, a bottomless floor. Where the light gave up before it could reach the bottom, so the only thing you could see is pitch black.
Yet in the middle, squeezed between the surface and an endless ocean I felt free. I removed my tank (“NOT RECOMMENDED”) and did somersaults in the water because I felt like I was flying. So yeah....my favourite moment.... flying underwater.
AP: Any good stories to share?
Karma: Well besides the one above, I very distinctly remember my first night dive. That’s not something for the faint hearted to be frank.
Once the sun goes down, the ocean is devoid of external light. In that darkness you get to see how magnificently some creatures have adapted to their environments. E.g. small marine life like phytoplankton use bio luminescence to glow.
So if you wave your hand and turn off the torchlight, you can see minute embers in water. It’s as if you’ve lit a small spark underwater.
AP: Till when do you see yourself play the sport?
Karma: As long as I can swim and can afford it.
AP: What would be some advice you’d give someone who’s just starting out?
Karma: Get a good PADI certified instructor. You’re literally playing with your life down there so there is no point cutting corners in your training. Learn as much as you can and be thorough with your course work.
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